I sat at my computer just the other morning and wondered just what the hell I was in the mood for. Pitchfork and I don’t really agree. Hadn’t given Pandora shot in forever. Probably since I’d recently returned there, I recalled a conversation I had at One and One, at the nexus of the universe, with the British friend of a former co-worker. We’d spent fifteen minutes talking about the Beatles, when she continued on about the “Manchester Sound,” and about Blur (“Bluh” she pronounced it), and about Oasis.

So, still sitting at my computer, staring into the distance like Doogie Howser, I had my inspiration and, like NPH, went ahead and tapped my keys and in my case, procured Oasis’ most recent album.

My quick capsule review: Drums and guitars, holy shit! I forgot what those sound like.

Pleased to have found something I could shoehorn into my narrowing aesthetic, I listened on and went on with my day.

Later that night, taking the subway to meet friends for dinner, I saw a kid – eighteen? – wearing a green Oasis shirt. I thought, “Hey, Oasis! I was just listening to them, what are the odds?!” A refreshing bit of synchronicity is an asynchronous time.

At dinner, I was talking to my friend about the recent album, and about the shirt, when he says, “Oh yeah, you know they broke up, right?”

No shit!

Maybe the kid had heard and wore the shirt in commemoration, I’ll accept that, but my having gotten the album pretty much the day they broke up makes me throw up my hands and say, “Naturally.”

It’s how it goes – the bands I get into, those that aren’t already long ago disbanded or dead – soon find themselves splitting up. Happened with System of a Down. Sure happened with Soundgarden. Bands break up all the time, but hardly ever those I can’t stand. Those guys all flourish unabated. And I know it probably speaks more to my being two to three years behind the times than it does to my being a bad luck charm, but hell – the timing of this just made me laugh, and then sigh heavily.

But yeah, Oasis. Done for. Long time coming I guess. One of the last standing from that 1994-1995-1996 corridor when good music was popular and pop music was good – and I know this because Z100 was listenable.

I remember being thrilled to capture “Live Forever” onto cassette tape in 1995, most likely on the same side as Weezer’s “Say It Ain’t So” and Live’s “All Over You,” if not also Nikki French’s upbeat cover of “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” Some months later, I got to like “Wonderwall” quite a bit. But then it was “Don’t Look Back in Anger” that hit me upside the head like a 2×4. It came down to the chord progression I wasn’t talented enough to figure out on my own, but that’s still one of my favorites and for me one of the most eerie and poignant. It’s the change from E (or E7) to F, in the verse & chorus that goes C-G-Am-E(7)-F-G-C. Or, in “Imagine,” where the intro is also lifted from, simply F-G-C-E7-F…

Ah hell, just enjoy: