stuff

From the Washington post, you don�t get it you don�t get it
By Alona Wartofsky
Sunday, November 12,2000; page G01

I (Katie) cut this down a lot

Twin brothers Benji and Joel, the band�s songwriters and oldest members, graduated in �97. So they vividly remember the way their schoolmates taunted Benji because his black nail polish defied Southern Maryland convention. The time some jocks taped Joel to a locker room bench and rubbed Bengay on a part of his body where Bengay doesn�t belong.

Joel: �It was totally that kind of school, the Marching Band would march around the parking lot after school and the cool kids would all hang out and throw bottles at them.�
Aaron: �where are all those kids right now? They�re either in jail or workin� on cars, livin� with their parents, doin� construction�
Joel: �not that it�s bad or anything�
Benji: �but they mad fun of use�
Joel: � �did you guys make it big yet?� �you guys rock stars yet?� everyday we�d get prank calls at our house. They would call and be, like, �yeah we�re Atlantic Records and we wanna sign you guys.� My mom would call me��Joel! Joel! Atlantic Records called! Get home, they want you to call them back!� Then I knew who it was, and it was just like man� Joel shakes his head �those types of things hurt� �It�s funny know, but then it sucked.�

Little things video

Benji: �there is no such thing a Waldorf High School. But when we made the video, we made all the signs say �Waldorf High School�, just so we could represent Waldorf.� (the town north of La Plata in Charles County, MD)
Timoth Bodamer: (taught the twins in guitar class during their Jr.& Sr. years) He remembered the twins as eager students who were brimming with enthusiasm. once he says they came to class particularly hyped. �They were all excited, saying that they invented a new chord. Well, it was C major chord. I was, like, �Guys, that�s been around since Beethoven.� �
They named the group after what Benji calls an
�old-school� Children�s book they read when they where small.
Benji: �It was an insignificant book in our lives, it didn�t change our lives or any thing. The big story with our bands name is there is no story.�
When the twins graduated from La Plata they decided against College.
Joel: �it was kind of a hard diction�
The band spent several difficult years working dreary jobs and trying to land gigs.
Benji: �we definitely struggled.�
The Twins worked as shampoo boys at bubbles hair salon in Annapolis, and before that one or both of them worked at Target, Borders Books, Up Against the Wall and other stores at the local mall, St. Charles Town Center.
~*~ (I (Katie) shop there, but when I was younger I hated going there because of the escalators; on 911 I saw this little boy get his jacket caught in one and it was choking him. So I was always afraid to step on them because I thought I would get stuck in it. My mom used to have to drag me on or put me on one of the steps.)~*~

When dad didn�t come home

Benji: �when we were writing the song, little things I threw in the part about Dad leaving and the part about my Mom, and Joel�s, like, �Dude I don�t wanna sing that�. And I�m, like, �Dude, it�s a good part to the song.� We actual argued over if we should sing about that.�
Joel says when he sings little things he blushes.
Joel: �it�s not because I�m embarrassed totally, it�s because it sound pretty bad. After we wrote the song and I really looked at it, I was, like, �Whoa. This all sounds pretty dad.�� the part about my mom, the part about my dad�that�s where it�s really sensitive because it�s not me anymore, it�s someone else.�
The boys say they were around 16 when their father left. Around the same time their mother was diagnosed with lupus, became very ill and had what family members refer to as �a breakdown.�
Joel: �those were the little things to us. They weren�t big things, people go, �Oh, those are the big things, �but the song is little things.� The only thing I cared about the last to years of high school was the band�that was the big thing. That�s probably why we were able to go through those things and consider them little things.