It was 2003, I was at the CD Cellar flipping through the racks of used discs. I came upon !!!’s Me And Giuliani Down By The School Yard (A True Story) single. It looked interesting and was cheap so I purchased it and popped it in on the ride home. 9 minutes and 5 seconds later the song ended as I pulled up to my house. I sat there in silence trying to take it all in. This was important. This was going to change the world.

A month later we headed to NYC to see them at the Siren Festival on Coney Island. We stayed at a friends house in Brooklyn, he was a film editor working on No Direction Home, the Martin Scorsese Bob Dylan documentary. He showed us a video project he was working on which years later Justice would rip off for the DVNO video (that part of the story is almost certainly untrue). There were a bunch of other kids hanging out there too. They played a Talking Heads song I had never heard before like it was no big deal. I brought the !!! single, but they already had it. We got drunk and danced to it at least 3 times in a row.

The next morning everyone was slow. !!! were going on early and I was getting antsy. One of the kids was wearing this giant puffy ski jacket, but it was like 100 degrees out. I had on shorts, but it was before they were ironically cool. We missed the show. We did get to see Hot Hot Heat though cause apparently they were more popular at the time. They sucked and I felt guilty for buying their CD at Tower a few weeks prior. Some chick had a bottle of wine and spilled it on me. We eventually got burnt out and left. I heard the fading sounds of Radio 4 as the train rolled away.

A year later the internet said the dance punk revolution fizzled out or something.

SEE YOU AT BRIDE OF HIPSTER CAMP YOU FUCKING HIPSTERS

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A few more vintage BYT shots for your viewing displeasure: