By August I was most likely hitting the third act of The Persistence of Memories, where a lot of major plot points I’d kept open were finally getting woven together. By this time I’d also been making time to take a few days off from work to attend both Readercon and Boskone, both Boston-area science fiction conventions. (Readercon had just taken place in July, so I must have still been on that buzz of being a part of the SFF community.) At this point I still wasn’t sure how I was going to get my works published, but I wasn’t going to give up the Mendaihu Universe just yet.

BT, Emotional Technology, released 5 August 2003. I’d been a fan of his since his “Blue Skies” single he did with Tori Amos, so by this point I’d been picking up his newest releases as they came out.

Mixtape, Re:Defined 05, created 10 August 2003. This was one of my favorites to listen to during my commutes home from work.

Dishwalla, Live…Greetings from the Flow State, released 12 August 2003. A great live album from a very underrated band, and from the vibe of the audience you can tell they’re having a great time. A really good cross-section of their three albums to date.

Puffy AmiYumi, Nice, US version released 12 August 2003. A few years before their goofy Cartoon Network show, these two cheerful pop-rockers dropped a super fun album that features some great earworms, some of them co-written by ex-Jellyfish leader Andy Sturmer.

Elbow, Cast of Thousands, released 18 August 2003. While Asleep in the Back showed that this band had the songwriting chops and could write equally beautiful and quirky music, this second album took them so much further and became one of my favorite albums of the year. I highly recommend it.

Client, Client, released 18 August 2003. This was Dubstar singer Sarah Blackwood’s project after her original band went on hiatus. It’s an odd but fascinating mix of retro new-wave and chilly synthpop.

Broadcast, Haha Sound, released 18 August 2003. This strange electronic band was hard to pin down, but I always thought of them as a sort of distinctly British version of Stereolab, only with more tension. Their albums are well worth checking out.

Sloan, Action Pact, released 19 August 2003. As always, I will definitely pick up any Sloan album that drops! By this point in their career they’d nailed the jangly pop sound similar to Matthew Sweet, and just as catchy.

The Good North, An Explanation, released 19 August 2003. A fantastic and almost entirely unknown band from the New England/NYC area, I discovered them while doing one of my Newbury Comics runs. They only dropped one album and a few EPs, but they’re all wonderful.

The Raveonettes, Chain Gang of Love, released 25 August 2003. This band’s early work always reminds me of The Jesus & Mary Chain. They had just as much feedback going on, and the melodies underneath all that noise were surprisingly attractive and melodic. They’ve mellowed out a bit since then, but their early albums are great fun.

*

Up next: A lot more noise