sentinel band: the walkmen

Sentinel Bands. Friends, I have again lapsed in keeping up with the blog. Alas, the life of a resident. But the past week and the next one or two weeks will be some exciting turn of events- will be deciding where I spend the next 1-2 years of life post-residency in a general medicine research fellowship. This past week I finished my last inpatient rotation at the VA, the VA ICU-- I will miss that place as I enjoyed working there with the staff, good teaching, and great patient population-- veterans are a unique group and I'm honored to participate in their care. But on to the real reason I am writing. the Walkmen played Portland this past weekend! The walkmen have been around a while now, one of my all time favorite bands, and their upcoming performance made me think about those bands or musicians that one really connect/identify with because their music evolution seems to parallel whatever's happening in one's life. I'll call these bands sentinel bands. Their not just great bands with great music. By happen stance, they arrive at a time point in one's life where you're most likely to be 'imprinted' with their music or you identify with their music. I tend of think of my friends who are older than me (particularly my friends who i met who lived in Atlanta/GA and who went to Athens for college) who lived through college when REM started happening and have identified with the band as they have matured and lived their lives, just as the band has matured and lived their lives. I love REM, but was born too late to really find that type of attachment to them. I tend to think sentinel bands form their impression on you during the vulnerable/impressionable years-- college or high school, some young adult age. So they have to come out on the scene around this time. I first heard the walkmen just after college 2002 or so, when one might feel lost, energetic, angry-- so maybe songs like the Rat or something, I identified with and I loved their raw energy, the wurlitzer, the drummer kicks ass, the vocals of Hamilton Leithauser, all of that. So timing is everything for a sentinel band. They play music that favors the disposition you're in at that time. the second criteria is that they have to have longevity-- they can't have 1 album and then fade away obviously, so the Walkmen have put out a couple more disks since then, some i've enjoyed more than others, but they are always in the picture. So when Lisbon came out, I had just moved to portland and they played the Music Fest NW and played a great show, made moving to portland that much more fun. But Lisbon was a much more mellow work than their prior albums and I sensed that; I enjoyed it. The point being is that my personal evolution seems to parrallel a bit with the bands evolution and so I continue to be impacted by the music in someway more than just enjoying the song. Now with their newest album, and having just heard a couple of their songs, it seems to continue that trend; but no matter -- whatever type of music the Walkmen put out, I'd still probably like it because of that initial attachment/connection made back when.. any other sentinel bands out there for people? ...b