For Nostalgia's Sake: The Straw Theory (S/T)

Everyone has one -- an oddball record in your music collection; one that you rarely listen to but are strangely attached to. For me, this album is one of them. I consider it an oddball album because I don't really know much about the band at all. As far as I can tell, after the smallest bit of research, this group no longer exists. The only reason I own this disc is because my friend Darren told me about the band. He said it had a good live show. So, I checked the disc out and liked it enough to keep it all these years. The Straw Theory was a piano-based pop trio, before that genre was the new craze -- way before anyone was familiar with the likes of Keane, Gavin DeGraw or Coldplay. Some of the melodies are reminiscent of Sufjan Stevens' early work. In fact, one of the songs has a very similar musical movement to a track on Stevens' freshman release, A Sun Came. The other interesting thing about this group is that the vocals remind me of those of a defunct West Michigan indie band named Carson So Sorry (although TST's vocals are much more refined). One of my old bands played a show with CSS years ago in a Grand Rapids coffeehouse.