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From The Desk Of Thrice: Paul Shirley’s “Can I Keep My Jersey?: 11 Teams, 5 Countries, And 4 Years In My Life As A Basketball Vagabond”

THRICELOGOA dozen years into its career, Thrice is still evolving. Following 2005’s experimental/atmospheric Vheissu and four-part concept album The Alchemy Index Vols. I & II (2007) and Vols. III & IV (2008), the California quartet—vocalist/guitarist Dustin Kensrue, guitarist/engineer Teppei Teranishi and Breckenridge brothers Eddie (bass) and Riley (drums)—has issued the edgier, hard-rock-leaning Beggars (Vagrant). On paper, such a description might make you believe the LP is a return to the post-hardcore days of Thrice’s first three albums, though Beggars is far more mature and varied than that. Unfortunately, the record was leaked in July, forcing the band to change the release date and marketing plan for Beggars, but Thrice seems to have come out of all this extracurricular drama unscathed. As the foursome prepares for its upcoming U.K. tour, they are also guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our Q&A with them.

pshirleyRiley Breckenridge: The problem I have with most sports biographies/autobiographies is that they seem to fall into one of two categories. They are either: 1) a journalist’s/author’s “insider look” at a team, player, league or event that is rarely ever as “inside” as it claims to be, because no matter how “in” journalists thinks they are, they’re never a part of the fraternity of teammates, thus never gaining the access of disclosure that a fellow teammate has; or 2) an autobiography that is usually poorly written, cluttered by fudged recollections of events and conversations, and boils down to 200-plus pages of ego masturbation. Maybe I’m asking for too much, or maybe I’m just reading the wrong books. Paul Shirley‘s Can I Keep My Jersey?: 11 Teams, 5 Countries, And 4 Years In My Life As A Basketball Vagabond, much like Jim Bouton’s Ball Four (my favorite sports book, until I read Shirley’s), isn’t weighed down by any of the usual shortcomings of a sports autobiography. It’s a true insider’s look at the NBA and professional basketball overseas, from a guy who always felt like an outsider, despite sharing the same uniform as his teammates. He’s a hell of a writer (akin to Chuck Klosterman, who penned the foreward) and doesn’t hold anything back with regards to teammates, coaches or agents. He tells it like it is, from a unique perspective, in a witty, self-depricating fashion that comes across as totally honest and forthright. It’s wholly refreshing. I think a large part of why Can I Keep My Jersey? resonates with me is that I can see a lot of parallels between player egos and excess in the NBA and rock-star egos and excess in the music business. There’s a disturbing level of entitlement that seems to come with success that is both fascinating (in a trainwreck kind of way) and off-putting. Shirley does a fantastic job of exposing and examining that in the NBA. I’ve rubbed elbows with and heard stories of musicians at varying levels of fame whose priorities are way out of whack, met more sketchy label heads, agents and managers than I’d like, and dealt with a decent level of success, without ever really “making it.” Like Shirley, I’ve never quite felt like I had much in common with most of the higher profile stars (and those who enable them) I’ve met in my trade. They operate on a totally different plane in a world that I’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of for the past 11 years. I wish I’d have kept a journal.

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