SO LONG & THANKS FOR ALL THE TUNES

Over the weekend I found out that Hallie's favorite and one of my favorite bands, The Format, have broken up. Having only released two proper records, this comes as a bit of a shock. I thought we'd be seeing much more from these AZ boys and their band, but alas, we shall not. Their live show was fantastic and they were growing in popularity by leaps and bounds. Hallie first saw them at the Funpark roller rink in Logan, while I first saw them at Kilby Court. The next time we saw them together and it was to a packed house at In The Venue. They were definitely on the up and up.

For me, The Format have a special niche in my heart for this reason: when I started to hang out with Hallie, her and her friend Liza were always obsessing over The Format and upon my first listen, I wasn't impressed. The music was too poppy for my tastes. At a pivotal point in our dating, Hallie went on a vacation, which prevented us from seeing each other for over two weeks. And let's face it, when you're in that almost-serious, but not all-the-way-serious phase of dating, that's an important juncture in the road. While she was gone I missed her a lot and where she was, there wasn't any cell phone access. So the closest I could get to communicating with her was by listening to The Format. In some weird way, I felt connected to her, though we were apart, simply by coming to appreciate a band that she was very fond of. Whenever I listen to that album, I still have flashbacks of nights driving in my car missing this girl I was starting to get serious with-mushy, mushy, I know, but true. When she returned, I told her I'd been converted to The Format (personally, I think it scored me a few points), and as they say, "The rest is history."

My farewell to a great indie-pop band that was in all actuality, much more than a pop band:
*This video, I think, captures the essence of the band: simple and unrestrained*

*And this one shows their creative abilities*