I work with music playing like everyone else. Sometimes it’s a pleasant diversion, a mood or a serendipitous soundtrack to what I’m drawing and very rarely it’s a voice out of your own past speaking to you. Yeah, okay so it isn’t that exactly, but hearing, Parquet Courts’ The More You Use It today, struck me because I seem to be yelling some variation of its lyrics almost every day. My versions are never nearly as catchy or as hooky as theirs. Here’s a sampling of the lyrics from that song:

Express yourself without the tools that they give you
Want something they didn't tell you to want
Say something without the words that they fed you
Find something they didn't tell you to hunt for

Because the more you use it, the more it works
The more you use it, the more it works
The more you use it, the more it works
The more you use it, the more it works
The more you use it, the more it works
The more you use it, the more it works
The more you use it, the more it works
The more you use it, the more it works

Be yourself and not the figure they mold
Look for something they've been trying to hide
Do something you were never told to
Don't keep it to yourself, don't keep it inside

Later on…

Yeah, listen up, listen up everybody
What could I even mean?
Could it be your teeth? Could it be your eyes?
Could it be your mouth? Could it be your spleen?

It's kind of like all those things
It's kind of wrapped into one
The more you use it, the more it works
The more you use it, the more it works

Yeah, define yourself, not in title
Embrace a concept not taught in school
The more you use it, the more it works
If you waste it, you're a fool

When I lived in Brooklyn, I listened to music on commutes to and from the studio like everyone else. In 2014 or 2015 things were very hard but I still look back a little longingly at those times. The Parquet Courts had released Human Performance, their third LP in a row and its more somber tenor was good but I always preferred their jauntier, angsty punk more. So to hear The More You Use It today was loaded with nostalgia, melancholy and passion. What does it make you fee?

Just food for thought. Use it.