Like most of you, I can look back across my life and see different periods when I was into different kinds of music and different bands. As I've grown as a person, though, my interest in those bands has waned. I still like their music, and hearing their songs brings back happy memories. But I'm not really "in to them" any longer. I don't follow their every move, and I don't buy their music the moment it becomes available.

This leads me to believe that eventually, my interest in the Features will also taper off. I've wondered about the circumstances under which this change will take place. Will one of us (me or The Features) move from Middle Tennessee? Will the band break up? Will they convert to hardcore rap? Will I get married, start a family, and forget about my youthful music passions?

Does anyone else every wonder about this? Do you have any idea when/how/if it will happen?

I used to be way into the Squirrel Nut Zippers. Like, way. But if anyone ever goes to their website, they'll notice that it hasn't been updated since February, 2002. I always liked them as a live band, and it's sad that they just stopped doing stuff (probably because of a new baby in the family). I was worried about Matt's twins having the same sort of effect, and I guess only time will tell.

Most of the time, I stop being really into a band because they've either broken up or started making bad music. I don't see either happening with the Features any time soon.

(Edited by jamiecarroll at 7:58 pm on Feb. 22, 2003)

I liked the longer version of your answer better, JC. Now that it's shortened, I can't respond without re-writing what you wrote.

REM has been an interesting turn for me lately. I don't really have the love for that band that I used to, from start to finish in their whole catalogue. It's just that I've changed. I think part of it is that I'm not an angt-ridden teenager anymore. Admittedly, feelings of being a social outcast with limited hope for a future have waned since I met Token. That made a lot of the depressing heartbreak music less appealing.

Fortunately, the Features have been a band we've enjoyed together (unlike say...Sonic Youth), and the music has grown with us. Songs with subject matter like "Dark Room" and "Thursday" have developed into more mature songs like "Idea of..." and others, and that's been a good thing.

I don't know when it will happen or how, but like all music, I'm sure some day the Features will find their way out of my CD player, and all those shows will be just a memory. I just don't know when. Since Fl Oz left, I have been much more keenly aware that the number of times that I'll be able to really go out and enjoy the Features are numbered, so I make sure to see them often and enjoy it to the fullest.

What a melancholy topic. It's sad to think about outgrowing the Features. When I called my mother last weekend, she had just been listening to a greatest hits CD of her favorite folk band as a teenager (The Seekers -- some Australian group I 've never heard of) and was crying. She said she was amazed that she still knew every word of every song after all of these years; she also said it made her feel like she was 16 again. Maybe the beginning will do this for some of us 20-30 years from now.

I think I'll just do the same as I've done with any other band that I have liked in the past, If I'm enjoying the hell out of them at a particular time of my life then, that's what I'll do until it ends.. This being my enfactuation with the band or the band itself.

I don't know if it will happen, especially if I never move away. I've been going to their shows since 1996 when I moved to Murfreesboro, and have yet to be sick of them. I still listen to the first Spongebath 3 song tape in the car... I met my boyfriend at one of their shows... It's romantic to think we wouldn't have met if it hadn't been for the fabulous Features. No matter how old I get, there will always be a special place in my heart for them!

If music is truly worth listening to, and it isn't the flavor of the month, and you aren't a fairweather fan, then you probably always listen to that music. I still listen to stuff from the early 90's that still gets good airplay (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains), stuff from the 70s and 80s punk scenes (Ramones, Clash, Stiff Little Fingers, Minutemen, Dead Kennedys, Minor Threat, etc.). The point is that if you like a band, you will stick with them. If you are listening to something overly commercial and produced simply to make money, well, chances are it will be lining your local CD swap shop collecting dust. Scenes come and go, and people do mature and their tastes change, but overall, you will still appreciate the music that will always stand the test of time.

