I saw Breeze a lot during my first few years in Columbia, but we never actually had a conversation. Then we were in the group deciding the KCOU Top 88 tracks for the annual broadcast. It was pretty pretentious in hindsight, but it was fun to have a specific reason to talk/argue about bands for an evening with friends. I remember someone saying “Who the fuck are the Flying Burrito Brothers?” and giving a quick rundown of their biography, and then looking at Breeze next to me, as if I was looking for validation or repudiation. He just nodded and said, “Yeah, that’s pretty much it,” and I felt a little triumphant.
At the end of the night, after we each vociferously defended our preferred definitive band/artist tracks, he was like, “Hey, man – I had no idea you knew so much about records! I just thought, you were, like…” and then trailed off before finishing. I figured he was going to say “some ska kid,” and I wanted to reply, “Dude, I’ve bought like 50 fucking records off of you at Whizz!” Thankfully, we both let it go and I always liked talking to him about music the rest of my years in town. Last time I saw him was in Boston at a Mahjongg show in 2004/2005. He was really complimentary of us. I could tell it was honest, and from Breeze, that meant a lot.