Spring Sun

In March 1999, I resided at 222 Clay Avenue in Lexington. I lived with three buddies in a two story campus-ghetto style house. It was located across the street from campus/downtown’s living room– Woodland Park. I could get on my skateboard and hook up with everyone at the volleyball courts (now a cement skatepark) in less than 30 seconds. After a long session you could hop the pool’s fence and go for a swim. Chevy Chase, campus, downtown–everything worth doing from my point of view–was a short walk away. 222 Clay’s porch was buckling and probably collapsed at some point. Sarah likes to provide this illustration to demonstrate our quality-of-life: early one morning she walked into the bathroom and something white, and cone-shaped caught her eye. Upon closer inspection, she was horrified to learn that a large mushroom had somehow pushed through the tiles and was growing on the bathroom floor. A mushroom, dude. You can only imagine the state of the refrigerator. Despite our filth, the house was very comfortable. And in March, the windows would be open, of course, and much time was spent chilling on the front porch. Everyone had little projects going on. I was into my Fisher Price Pxl 2000 and super 8 cameras. My roommates were doing art, photography, record label, and everything else. The soundtrack to this era was Wilco’s “Summerteeth,” which had just been released. Like everyone else, we thought it was the best thing since… Pet Sounds.

Yo La Tengo’s latest effort, Summer Sun is certainly not as brilliant as Summerteeth but it is the pre-summer release that should be in heavy rotation in our nation’s finer campus-ghetto bungalows, Victorians, and other ramshackle dwellings not up-to-code. Calling an album “background music” should ordinarily be an insult. If it’s background music, than there is nothing distinctive or interesting enough to distract you from conversation or whatever it is you’re doing. But in this case, like Stereolab’s Dots and Loops, the songs bubble along, just below surface, but have a remarkable quality to go hand-in-hand with super pleasant springtime, hanging-out-on-the-porch, kind of evenings. Or another scenario… Finals is over and college is now behind you. In a month you will take off for 4 weeks of backpacking in Europe. You’re running errands, tying up loose ends and stressing over life upon returning to the states–job market is tough. In the meantime, Yo La’s new record is playing and you’re daydreaming about meeting some hot Viennese chick and riding trains around Europe, like Ethan Hawke in Before Sunrise.

Other stuff I’ve been listening to…

Radio Frank. In Winamp, Real, or similar app, go this location: 24.93.51.132:8000
More eclectic than all the different ways John Aielli annoys me.

I’m still pscyched about Broken Social Scene. In BSS news, they will have several songs featured on Showtime’s “Queer as Folk” show. Also, they’re now shipping limited edition vinyl copies (two records) of You Forgot it in People. I think I have a new favorite song of the record: “Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl”. See what you think (note: it hardly resembles their other songs).

May 12th, 2003