Sometimes music has a way of becoming embedded in memories, and many times–the best of times, maybe–that happens by accident or coincidence or at least something other than our wills. For example, I went to Israel when I was in college, and while I’ve probably forgotten some incredible moments, I don’t think I’ll ever forget that one of the airline’s music stations was a Stevie Wonder Hits station. I don’t think I’ll ever forget dozing in and out of sleep with “My Cherie Amor” (probably not a song I would’ve picked out) playing in my headphones as I crossed the Atlantic.
Something similar happened earlier this year. I went to Schaumburg, just outside Chicago, to attend my first ever professional conference. I went a couple days early for an interview, by which I became “board certified” in my field. After passing the interview, I went into the city to see Japandroids, who made one of my favorite albums of 2009 (and the ‘00s, for that matter), Post-Nothing. Opening for them was a really young band, Avi Buffalo. (My pictures from this show can be seen on Flickr.)
This was a big trip for me, for lots of reasons, and I planned accordingly, by which I mean: I made playlists. There was one album I made a point of listening to, but, other than that, playlists were the plan. On my first day, I went to a nearby drug store to get some things I’d forgotten, and I picked up some blank CDs for the rental car. I also discovered that Avi Buffalo’s self-titled debut had leaked, and, so, obviously, I felt compelled to check it out. I burned it onto a disc and left it in the rental car CD player for most of the trip. In case you’ve forgotten what CD players are like (at least the ones they used to put inside cars that could only hold one disc), they never stop, they just start over from the beginning. So that’s how Avi Buffalo embedded itself into my memory.
The show helped, too, of course. I even tweeted that they were “really good!!” But, I also tweeted that Japandroids were “incredible,” and, yea, verily, they played one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. Listening to Japandroids, now, though, doesn’t take me back to that trip. Avi Buffalo does that, with any song, any sound, and just the tone of the guitar reminds me of driving back to my hotel in Schaumburg after a long day filled with plenaries and workshops and networking opportunities. It became the soundtrack, in spite of the soundtrack(s) I’d planned in advance.
The album has sound that could’ve been created in a laboratory in order to lure me and people like me. The Pitchfork review drops the names Wilco, Built to Spill, and The Shins, just to give you an idea of the sound I’m talking about. There’s something breezy and gentle about it, something I’m thinking of as either lazy urgency or urgent laziness, maybe like the sound of navel-gazing. And I’m “into” navel-gazing. The lyrics create a theme of innocence-after-innocence. Sexuality is at the forefront, and even though I feel embarrassed by some of the song titles, I think there’s something exceptionally tender about the songs themselves, and even the titles when they are sung. There’s a really sad song that ends the album, and it’s called “Where’s Your Dirty Mind?”
I imagine that I’ll be able to hear these songs for the rest of my life and recall the feelings I felt in April 2010 in Chicago and Schaumburg, in that little rental car, in that scary interview, napping at the DoubleTree, on the train going into the city, on the bus going to Wrigley, at some Mexican food place I stumbled into, all the way up to the security line at O’Hare. And, of course, I wasn’t listening to it at every moment, like that, but it’s there in my memory. “Embedded” is really the best possible word. That’s just what it does, it gets embedded into our memories, it becomes a part of our own histories, and it’s one of the most magical things music can do.
A good album, and it sounds like, a surprising and strangely appropriate soundtrack for your Chicago experience. I liked reading this post!