Today is 18 years to the day that I discovered this band.
Saw Iron & Wine three times over the weekend (Norfolk, Saxapahaw, and Carrboro) and was thinking about how long I’ve been listening to them. Googled the catalyst for it, a moment of which I remember every second, during that trip and it turns out it was 18 years ago today.
One of my favorite shows as a teenager was House. The S4 finale — arguably the best episode — used Passing Afternoon over a montage in the closing minutes, and I was completely taken out of what was supposed to be a really sad, dramatic moment by this song I’d never heard before. It blew me away and was all I could focus on. Being that this was 2008, it meant scribbling lyrics as fast as I could, then hauling ass to our family desktop in the living room (startling the hell out of my mom, who didn’t know why I was sprinting through the house at 9 pm on a Monday) to google them before I forgot it. I spent the rest of that night discovering the records I&W had released to that point. Our Endless Numbered Days is still one of my favorite records to this day because of sitting at our PC late into that night.
I turned 18 later that week. I turn 36 on Sunday. Iron & Wine’s music has been a constant in my adult life through college, new jobs, relationships, moves, and everything else. I won’t ever be able to pay Sam Beam back for that.