PrettyFakes

The Gossip is a fantastic and rowdy rock’n’soul band who are absolutely one of my favorites. They describe themselves as “dance damage + basement punk/soul clash + noise trash fuxx,” which strikes me as about right.

Dear Laura Nyro,

Thank-you so much for writing “Wedding Bell Blues.”

xo,
gorjus

I sometimes struggle to talk about why I love the feel and heft of a record; thankfully, somebody’s already said it much better than me.

“Record”
by Katrina Vandenberg

Late night July, Minnesota,
John asleep on the glassed-in porch,
Bob Dylan quiet on a cassette

you made from an album
I got rid of soon after
you died. Years later,

I regret giving up
your two boxes of vinyl,
which I loved. Surely

they were too awkward,
too easily broken
for people who loved music

the way we did. But tonight
I’m in the mood for ghosts,
for sounds we hated: pop,

scratch, hiss, the occasional
skip. The curtains balloon;
I’ve got a beer; I’m struck

by guilt, watching you
from a place ten years away,
kneeling and cleaning each

with a velvet brush before
and after, tucking them in
their sleeves. Understand,

I was still moving then.
The boxes were heavy.
If I had known

I would stop here
with a husband to help me
carry, and room—too late,

the college kids pick over
your black bones on Mass. Ave.,
we’ll meet again some day

on the avenue but still,
I want to hear it,
the needle hitting the end

of a side and playing silence
until the arm gives up,
pulls away.

Have a happy and safe holiday, everybody. For those of you who are traveling, please don’t ram into me. I have a small car.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 23rd, 2005 at 8:32 am and is filed under Gorjus, Poetry, Polaroids, The Rock and The Roll. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.