Is officially still a little more than two weeks away, but here in Hungary the temperatures have turned mild and the trees have begun budding. These first signs of spring coaxed a musical memory from the deep recesses of my mind - a strange little tune called "First Day of Spring" by a strange little, and practically unknown, Canadian band, the Gandharvas.
I have never really been obsessed with popular music, but I suppose I was somewhat lucky to have been a teenager/young adult during the late eighties and nineties when grunge and alternative rock bands were all the rage. I say lucky because the bulk of grunge and alternative rock at least resembled music, unlike the prefabricated, cookie-cutter, synthesized pop pablum permeating the popular music scene today. Grunge and alternative bands played their own instruments and wrote their own songs, which is more than can be said for many current chart-toppers.
On top of that, much of the work produced in the grunge and alternative genre of the late-eighties and nineties was quite creative and, occasionally, original. Wholesome? Not always? Uplifting? Rarely. Harmful? Perhaps. But at least it was creative. Sometimes it was even sincere.
In any event, The Gandharvas were a Canadian alternative band from London, Ontario who, like most Canadian bands, did not achieve notable success or fame beyond the borders of their vast country. I don't know much about them. Nor am I particularly interested in finding out much about them. As far as I know, they disbanded in 2000 after the grunge/alternative scene began to wane. Nevertheless, they did write some interesting songs, with First Day of Spring being chief among them.
The song is essentially a soft melodic build-up ending in a crashing cacophony crescendo - sort of like a wave building up before crashing on the shore. For reasons I can't explain, I've always liked the song. I am rather fond of the video and its awakening imagery as well. Appropriately enough, the song usually bubbles to the surface of my memory toward the end of winter, when I give it a couple of plays before I allow it to recede back into my memory for another year.
I have never really been obsessed with popular music, but I suppose I was somewhat lucky to have been a teenager/young adult during the late eighties and nineties when grunge and alternative rock bands were all the rage. I say lucky because the bulk of grunge and alternative rock at least resembled music, unlike the prefabricated, cookie-cutter, synthesized pop pablum permeating the popular music scene today. Grunge and alternative bands played their own instruments and wrote their own songs, which is more than can be said for many current chart-toppers.
On top of that, much of the work produced in the grunge and alternative genre of the late-eighties and nineties was quite creative and, occasionally, original. Wholesome? Not always? Uplifting? Rarely. Harmful? Perhaps. But at least it was creative. Sometimes it was even sincere.
In any event, The Gandharvas were a Canadian alternative band from London, Ontario who, like most Canadian bands, did not achieve notable success or fame beyond the borders of their vast country. I don't know much about them. Nor am I particularly interested in finding out much about them. As far as I know, they disbanded in 2000 after the grunge/alternative scene began to wane. Nevertheless, they did write some interesting songs, with First Day of Spring being chief among them.
The song is essentially a soft melodic build-up ending in a crashing cacophony crescendo - sort of like a wave building up before crashing on the shore. For reasons I can't explain, I've always liked the song. I am rather fond of the video and its awakening imagery as well. Appropriately enough, the song usually bubbles to the surface of my memory toward the end of winter, when I give it a couple of plays before I allow it to recede back into my memory for another year.
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