The only circumstances that have made me start disliking bands have been either their breaking up or their total suckitude. After dumping about 70-80% of all of the bands that I liked from 6-10th grade, I hope that I have settled into a more adult taste in music that will keep me company forever. I've been a huge Oasis fan for 7 years now and I hope that I will remain so, the same goes for the Features. I actually hope that they get away from TN and bring their rock to the other 49 states (even North Dakota). I don't think that a move away from TN would cause me to stop liking the Features. The Features should be enjoyed by the entire country.

I'm in the same boat with you as far as the REM thing is concerned--I used to consider myself a fanatic & I was a completist with singles, t-shirts, etc...But I never really thought of them as being an "angst-ridden teenager thing." I just think they've made some questionable albums recently and I don't really want to spend my money on REM memorablia anymore. I can still listen to "Automatic for the People" with the same ears/sentiments I had back in 1992, but I never felt that way with Monster, Up and Reveal, so I can't force those feelings. But as we're growing up and maturing, the bands are doing the same. I think it would've been pretty boring if REM had made 10 replicas of Murmur.

This has nothing to do with the Features, so long live the Features!

For historical purposes (me and my pseudo-historian duties inquiring), what was on the three song tape?

Thanks,

Will

Though I love New Adventures (which you neglected, either intentionally or not) and Up... I agree with the general sentiment. To use an example from my personal musical history, I can always listen to Siamese Dream or Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and still enjoy it as much as I did many years ago. Machina I can appreciate, but it isn't the same.

To apply this to The Features, I'll always be able to enjoy everything they've done thus far, and I see no significant reason to doubt any of their new material for the foreseeable future. Maybe it won't always dominate my stereo, but it'll always have a home.

Will

I don't think of REM as angst ridden, but they kept me company during that more isolated period of my adolescence. For me it's different. Whether the album is Reveal or Hi-Fi or Automatic or Murmur, I now basically listen to it and really wish that I could say I was listening to my favorite band, but the feeling just isn't there any more. For the most part, the majority of every album just feels clumpy and hard to listen to.

I don't know, maybe someday I will stop listening to The Features on a regular basis, or all together. But, I highly doubt that. I tend to look at it this way...
My favorite band of all time is The Beatles. The Features are in my top three...of all time. Now, I have loved The Beatles for a long time, and I know that at any random point in time, at least one of the CD's in my 5 disc changer stereo thingy will be a Beatles album. When I love something that much, I will never stop loving it. I kind of group The Features in this same category. I love them so much, and I can't imagine them not being in constant roation. Maybe the music will weaken as the band nears its final years. They will break up eventually...but, they'll still be one of my favorite bands of all time; therefore, they will always have a home in my CD/record player.

There are those bands that you really really really like. These are the ones that you listen to every day through certain stages in your life. You may forget about them after those certain stages and only listen to them occassionally.

Then, there are those bands that you LOVE. These are the bands that you will listen to forever. Maybe not every day of your remaining lifetime, but at least quite often. This category includes The Features, among several others, for me.

Maybe I'm just talking crazy talk, I don't know.

(Edited by Sexy Sadie at 2:29 pm on Feb. 23, 2003)

i hate thinking about life without the features, since i've been seeing them since the bunny suit days. my friend (who also happens to be a huge features fan) and i are moving to boston this summer, and we always talk about how much it's going to suck to not have a features show to look forward to every few weeks/months. boston has a great music scene (for instance, piebald is considered "local music" there...) but the features are completely irreplaceable.
so we just gotta hope and pray extra hard that they get signed someday soon so they can tour!!
on a side note, a friend that lives in massachusetts had the features on as backround music at a party the other evening, and she told me that half the room asked who it was and if they could have a copy. woohoo!!

Your Smile, Armani Suede and Standing By - it's on both sides of the tape, so you can listen over and over and over when your tape player flips back and forth between side 1 & 2.

~pg

I don't think I'll ever "grow out" of the features. they are seriously one of the best bands i have ever heard in my entire life. they continue to amaze me. i fucking love them and i will continue to support them no matter what.

I don't think I'd remain into the Features if someone stabbed my ears out, I hope that never happens, ouch.