Say it, "Louder Now"

And, yet another reason to live, Taking Back Sunday has a new album coming out April 25.

The band's last two albums, "Tell All Your Friends" and "Where You Want to Be," totally made up my spring and summer of 2004, when I discovered the band. That, and I only had a tape deck in my car at the time, and it was the only tape I had. ... So their two CDs I dubbed* there were the only songs I ever heard, whether I liked it or not. (*"Dubbed" means "to copy onto a cassette."**)

(**"Cassette" is like a CD, only rectangular.)

When "Where You Want to Be" came out, Dave and I had just started going out, and we and his friends got the promo copy (working in a record store will get you two things: no money and free or ridiculously cheap promo CDs) and drove around Toledo all night, singing. But with his drunken friend hung out the car window, screaming the lyrics and the windows down, and it was dark and hot and, oh, Toledo. Sigh. Summer. Good music. Friends. Although, rereading those last few lines, it sounds more pathetic and slightly more emotastic than it actually was.

I'm sure we'll be celebrating "Louder Now" in a slightly different way. Cough. We are two years older. Cough. Um. Anyhow.

Check out their page (or buy the track on iTunes) to hear "MakeDamnSure", from the new album. Talk about emo-ish -- oh, wait, they say "post-hardcore" now. Right. Anyhow, "I just wanna bring you down so badly .... I'll make damn sure you'll never leave me, you won't ever get too far from me." That sounds stalkerish and I'm pretty sure you could win a restraining order if you were ever told that by someone, but when they sing it, it's so cool.

I can't wait. April.