98. Breakfast After 10 by Blue October

"Breakfast After 10" by Blue October

Written by Justin Furstenfeld
Produced by Nick Launay
Released on Consent to Treatment (May 15,  2000)
Released as a single in 2000
Warning: Explicit Lyrics
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"Breakfast After 10" is a breakup song. Despite the fact that I hadn't had very much experience with breakups when I first heard the song, I felt a strong connection to it. Justin Furstenfeld is so plaintive and angry and passionate in his delivery, it seemed hard to ignore. I don't always pay close attention to lyrics in songs, but if the vocalist sounds like they are putting every ounce of energy into each word, it almost doesn't matter to me what they're singing about. I feed off of their passion and vitriol and spit. "Breakfast After 10" certainly has its share of those things.

I first heard "Breakfast After 10" on 93X (KNSX 93.3), a radio station based out of Steeleville, MO (a town that's about 80 miles outside St. Louis). At that time I was attending Lindenwood University in St. Charles, MO (which is about 20 miles outside St. Louis). They broadcasted 24/7 without live DJs, which was a new thing at the time. Everything was digital and run by a computer. I'm not even sure if they had a full-time employee. Every once in a while they played a prerecorded tag promoting the radio station or introducing the next song or back-selling the previous one. It was just music, with very few commercials. Because the tower was pretty far outside St. Louis, the signal wasn't always perfect, but the music was mostly good. They played alternative music without getting into the Nu-Metal stuff that was starting to take over the other alternative radio station in St. Louis (105.7 the Point).

They played "Breakfast After 10" pretty frequently for about a year. They never played their prerecorded tag for this song, so for most of that year, I had no idea what the song was or who played it. Eventually I emailed the station to find out who it was. Have you ever tried to describe a song to someone in writing, when you don't know the name of it? It's not easy. Luckily I was able to explain enough, and someone wrote me back with the name and artist.

93X no longer exists. Maybe they were ahead of their time, or maybe their demise was inevitable since no one listens to the radio anymore. I am grateful that I found them, and they played some cool music. They even hired a friend of mine from school who was getting into broadcasting to record some of their tags. It was fun to hear a voice I recognized on the radio every once in a while.

Right now "Breakfast After 10" by Blue October is (probably) my 98th favorite song.