Day 29: The Radio Dept And Me

How I Came To Be

🎵 The Radio Dept.

In high school I was just a shy snap-back wearing hockey kid who mostly listened to Pearl Jam and played Call of Duty.

I wasn’t hip enough to have discovered The Shins from the iconic Garden State scene, for me that moment was seeing a Wincing The Night Away tour tee on the back of an arty music classmate that I was jealous of.

This newfound interest in indie music eventually brought me to a music blog that was raving over “Heaven’s On Fire”, a new The Radio Dept. song that’d end up transforming my taste in music, and me, forever.

CAROLINE LOVEGLOW @CLoveglow

Listening to The Radio Dept. for the first time & I think this is the best music I have ever heard

It’s still some of the best music I’ve ever heard, but it’s a shame that they don’t come up more often when discussing the great indie bands of the early aughts. The fuzzy and noisy dream pop sound on their debut record, Lesser Matters, is still just as refreshing now and it’s been nearly twenty years. The only group that ever really came close was The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (who I also love) and that wasn’t until 2009.

I’m still that same kid in a lot of ways, but at least my desire to be “cool” brought The Radio Dept. and I together way back then.

Have a nice day 🫶

- Tyler

---

T-Recs is a newsletter where T shares a rec every single day.

---

Follow Tyler Bainbridge on Instagram.

Subscribe to Perfectly Imperfect on Substack.

Follow Perfectly Imperfect on Instagram.