SONG: “Hello Cosmo”
ARTIST: Animal Bag

I have a memory of this song that I will always hold dear in my heart. After Animal Bag left LA, the members returned home to NC and Luke and his wife, Amanda, opened up a coffee shop called The Java Cellar. I spent many of nights there as a patron and as a barista. The memories there will always hold a special place in my heart. The people who frequented there will always hold a special place in my heart. I had always loved the song “Hello Cosmo” and the the lyrics as it had made a statement to the inner “weird, nerd, outcast kid” inside of me: “Look at me and what you see is what I am and I’ll be who I want to be…” (and that’s what we were at The Java Cellar…a tribe of the fringe people trying to find a place to fit in). Animal Bag performed a set one night to a sold out, elbow to elbow, crowd, but that night as Luke and the band sang the song, tears filled my eyes. It was the first time the power of live music had made me cry. I have been going to concerts since I was five, but as the band performed the song they might as well have been performing just for me. The rest of the crowd disappeared and there was this band singing out loud words I would only whisper in my dreams. Now, as I listen to “Hello Cosmo” it’s my connection to myself, to the inner weird kid, the outcast, the nerd to remember to not conform and when I feel like I have given into the expectation of society to do exactly as the song says, “Need to relax awhile and lie down in the grass. Good day sunshine can I share in your warm glow. Put trust in people that I did not even know. Almost convinced me to regret the things I’ve done. Need to redeem myself and sit here in the sun…”
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3gMumPLJLI]