It was a cold winter night in 2005, driving around with my pal Evan Beaumontthat I switched on the brand-new public independent music radio station in our town, 89.3 The Current.

I believe the first song we heard was an R&B standard, which was shocking to hear. This was a time when "historical" music of that sort had absolutely no venue.

The second song we heard was this crazy, macabre new ballad called "A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left." Our faces both twisted into smiles of confused interest. We decided that a radio station freely embroiling its audience in such surreal futuristic business had an actual chance - or maybe no chance at all. (12 years on the air this month says?)

This song bends through harmonic modulations I would be a hack trying to describe. I am merely a mid-level corporate scribe, after all. The musical effect is exhilarating.

The triumphant ending declamation is so fun to sing at full throat.

The lyrics have spidery charm:

"You're what happens when two substances collide
When by all accounts you really should've died"