Sunday, November 6, 2011

In which praises are heaped upon My Bloody Valentine . . .

In 2006, I was driving alone across the Mojave desert, not far from Edwards Air Force Base (I was trying to recover some stuff you guys picked up from us in the 50s). There was no moon that night, and the only light came from my head lights and the stars in the completely cloudless sky.

When it's that dark, there is no external reference point and it feels like you're standing still and floating as the yellow lane marker flashes by. With the stars over my head, it felt like when I first got here, so many years ago. (Think star gate sequence in 2001.) When all of a sudden, my iPod's shuffler decided to play this:



I've made a few friends here whom I love dearly, and shared things with them that I wouldn't trade for the world. But that moment, especially during the bridges, like from 2:29-3:04, was so completely perfect I feel silly trying to write about it.



Blown a wish is so beautiful, but it's over so quickly....like cherry blossoms fluttering down in the breeze at the end of the season. You wish it would go on forever, but the fact that this song is going to be over in just 3:17 makes it even more beautiful.


And then there's Sometimes.

Oh, Sometimes.

The Sometimes Guitar is one of my favorite sounds I've ever heard. People always get on about the ch-chung in Radiohead's Creep, Link Wray's Rumble, or Mogwai's apocalyptic feedback at the end of their shows.....but that's like comparing a drippy kitchen sink to Sometimes Guitar's Niagara Falls. I'd rank it up there with a purring kitten or laughter. It does what it does better than it has any business doing.



So, thanks to you, Kev, Bilinda, Debbie, and Colm. You're one of the things that have made my visit here really worthwhile.