Oakland natives The Jim Yoshii Pile-Up can be a hard band to pin down. They could write the earnest sad songs this side of slocore, like in Reckless Driving. They could also go for textured indie that veered into post rock, as in today’s choice Double Negative. I quite loved them, and got a whole package of albums, t-shirts and stickers from their label way back in 2007.

They are also a band I hardly listen to any more.

Nothing wrong with their music or the band itself, it’s just that they are a band from a particular time and age that I no longer look back with fondness. We all make mistakes and stumble down bad alleyways as we grow up, and I think maturing is accepting when you mess up and have to regroup.

The friends you lose along the way are also important.

Friends in the music business can be a fickle thing, because the key word is “business”. Bad decisions taken “to fit in” are more popular than you might think and it took me a long while to realise someone I considered a good friend was everything but. This person introduced me to The Jim Yoshii Pile-Up and I think that’s a link that never quite fades away.

It’s a shame because on their three albums, The Jim Yoshii Pile-Up spoke volumes that bands with larger career spans will never muster. Perhaps time which allegedly heals all wounds will help. I’ll wait and see.

-Sam J. Valdés López