Gary Waleik is guitarist/singer/writer for Big Dipper. He wrote this appreciation of the record too late to include in the book, but as the Dipper is playing with Robert Pollard's Boston Spaceships IN Boston on Tuesday, 30 September, I offer it up now:

Why I love Bee Thousand
by Gary Waleik

I hate Bee Thousand. I hardly ever take it off the shelf anymore. It’s a mirror in which I look bad as a musician, a songwriter and a singer. It’s a comprehensive encyclopedia of self awareness and honesty, and I’m afraid that my musical attempts sound very unaware and dishonest in comparison. Even the goddamn cover is brilliant, and it cruelly mocks as it reminds me of the time my band made the mistake of dishing out $10,000 to a New York City graphic design firm in exchange for the worst album cover in the history of rock. We had no idea that you could clip a great album cover out of a magazine.

But I also love Bee Thousand. I could say a lot, as many have, about its illogical and breathtaking synthesis of pop hooks and rock riffs and noise and angst and wholly unsentimental acknowledgement of beauty. But there aren’t enough words in a 200 word essay to do that. So maybe the best way to state my love for Bee Thousand is to say that the last few lines of Echos Myron may have saved my life.