My Bloody Valentine Played Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC with Dumb Numbers, 11/11/13

My Bloody Valentine's Bilinda Butcher at FYF Fest in August

You Made Me Realise

Life fills our minds with lots of things: work, kids, relationships, money, health, politics. It gets hard, sometimes, to have all of that stuff swimming around in our heads. It can feel overwhelming.

I was feeling a bit like that yesterday. I'd had four days off, and CoolMom was home from work for Veteran's Day. We had a great weekend as a family. CoolMom and I had a rare lunch date on Monday. But thinking about Tuesday morning, when I'd be getting up early to a day full of meetings, was like a weight.

As I climbed aboard the 5:43 PM train to New York, I resolved to stop thinking about Tuesday. I'd been looking forward to this show, and I should enjoy it. For me, that's sometimes easier said than done. All the way to the city on the train, in line as I waited for the Hammerstein Ballroom's pat down, even as Dumb Numbers did their set, I couldn't stop thinking about how early I needed to wake up, how many meetings awaited me on Tuesday.

Kevin Shields at FYF

Then, the letters "m b v" began to resolve on the screen behind the stage. The pink characters became clearer and more distinct against their blue background until Colm Ó Cíosóig, Debbie Googe, Bilinda Butcher, and Kevin Shields finally took the stage. Each grabbed a guitar, and they began with the drone of "Sometimes" from 1991's Loveless. From the first strains of that song, sound waves pounded my chest. I think I could feel my hair being tousled. By noise.

Colm Ó Cíosóig moved to his more familiar position behind the drums and My Bloody Valentine played a set spanning their entire career. They played Loveless classics like "I Only Said," "When You Sleep," "Come In Alone," and "Soon." They performed selections from their underrated, yet brilliant, debut full-length, Isn't Anything, like "Thorn," "You Never Should," and "Feed Me With Your Kiss." We heard "new you," "only tomorrow," "who sees you," and "wonder 2" from this year's mbv. The band even reached back to their earliest EPs for "Honey Power" and "Cigarette in Your Bed."  They closed, as expected, with 1988's "You Made Me Realise."

The recorded version of "You Made Me Realise" is an under four minute bit of noisy post punk. Unlike what came later for the band, the vocals and lyrics are audible and intelligible in the mix. It's almost poppy. The song has an approximately 45-second interlude -- a single chord delivered as pure noise -- right in the middle. What the band does with that section in a live setting has become the stuff of legend: 5 minutes, 9 minutes, 12 minutes, 25 minutes. Last night we got 6 minutes.

The floor shook, knocking our knees together. Noise pummeled our midsections. Those of us wearing glasses felt them vibrating on our faces. For 6 minutes, we were underwater, in front of a jet engine, floating in space, in the womb. For 6 minutes, there was no room for anything else in our heads. Our minds were clear. Our troubles were gone.

My train pulled in at about 12:45, and I started my walk home by running across the street before the barricades rose. Once the train left and the last vibrations of its horn and its bells were gone, my neighborhood was quiet. Things weren't totally silent, though. The wind was blowing through the trees, rustling what few leaves remained on the branches. I stopped in the middle of the street several times to close my eyes, to listen, and to take it all in before I got to the house. As best I could, I let my mind go blank, and I just focused on the leaves and the wind.

I punched the combination into the keypad on the garage door. I'm always afraid that the noise as it opens will awaken everyone in the house. I climbed upstairs, got into bed, and checked the alarm. I had to get the kids ready for school in the morning, and my meetings started at 8.

FYF Fest Day 2: Jonathan Richman, Yo La Tengo, Beach House, My Bloody Valentine, Sound Issues, and Mindie Kids (PHOTOS)

CoolDad's LA Adventure, Part 2

"This guy seems like he's pretty popular, but I have no idea who he is."

"Nah. People are just going over there 'cause he's the only one playing right now."

Whatever their reasons, the people who did make it over to Miranda to spend some time with Jonathan Richman and drummer Tommy Larkins got a treat. Richman can give you the feeling that his songs are made up right on the spot -- some of the lyrics are -- so his sets always feel special and spontaneous. Whether he's singing about an evening stroll through the plaza or the human body's innate desire to be outside, Richman is able to get to the essence of what it means to be human. He just makes everyone feel good. Getting to sit through his short set made the whole festival experience worthwhile.

