Let's go back to 2013 for a moment.

I'm in the Chicago suburbs eating breakfast with my grandmother at a Panera Bread Co.

We were in town visiting her brother and had driven by the eatery the evening prior. When she caught glimpse of the sign, her face lit up. With fiery excitement, she asked if we could eat there in the morning, continuing on about their asiago bagels, how the location near her home had stopped carrying them and how that had dampened her Sunday, post-church rituals.

It's the little things in life.

So there we were the following morning, my grandmother in asiago bagel bliss. As I sipped my coffee, I found myself humming along to the song playing faintly overhead. The voice didn't sound familiar but the words were slowly surfacing from the mind banks. After a few lines, I recognized it as Cold War Kids' "Louder Than Ever," though it was not Nathan Willett singing. With some help from Shazam (shoutout to technology), I learned it was the voice of Sarah Jaffe. 

Hadn't heard of her.

When I got back to the hotel that night, I looked up her music and quickly fell into "Clementine" on repeat. The following year she released Don't Disconnect, and then she strayed from my radar until earlier this year when a dancey, electro-pop tune caught my attention while I was spinning away at the gym. I distinctly remember thinking “who is this?” and stopped to find out it was Jaffe, back on my radar and just in time for her new full-length album, Bad Baby (now released), and a tour stop in New York City.

The show was at Rockwood Music Hall; a small, intimate space -- my favorite kind. She played a range of songs with quite a bit from her prior records; more than expected. The highlights from Bad Baby were the title track, “No Worries,” “Shit Show,” and “Doctor’s Orders,” one of my favorites from the album.

Here’s a clip of that performance:

And here’s the song in full:

I've been asleep for so long.

It feels good to be awake in some capacity, So I keep babbling on. I've been asleep for so long.

So long, so long, so long.

And to think, it all started with my grandmother's deep affection for asiago bagels. Thanks G-Ma.

xxChris