blog post Women's Chris Reimer Remembered... Podcast #309

“A real artist on a sonic quest.”  “Brave enough to search for what he wanted in music.”  “He opened up my eyes to what a real artist is.”  And yet he was humble and mellow, not coincidentally, I suspect.  When you have someone as creative and accomplished as Chad saying that this young guy opened his eyes to what a real artists is, it certainly makes you pause.  The huge critical acclaim this band received was no accident.

Let me suggest something.  I think this was one of the first truly definitively GenY bands.  These guys cast off the conventions of the former generations to a much greater extent, and boldly expressed their own, emergent, aesthetic.  Imagine Chris patiently, but persistently, like a perfectionist does, prodding the “old fart” Chad Van Gaalen to expand his musical pallet and embrace what young Chris was telling him about his music, and his generation.  Maybe this was more of a revolutionary change than an evolutionary one? 

I also want to give credit to Chris Kelly for being on top of this band at least 4 years ago.   My initial response to Women was much like Grant’s, and Chris helped open my eyes to what they were doing.  Chris is a man with his finger firmly on the pulse of new music, so let me take a moment to request a new feature on R3.  I’d like a weekly “top 10 on Chris’ ipod” segment, so the rest of us can continue to see into the future through Chris Kelly’s ... ears. 

RIP Chris Reimer