The Loop : Psoma - Fear the Penguin

Psoma - Fear the Penguin (2002)

You know why I love this record? Because I love Kory McCarthy.

Kory was (and still is) one of my best friends in high school. We met when we were roughly 15 years old through mutual friends/internet. The first time we hung out, we were dancing with the other AZSka folk at The Nile during a Five Iron Frenzy show. From then on, I made my way to South Scottsdale often to hang out with him and the Saguaro boys, which mostly consisted of some variation of playing music, video games, boy jokes and burritos. After growing up with an older brother and family friends with pairs of boys, I felt more than comfortable with these dudes. They were my family. I miss that family. :/

One of my first memories of Kory was his worn in Psoma penguin teeshirt. Upon further investigation, Kory spiraled into, "OMG YOU HAVE TO HEAR PSOMA!". As the girl who usually tells other people what to listen to, it was amazing to have someone tell me I had to listen to something. That's not to say I did right away, though. I'm sure I told him several times that I would, but never got around to it, not to mention it was hard to find. He played me the album at one point in his car, starting me on the song "Naked", mostly because we thought the title was hilarious. He also gushed on the awesomeness of a lyric like "I'm underemphasized and overcomplicated in "PRJ" and how genius the entire record was. After finally convincing me, I remember I had to bring him a blank CD at a show in order to get a copy, and had to wait until the next show in order to get it. I believe we may have made a trade here? I remember being really excited to hear this record because I was so excited about my new family and the idea of sharing and experiencing music. I love humanizing music and putting it into contexts, and when I think of this record, I will ALWAYS think of Kory.

Psoma was formed by a former member of the band Nerf Herder and created an exceptionally early 00's album. It took what was good about the mid-90's and updated it with some cool punk undertones and insanely catchy melodies. It was something that didn't really fit in with the Warped Tour scene, and unfortunately came in at the wrong time post-90's. I have no concept of this band's reach or success, but if you asked Kory, they were the biggest band in the world. I'm glad I wasn't busy quantifying success in any other capacity back then. We should all be able to champion a band so well and hope it sticks like this did for me almost 8 years later. Thanks Kory.

Posting EPK's on blogs is lame, but since their video content is limited, this at least gives you a nice run down of many of the tracks. Plus, check out that early 00's fashion!