Request.

It’s been requested that I don’t entirely kill this weblog. So, I’m going to start writing again.

Here’s what I’m going to say today.

First, I didn’t realize that the reason I so much love Elliott Smith and Matthew Sweet and Yoni Wolf (of Why?) and other male artists with sad, ridiculously beautiful vocal chords is because I listened to way too much Alex Chilton and Big Star when I was a teenager. I had no idea how influential he was, despite my reading about his influence for the past 25 years, on both the artists I admire and my internal musical chemistry.

I blame, in the very best of ways, my old friend, V.S., who sent me some Big Star stuff, I believe about a year ago, and which I quickly shelved. I thought I knew that stuff and I guess I don’t or didn’t.

I’m now listening to Third - Sister Lovers, which iTunes calls, quite accurately in turns out, a “shambling wreck of an album.” Every word is true - the album reeks of jealousy, petty madness, total frustration, and utter longing for some place that doesn’t exist. I remember first listening to his “Holocaust,” the seventh song on Sister Lovers, and how grotesquely adequate I felt that description was back at 15 for almost everything. Amazing to realize those cassette tape blues again.

The album really falls apart at the end.

Posted by Andrew at July 9, 2008 10:45 PM