Fuck, man. This is going to be a short post. It’s been one of those weeks, an absolute bruiser of a week. Everything hasn’t been going wrong as much as it has just felt like the ground has been just a little too unsteady beneath my feet. In my isolation and introspection, music has been like mainlining memory straight to my skull. This week’s playlist includes some of what has been gracing the turntable around here this last week. Not everything, just the highlights. I wish I had included some newer tunes here, and not so many sounds that have been echoing in my ears over the decades. But when you’re in the pits, I guess you what is going to offer you solace, and make the nights pass easier.
I swear, I hear those first notes from “The Kiss”, and I’m 14 years old again, standing in the cemetery with my skateboard, just as the sun began its journey beneath the horizon one spring evening. Inhale, and I’m there. I can smell the blossoms coming off whatever those trees were that they planted around the cemetery so amidst death, blossoms would remind mourners of rebirth, of life every spring. I just shared a first kiss with a crush, and I know I’m out too late on a school night. My mother is going to be pissed when I eventually make my way home, but whatever unfolded in the cemetery tonight is intoxicating, and difficult to let go. We kiss one more time. I put skate shoe to pock-marked blacktop, the rumble of polyurethane wheels. I combination skate/run all the way home.
It’s past one in the morning. I have the windows open and I can hear the city settling into sleep. The sound of cars on the street has dwindled to a trickle, an occasional passing late-night bicycle or laugh emanating from the neighbor’s window. So much of this week didn’t turn out how I hoped. I spent today trying to look my best in a second-hand Ben Sherman, hoping I would start to at least feel a little better. It worked, mostly. The trip the sweetie and I took to get ice cream for both us and the dogs certainly helped too.
And then there’re the sounds, the sounds, THE SOUNDS. Always drumming in my ears, offering solace when so much else falls short. Reminding me that living inside me is a kid, always skating home, praying my wheels don’t catch on an errant pebble, or chunk of last winter’s undissolved rock salt, sending my homeward race to a sudden stop.
Hey, take care, okay? I’m glad you’re still here. I’m glad you’re still breathing. Thanks for reading. If you decide to listen (and I hope you do), enjoy the tunes. I hope you have a song out there somewhere, floating on some decaying airwaves that remind you why you hang in. I hope it reminds you of a moment where you fell in love with living.
This week’s Mix:
- The Cure–The Kiss
- Cold Cave–Night Light
- Generation X–Kiss Me Deadly
- Swingin’ Utters-Last Chance
- Motorama-Normandy
- Get Up Kids-Lowercase West Thomas
- Sham 69-Borstal Breakout
- Siouxsie & The Banshees–Trophy
- The Templars–Visions Of A Future
- Billy Idol–Catch My Fall
- The Specials–Ghost Town
- Megative–One Day… All This Will Be Gone
Signals Fill The Void 