I'd planned on taking it kind of easy for the next hour or so as I waited for the Carrie Stage sets to get started. As I sipped my $14 tequila, lime, cucumber, jalapeño, cilantro, agave, cayenne cocktail in the VIP area, though, I started to hear the pop / post-punk stylings of Brighton, UK quartet Fear of Men from over on the Charlotte Stage. After quickly downing my cocktail (nothing allowed out of the VIP area, you know), I made my way to the stage and really enjoyed what I heard. Fear of Men are one of the bands at the festival that definitely sold me a few records.

After quick snippets of Mac DeMarco and The Orwells, I decided to walk toward Carrie to stake out a spot for the day's headliners. Guards were finishing up and I was able to walk right up to the front and grab a spot just one row off of the barricade. Little did I know that this was very poor planning.

Kurt Vile was next and sounded great. I've always enjoyed his records. You really do get a much better sense of what a good musician Vile is when seeing him live. But as I looked around, I noticed the eye-rolling and pantomimed nap-taking of the mindie kids all around me. I realized that I had positioned myself among the early arrivals for Beach House and MGMT, each of whom were scheduled to go on later in the evening, about 3 hours later.

The full meaning of this didn't register with me because Yo La Tengo were up next, and I probably had a better view of the band than I ever did at even Maxwell's. It was daylight, and the festival style stage meant that I didn't have to contend with being blocked by some basketball player in front of me.

"Play 'Cherry Chapstick!!'" someone shouted. Guitarist Ira Kaplan, citing the tight festival scheduling, pointed out that the band would be playing a set comprised of scientifically chosen and focus grouped songs designed to produce the guaranteed most appropriate set for the day. No "Cherry Chapstick," but several other Yo La Tengo "hits" like "Autumn Sweater," "Ohm," "Stockholm Syndrome," and "Tom Courtenay."

"I thought they were gonna be lame, but they weren't bad," said one of my neighbors.

Then the degree of my misjudgment began to dawn on me as more mindie kids than I would have thought possible squeezed up front in preparation for Beach House. Barely able to move my arms, I decided to ride out the set from my position. I was beginning to worry that I really had no choice.

Beach House made me forget everything for a while as Victoria LeGrand's voice wormed its way into my brain and executed its patented hypnotic effect. I've never considered myself to be a Beach House fan, but hearing their songs back to back made me realize just how strong their catalog really is. They deserve their position as dream-pop standard bearers.

As soon as Beach House finished, things got serious. There was a crush as the crowd, thousands strong at this point, surged forward and pushed those of us in the front against the barricades. Again and again, there were groans as the entire crowd heaved itself forward in anticipation of MGMT. MGMT. I'm not kidding.

I couldn't take it any more and feigned illness so that the security guards would help me over the rail to freedom. It worked, and I bolted for the VIP section. From there, I got to hear all of the big hits from Oracular Spectacular. At one point, strangely, Henry Winkler joined the band on stage to play giant cowbell.

My plans to see My Bloody Valentine up close and personal had been trumped by my desire to survive, and I was feeling a bit depressed. I looked up at the end of MGMT's set, though, and saw a sea of mindie kids flowing away from the stage. Apparently, they were making their way to see Holy Ghost! on the Charlotte stage. I got up and got close, but not too close, to the stage for the act I'd been waiting to see for two days.

When the "Wear Earplugs" warning went up on the big screen, I heard folks foolishly wondering if earplugs were really necessary. I inserted my own.

My Bloody Valentine opened with "I Only Said," and I could feel the breeze created by the sound waves. People actually started leaving the immediate area with fingers in their ears. Then the unforgivable started to happen.

I don't remember exactly when it started, but the sound began to cut out for several seconds at a time. Most memorable and crushing to me was the moment, just after the opening riff on "Soon," when the PA went silent muting the guitar dive bomb at the beginning of the song. Kevin Shields was visibly angry, but the band continued.

After a short break to deal with the technical issues -- after which, the issues persisted -- the band played the rest of their set, apologizing just before the last song and thanking the audience for understanding. That last song was "You Made Me Realize."

For five straight minutes in the middle of the song, the band created a sonic storm that washed over the crowd and could be felt physically. My glasses vibrated on the bridge of my nose. The PA held out, and My Bloody Valentine got to leave their lasting impression. I have no idea how those not wearing earplugs withstood the barrage.

In all, I guess I enjoyed my first festival experience in twenty years. At FYF, I made some discoveries like Lemuria, Charles Bradley, and Fear of Men. Bands went on on time. Lines were minimal. Sound was, mostly, good. But essentially ruining My Bloody Valentine's set with sound problems cast a dark cloud over everything for me.

