Last night instead of planning a romantic evening for today, I was jotting down potential bus schedules for a job I have one in a million chances of getting. Why? 1. Because I have an obsession with knowing my expected arrival time and 2. I have no plans for Valentine’s Day. So as I basked in the glimmer of the TV, a loner with a metro schedule at hand, I listened to You Blew It! and Fake Problems’ split Florida Doesn’t Suck. It reminded me of this article I’d read earlier in the day, something about lines from Garden State not being as deep as we once perceived. Let me explain why I didn’t agree with the article and why it was like Florida Doesn’t Suck.
Garden State is without a doubt one of my favorite movies thanks to an infinite amount of lines 18 year old me thought were stellar and deep, and I still love them, that’s why I hated the article. Now the reason Florida Doesn’t Suck reminded me of the movie was because You Blew It’s half played like something coming through Sam’s headphones, well “Batavia, NY.” I imagine her hearing the line “I can’t pretend that everyone here is actually my friend,” and then handing over the headphones to Andrew and telling him that that song would change his life. While You Blew It! is a lot more upbeat than anything that was on the actual Garden State soundtrack, I’ll still stick by what I said.
As for Fake Problems, their half was like the soundtrack to the movie after it had ended, and we got to see Sam and Andrew years later together. Fake Problems wasn’t as reflective, just a happier indie sound that you could hear the couple putting on a playlist titled “we made it through the abyss.” “Small Devil Song” would be their anthem years later; an indie track that verges somewhere between nerd rock and Weezer (or is that one in the same?).
You Blew It! is the main course and Fake Problems is the mint that soothes you soon after. Florida Doesn’t Suck as a whole was a nice way to be reminded of one of the greatest movies of all time that you can now pick up in any $5 bin in America. It’s all-around an indie record that has variations of the genre; one giving you a since that life has some deeper meaning and the other a good time. Florida Doesn’t Suck is out now on Topshelf Records, so instead of buying anything with a heart on, pick up Florida Doesn’t Suck.
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