"do you believe in rapture, babe?"

a really long time ago, while we were still living in Ravenswood, someone stole the faceplate off our car CD player. i realize that it’s stupid to have a detachable faceplate if you’re not going to actually detach it, especially if you a) live in chicago and b) are going to forget to even close the damn door, let alone lock it. but we won’t go there…

being the lazyasses that we are, we continually put off replacing the faceplate, mainly because i had thrown out all literature pertaining to the car stereo and hence, without a faceplate, we barely could remember what brand the thing was, let alone the actual model number. of course, we could have just unscrewed the stereo and pulled it out and somehow figured it out, but that would’ve required considerable effort on our part.

so rather than do what would appear to be the obvious, we instead subjected ourselves to mere FM radio via the portable transistor we’d gotten as a thank-you gift from our subscription to our local public radio station. and this is how we got on for the past year.

well, that little transistor radio melted in the summer sun a few weeks ago. thus died my one tenuous connection to the outside media world during my torturous commute to and from work. granted, i drive to work only about 3 times a month (probably less during these past months of stereolessness), but i finally decided i’d had enough. i begged ted to please PLEASE!!! get me a replacement!!! and he did.

now, when we drive, we have MUSIC. of MY OWN CHOOSING!!! or ted’s, depending on who got in the driver’s seat first. i cannot even tell you what a relief it is, how soothing, how utterly satisfying it is to listen to some decent tunes on some decent speakers for a change. even cadence is much more docile during longish drives.

anyhoo, this whole long and drawn out exercise in penmanship (i’m writing this on the train) has been to inform you of the CD i chose for my maiden voyage w/ the new stereo. i thought it would be appropriate to play as the first CD an album i had previously never listened to before. i had a handful to choose from due to a recent music binge, and i finally settled on Rather Ripped, the most recent Sonic Youth album.

i got to listen to pretty much the whole album on the way to work last week, and, like, WOW! what a great pick for My First Drive With the New Stereo! i had heard some stuff about this album on NPR a few months back when it first came out, and i’d been meaning to get a copy for a long time. now that i’ve listened to it, i have to say that this is probably one of the most accessible SY albums. they play it tight on this one, for sure. some of the songs are just so pretty and sad, like the 3rd track 'do you believe in rapture?' which is like thurston moore meets the Left-Behind-a-la-iraq-war series. there are these lovely melodic arpeggiated guitar measures that, if listened to at the edge of the ocean during the hour of the gloaming, when the sun turns the world into a mound of sunken golden treasure, while you are alone but well-fed and amply caffeinated and nicotined—if listened to under such conditions, you just might explode from the happiness. or sadness. take your pick.

anyhoo, i highly recommend this album, even if you’ve never been a sonic youth fan. it’s worth a listen or two.