Given the choice between a festival and one, great, two- or three-hour evening with one of my favorite bands, I know what I'd choose every time.

FYF Edition

F*ck Yeah Friday

I'm leaving early tomorrow morning for the F*ck Yeah Festival in Los Angeles. It will be the first music festival I've attended since 1993's incarnation of Lollapalooza at Waterloo Village in Stanhope, NJ. My brother and I drove there from my apartment in Hoboken and inhaled about a ton of dust while getting baked to a crisp by the sun. I got to see Primus, Alice In Chains, the solo J Mascis version of Dinosaur Jr., and Rage Against the Machine.

This time, I'm flying to LA from my home in suburban NJ to see Yeah Yeah Yeahs, TV on the Radio, Flag, Beach House, Jonathan Richman, Yo La Tengo, Waxahatchee, and My Bloody Valentine. The fact that I'm 20 years older should make for some interesting moments.

Watch this space to see how I make out, and...

Rock on.

mbv Coming to USA

FYF Fest in LA

Hat tip to Mike over at Speak Into My Good Eye for letting me know that My Bloody Valentine will be headlining one of the days at this year's FYF Fest... ...in Los Angeles, California.

Also of interest to me on the bill:

Saturday, August 24

Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Breeders, Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall, Eleanor Friedberger, Joyce Manor, Foxygen, Metz, Waxahatchee

Sunday, August 25

Beach House, Yo La Tengo, Kurt Vile & The Violators, Jonathan Richman, Fear of Men

MY BLOODY F'ING VALENTINE!!!!!!

Not to mention that me at a music festival could make for some pretty funny blog posts.

CoolMom and I need to have a chat.

St. Patrick's Day

I Point This Out Every Year...

...but there are some really great things that are 50% Irish.

I've been on a bit of a kick with this record after finally receiving my vinyl copy the other day. CoolMom and I listened to it in the car on the way home from NYC the other night, and we enjoyed a drink or two last night as it was spinning.

Have fun today. Don't overdo anything.

My Bloody Valentine Live

"Inside a volcano of sound..."

I just read this great piece by Nick Southall on his experience seeing My Bloody Valentine live for the first time. You should go check it out, and you should follow @sickmouthy on Twitter.

"Not everyone was wearing earplugs. Who knows how those who didn’t managed to get home afterwards; their senses and orientation must have been mashed."

As we listened to mbv on the drive home from New York last night, I asked CoolMom, "Do you think this borders on 'not music?'"

"Yeah, maybe," she said.

I love it.

This is my promise: I will go to wherever it is in the U.S. that My Bloody Valentine decide to play this year. I will bring earplugs.

My Bloody Valentine Released mbv Last Night

And Broke the Internet

They broke the Internet for those My Bloody Valentine fans who flocked to the newly-launched www.mybloodyvalentine.org upon the announcement of the album's release, that is.  For everyone else,  -- like the many millions of fans who go to, say, Taylor Swift's official website every day of the year -- the Internet worked just fine.

I wrote some initial thoughts on this for Speak Into My Good Eye this morning, and I've been listening to the album on and off all day long.  My quick review:  if you are a My Bloody Valentine fan like me, you'll probably love the record.

It isn't going to be the historic and influential (for a certain segment of the population, anyway) album that Loveless was; but this is 2013, after all.  On mbv, though, Kevin Shields and company show that, even after twenty-plus years filled with countless bands influenced by Loveless, My Bloody Valentine themselves still have some interesting places to take their sound.

You can stream mbv via the band's official Youtube channel, and decide for yourself if February 3rd, 2013 should be dubbed "My Super Bloody Valentine Bowl Sunday."  Enjoy the album.  And the game.

My Bloody Valentine

Loveless 

My Bloody Valentine's 1991 album Loveless is one of the reasons I bought this:









despite having nowhere near the chops necessary to make it do what I'd like.

The album surrounds you with the noise and distortion that would go on to influence the sound of the entire decade and beyond.

In preparation for the re-issue of the shoegaze classic, along with the rest of the small MBV catalog, Guardian Music is streaming two different re-mastered versions of Loveless.  They've also posted a 1992 interview the band did for Vox magazine.

So head over there and envelop yourself in the sea of noise that is Loveless.

Great Things That Are Half Irish Edition

Friday Night

Rock on…