DJ Shadow

If there is anyone out there hailing from the Twin Cities area, I have a request. Please go to First Avenue tonight at 7:00 and see DJ Shadow. I would kill to go (kill) but I am being shot out of a cannon at 2:00 this afternoon to spend the rest of my summer at camp. I didn’t go to the Big Wu Family Reunion, I can’t go to Farmapalooza, I can’t go to Bonnaroo, I can’t see String Cheese Incident at River’s Edge, I can’t see Umphrey’s McGee, I can’t see Yonder Mountain String Band, I can’t… GG!RA AHG!H !RHAHGHRAH HGHA!H!H!H!HTAH RRAHGH~!H!HQAHTHHTR!

Here’s something I wrote on April 21st about DJ Shadow. May it entice the whole two of you to visit this fine musician this evening. Recycling material is an unforgivable crime, I know. I expect no pardon.

It’s snowing, and it’s snowing hard. Tuning my mind away from the spring that seemed so near so recently, I put in Endtroducing by DJ Shadow. Two years ago on a December night a load of Woochers were crammed in the Tempo, shooting down a narrow winding road north of Ely. This CD epitomized the mood. The atmosphere was frigid, and Endtroducing chilled it further with it’s drawling, creepy melodies. We would turn the headlights off and follow the brakelights of the car in front of us. They would turn off their lights and we’d navigate by the moon. Sharp turns in the icy road would sneak up. Mixed in was a serious relationship that I knew was on its way out, but couldn’t figure out how to bring to conclusion.

Some music resonates so strongly in my soul that I need to store it under oil for a few months. I flip through my CDs and pause on an album, afraid to touch it because it’s so loaded with meaning. So wired into my emotions. Endtroducing. Yonder Mountain String Band. They are cached away for a time, and while I love the albums to death I won’t listen to them. The time is not right. To listen would dishonor the music. The memory.

Music is very important to me, which explains why I spent two hard years as a jazz studies major. I can only hope that my future holds some sort of musical type working thing. Writing will facilitate this, I hope.