Tracking down a CD From a Beloved but Defunct Band

When the band ends, how do you find the music?

My empty CD case. Would it stay so forever? Photo by the author.

A stone dropped in my stomach as my eyes ran over the screen again, hoping I was wrong, hoping for some other option.

The band had broken up. There was no way to get a CD even on eBay or other less reliable sources on the wild west of the internet.

My empty signed CD case would remain that way.

The Background

Let’s back up to over four years ago: the 2019 Christmas season.

I had signed up for a Secret Santa gift exchange on Reddit, a tradition I hoped would continue forever (spoiler alert: this too would end).

I don’t remember all the details I gave them, but the picture below of what I received probably gives you at least a few clues.

The gifts from my 2019 Secret Santa as well as some obvious wrapping paper as it was the season for wrapping most evenings. Photo by the author.

My Secret Santa went all in on a cozy space theme, but the one gift that didn’t fit the theme in the bottom right corner became more important than I could have known.

They chose the band based on some of my mentioned musical picks, including Paramore, and even got a…