Lambchop - Live at XX Merge (Merge, 2009)
Every southerner with aspirations of leaving the south has an exact, definable moment where they realize that their dream is an improbability. Mine just happened to take place in Nashville. I was taking a tour of Vanderbilt University at age 18. I was being shepherded around the campus with a group of other high schoolers from a variety of different states. I didn't talk much. I didn't ask many questions. I already knew that I was meant to go to Vandy. How could I not be? I was captain of the (laughably horrible) debate team at my school. I was editor of the (shockingly award-winning) newspaper. I was even president of the National Honor Society. Vanderbilt is the Ivy League school of the south and I was the prized student at Starkville High School. I was third in my class, but it was the strongest third you could imagine. I belonged there. After tours of lecture halls, cafeterias, and dorms, our guide led us to a room for a presentation on the acceptance requirements and finan...