This band was one of my favourites in the genre. I loved Old Pride and TLLA blew me away when it came out. I was so excited to hear Keep You...and was so disappointed. I haven't gone back to it since it came out. Maybe I should after reading some of this thread.
I love that this thread has had a bit of a boom with the turn of the season. This is the second year in a row I've turned to Keep You as autumn comes rolling in. I just finished listening to Say Nothing, and it has reignited my desire to find out what the hell Durfey means when he sings about "sand". It comes up a fair bit in his lyrics and I've never truly grasped what he means... My interpretation often leads to me thinking that "sand" is about the passing of time. I think of it as grains in an hourglass, and there only being a finite amount of them before we pass away. These grains of sand represent a fraction of time or possibly even whole memories. This theory works for some of the songs such as "Say Nothing" where he is treasuring that time that he spent his father and keeping hold of it. He even refers to sleep as a method of giving him sand, possibly because he is using sleep as a method of generating more time with his father within his dreams. This is partially self-fulfilling in his quest for chasing sand, but ultimately clouds his eyes as it only serves to further fuel his grief. This interpretation doesn't really work alongside I'll Get By, Repine and Traces though, so I'd love to see how other people interpret it!
I was actually thinking about that while listening the other night, as I had also noticed that sand comes up in his lyrics quite often. My interpretation is very similar to yours, especially in regards to Say Nothing. Sand serves as a metaphor for time. Time passed, time lost, etc. I think in I'll Get By, "chasing sand" could refer to chasing time, or how a younger and more innocent Kyle was running after the time in front of him in a very youthful, naive way. If that makes any sense.
Oh and yeah, Keep You and Dealer are both absolutely fall records imo, though I listened to Dealer on a lot of summer nights this year
Man, there's a chill in the air this morning and I've got Keep You playing as I walk around campus. I'm a happy camper.
probably going to go if i get another band i want to see on it, walk around outside during nothing upset that any of my money indirectly goes towards them though
between thursday and pianos doing shows with them...sigh assuming nick is still in the band. even if not they've done enough shit that i can't deal with it