Gift of the Gods


Several years ago, for reasons none now know, the Darwin-Goodman remix of Course of Empire's song "Infested" became somewhat popular on 107.9 The End in Cleveland. I loved this song at the time, though I had never heard of the artist. You either? I'm not surprised; I don't know where or when they exist(ed), but U2 they definitely are not.

At any rate, it was a kick-ass song: punk remixed to incorporate old Benny Goodman drum tracks. I liked it, but like many a song, it gradually faded from the End's airwaves, and thus from my mind.

Two years passed uneventfully (well, aside from all the stuff that happened) and then, in my freshman year at BGSU, "Infested" worked it's way back into my head. I don't recall any triggering incident, but the song haunted me for a week or more, my fragmented memory playing it over and over again, begging for completion.

That weekend I trekked into town, to the local indie music store, of which I had heard tell on campus. I perused the used racks in search of something good, not even considering that the object of my fixation might present itself.

"And you found the album in the cheapies and got all happy and decided to make a big dramatic production out of it." Correct? Not quite.

What I found was the "Infested" single, featuring the rather lame original, the kick-ass remix, and two really good punk covers. That's right: I come to the record store mainly just to check it out, though in the back of my heart I harbor the faint hope of finding this one song, obscure to begin with and at least two years out of date. Not only do I find it, but it's in the used singles bin for fifty cents.

Okay, maybe your mother did sprout wings and fly out of the jaws of a combine when she was four. It happens. But this, my friends, was a true fucking miracle. I have known rapture. Jealous?