Top 40 '90s albums, #37: Karate — The Bed is in the Ocean (1998)

I still remember the first time I heard Karate. It was 2003. I was deep into file-sharing, and I was exploring basically everything in the indie sphere that I could get my hands on. Enter Karate: I’d downloaded their latest album at the time, Some Boots. I marveled at the opener, “Original Spies” — this was music that immediately resonated me. Lyrically, it was largely more about painting a picture than it was telling a story, as was lead Geoff Farina’s style. I loved it, and I set out to hear more from the band.

The Bed is in the Ocean, today’s pick, isn’t as refined as their later efforts. The jazz guitar isn’t as sharp and cutting; the slow pace is a little less intentional. It’s still excellent (it deserves its place here) and has some memorable tracks. It hammers home that Karate is top-tier with opening tracks — “There Are Ghosts” is haunting (I’m very sorry about the pun, but it’s true!), and it’s followed up by “The Same Stars,” which, midway through, revels in feedback instead of launching into a guitar solo.

It’s funny to think about this being a foundational band in my high school experience. It’s a little jazz fusion and a little indie rock, but it was a quick favorite. I actually wrote a review of Some Boots in the little newsletter I ran with some friends in my senior year of high school. Or maybe I re-published a review I’d written in my creative writing class. I don’t know, it was a while ago now.

Karate holds a particularly close place in my heart. During my first semester of college, my friend Scott and I would chat over instant messenger (at the time, probably MSN? AIM? Something like that.) and transcribe lyrics together. I remember Karate factoring in there, and I know we listened to the band together, too. Last time I saw him we did, too. We watched live performances from the band in their heyday, regretting that we weren’t born older, that we never got a chance to hear those perfect guitar chords echoing over and over.