The Search for TMMS, by Successful Bread
The Book
Follow Successful Bread and his (?) excellent narrative about ~40 year search for the name of and the band behind The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet frequently abbreviated to TMMS or just TMS (The Mysterious Song). The book is a history of what actually happened and how one little subreddit figured out which band was behind the TMS.
The story starts in September of 1984, when a teenaged boy recorded a song off of the radio one afternoon after school. In what seems to be a relic of bygone years, in those days, and in West Germany, school started at 7am and got out a little after 1pm, with the teens getting off the bus and into the house just before 1:30pm, when the German radio network NDR's program "Musik fur die Junge Leute" (Music for the Young People). Several of the DJ and producers were known to scrap the corporate mandated playlists in favor of giving local bands a chance to be heard by their audiences. One song on the tape was labels (mistakenly) "Blind the Wind". Fast forward 20ish years and a mysterious poster called Anton Ridel published snippets of this unidentified song across several message boards asking for help identifying. But, the song slipped away.
Then a decade afterwards another teenager, and Brazilian intern at a Spanish radio station took to the internet to try again. What happened was an explosion in interest. The subreddit and the Discord community both grew exponentially. But just as the search online took off in earnest, the pandemic shut down the world. Bored trolls and malicious hoaxsters threatened to tear the community apart. Almost all of the moderators ended up getting burned out and walked away to preserve their mental health. A precious few people remained, dedicated to the song and the search. After this, people continued to trickle in, one of them was Successful Bread, the writer of this book.
A small team used spreadsheets and protocols to contact people asking for information. And they kept at it until they found the band, FEX and the name of the song is Subways of Your Mind. (Insert link to official video here.)
The book concludes with an interview from one of the band members and memories from several of the most pivotal members of the subreddit.
My Thoughts
Holy cow has Successful Bread missed his calling. He should be writing pop history books. I cannot do his narrative skills justice. He has a fine balance of narrative drive and factual details that made reading the book a breeze. He kept the book engaging and fun. Fex's Subways of Your Mind, is one of life's most eccentric mysteries. If you are looking for a light read, read this. If you are looking for a fun read, read this. If you are looking for a great mystery with a great resolution, read this. If you're a fan of lost media, read this. If you are a music lover, read this. If you want to quit doom scrolling and read more, read this book first.
In short, if you haven't read it, you're missing out. Hop to it.
How Much My Library Card Saved Me
This book was a gift to me from my husband, who just loves buying me rando stuff. I mean, he knew I was a fan of the band, the story, and the subreddit, so when he got the link to the book, he just hit buy. It's only available as a paperback, and given the scant scales, despite how well written, neither the story nor the book is likely to be purchased by your local library. You'll just have to pay the $15.00 for it. But it's money well worth the sales.
Library Books
This Book $00.00
Library Items Reviewed This Year $26.00
Private Books
This Book $15.00
Total of Private Books $52.75
Total of All Items Reviewed This Year $81.75
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