Several years ago, I was introduced to a band with an intriguing name.  A good friend and former roommate of mine was into every kind of underground sound he could possibly find.  The guy had hundreds of CDs organized meticulously in several CD cases.  He would regularly bring new music to my attention.  One day he informed me that he had something he thought I would like.  His visible excitement and enthusiasm betrayed the fact that he already knew I would enjoy this newest addition to his repertoire before he even spoke the first words of the conversation. 

The first song I listened to was the first track from the album, The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place, named First Breath After Coma.  This aptly named song blew me away.  Imagine being in a coma for several months or years, then waking up one day and taking the first breath under your own power.  The lights in your head would turn on and you would spend every waking hour over a great period of time thanking anyone and everyone for another chance at life.  You would re-examine yourself and your purpose.  If there was a song being played at that moment in time, this little band from Texas has definitely got it nailed down.  Words written on paper, typed up and printed, or even spoken from a dedicated fan’s mouth wouldn’t do these sounds justice.  This is music you must simply hear for yourself. 

I continued listening to this album and found a couple of the songs on it to be even more enthralling than the first.  I was, for lack of a better word, floored by this music’s emotional relevance to everything I was currently experiencing in my life.  I thought, “How could this be foreign to anyone with the ability to hear?”  I know of no way to categorize this band or their music.  Placing them in a category somehow subtracts from the message that I feel they send to all within audible range.  Explosions in the Sky have released four albums to date.  Those albums and the year released are shown below:

• How Strange, Innocence – Released 2000
• Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever – Released 2001
• The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place – Released 2003
• All of a Sudden, I Miss Everyone – Released 2007

Just recently, on March 28th, at the Grenada Theatre in Lawrence, KS, Explosions performed for a relatively small, yet enthusiastic and entranced croud.  A co-worker (BlueGato) and I were among them.  Again, words do little to describe the complexity of the emotion released or discovered when listening to this group perform.  I recommend purchasing, borrowing, stealing – whatever has to be done to listen to this music – so that you may experience what I am writing about today.  For those that have experienced Explosions in the Sky, your comments are definitely desired.  For those of you that have not, I possess all four albums and would not hesitate to let you listen. 

For more information on Explosions, visit their website.