There's perspective to be had when you're sitting around outside, in a backyard in Austin, Texas, in the middle of March, legs wiped, body whipped, with a sweet, warm breeze licking and soft, white lights burning above you. There's nothing like some tranquility after a bout of madness. There's nothing quite like knowing that you're about to get yourself back to normal in just a few more hours. There's nothing like being able to be confident in such a thing, in rebounding back to the state that you feel most comfortable in. It can all suddenly feel like meaning abounds, that there are strings everywhere and there might be reasons for all the mad times that you have.
Listening to Ithaca, New York band Jimkata, on an evening such as this, after a real shit storm of a week, forces you to take stock in the nuances that usually blow right past us. The biggest problem is that new madness is never too far away. It always keeps you off balance, for that very reason.
When Jimkata lead singer Evan Friedell sings, "All the best things seem to surface after the worst/All the worst things seem to come around and go around," we're left considering the wasted amount of energy we put into our passing troubles. We know that things roll right on. They never stop and stand around for long. That's just the way the beast works. These songs seem to be odes to the little decisions that are made to take back happiness, to keep calm in times of turmoil. They are about finding that happiness that was tattered a bit. They are about feeling fresh and finding light. They are about feeling worn, but with purpose.