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Lewis - “Feet on the Ground”

I listened to Deep Elm’s Emo is Awesome/Emo is Evil compilation until it was too scratched to play in 2004. I revisit it every few years; the last time I vividly remember playing the entire album through, often, was 2009 (emotionally abusive boyfriend, driving between my parents’ house/College Park/Prince George’s Community College, WMUC, whiskey I bought with my fake I.D.; I think the only other thing I listened to that summer was Dinosaur Jr.’s Farm). I’m listening to it again now, because it’s a good comp.

I know it’s summer because it’s too humid for anything to dry off, even with the air conditioning on. My legs are bruised and covered in bike grease because I’ve been wearing shorts. I panicked when I heard we got Memorial Day off because I’m scared as shit to have a full day of free time. I came home to find the shelf in my kitchen had collapsed; there was a sea of small appliances on my floor. I’m moving to a huge apartment with a porch. I can’t stop crying. I can’t read any of the dozen books I’ve bought in the past month because I’m too anxious.

This track is disposable in the way that so many other songs by mid-’90s emo bands were: Who, generally, was going to remember a group like Camber or Statistics? For anyone that’s listened to a Deep Elm band, that music that meant so damn much lacked in technical skill, sounded like a bazillion other bands known probably only to a very specific scene, and was often delivered (for the first time, anyway) via a compilation of such similar-sounding bands is kind of the crux of being a fan of this stuff.

Who put your feet back on the ground?