#14
Ganglians: “That’s What I Want”
[from Still Living / Lefse] 

I’m not sure I can sum up my feelings on this song any better than when I originally wrote about it this past August, so I’ll just quote myself:

On a hot summer day in July of 1993, my mom dropped by best friend and I off at a mall near Seattle, Washington. At some point during our allotted few hours away from the adults, we made our way to the record store (probably an atrocious Sam Goody or something) and proceeded to get lost inside the glow of scouting out and buying new music. One of the records we both left with that afternoon was the new release from the Smashing Pumpkins, Siamese Dream. For two straight months, my friend would go on and on about all of the amazing songs that made up the record and all I could do was shake my head and admit that I still hadn’t made it past the very first track. “Cherub Rock” absolutely floored me. I was about to enter a pre-internet eighth grade later that year and finally starting to shed off the shackles of being stuck mostly listening to things my parents had around the house. I couldn’t get past that song. I wouldn’t go past it. I just kept starting and re-starting the track for months on end. My brain could not get comfortable with the fact that there might actually be music on the rest of the record that was anywhere near as good as that very first song.

I bring this up for a reason.

Last night as I made my way into downtown Portland for the monthly Science Pub on epigenetics (yeah, I put on my big boy pants last night), I threw on the new full-length from Ganglians for the very first time. As I passed over the Burnside Bridge with the sun setting off int he distance, the fuzzed-out bass line to “That’s What I Want” popped up, followed by those huge, booming, slow-build drums, almost as if they were scripted to soundtrack the cityscape opening up for me as I made my way from one half of Portland to the other. From then on, I found myself locked in another endless loop. The song would end, I would click the reverse button and start it all over again.

I’m hooked. Again. I can’t break this. And I don’t want to.

Please forgive my laziness, it’s been a long week so far.

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