I drive a lot. Sometimes for hours, days, sometimes for weeks. Sometimes I spend more time in my car than I do in my apartment.

Thankfully, I have a lot of CDs and a 6 CD changer. Before you freak out, let me assure you – there are benefits to the old way, of That Time Before the IPod. You know what? IPods are lame when it comes to Driving Music. Long hours of driving require one thing: listening to the same six records over and over. Maybe even the same record, over and over. Maybe, even, the same SONG over and over.

There are certain things that sound better in the car. Somehow the sound of cracking a beer open sounds better in a car, to me, even though I don’t drink beer. Maybe it’s a recollected memory thing. Like that memory of being in a car, like a 1970 Nova or what have you, but in like 1982, and the sun is going down and leaving crystals on the windshield (or maybe, it is foggy) and there is that sound of metal hitting metal and that tiny hiss of the can opening. It’s a kind of music. Driving music.

But getting back to music. For some reason, I love Sonic Youth in my car better than at home. I could listen to Rather Ripped over and over in my car, but at home it bores me. Sonic Youth is so awesome in the car. The perfect Driving Music.

I’ve been wanting to elaborate on the whole driving music thing for some time. And I will, eventually, with greater detail. In the meantime, I could not stop listening, driving from San Diego to Anaheim to Palm Springs and back, to PJ Harvey’s Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea. For hours and hours I totally got into myself, and her, and the year 2000, all over again. I was in love, she was in love. My thing turned ugly, hers ended. But listening to her account of it brings it all back – what it was like to be in love – for a moment, or an hour. Or six hours, or a couple of days. However long the CD is in my changer.

Yeah. Still I came home and had to watch the video. Yo, people who ask why I’m not “with someone?” Because… if it is not like this, it is not worth it.

If it’s not like this, it’s not worth it.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 31st, 2006 at 9:21 pm and is filed under Adventures in Rock and Roll. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.