The Breeders are, for me, the most notable act reuniting on this year's summer music festival circuit. The sisters Kim and Kelly Deal are getting the band back together, maaaan.Even if I have to watch Coachella on a live webcast and not under the moon in Indio. Which is what I did last year.
"Cannonball" was the first piece of sheet music I ever bought. Didn't buy it for guitar -- banjo is the only 5-string I know how to play, so far -- but instead to play on the upright Baldwin in our living room.
Playing those chords was the first time I genuinely enjoyed playing the piano, after years of tedious classical music lessons growing up. As well as playing ancient Persian anthems and various religious tunes for annoying family guests. There was the unspoken Iranian family competition of which kid was the most proper, which always left a freak like me losing out to dweebs like this. Only after my mom died did I enjoy playing music because I had finally begun to find my true Voice.
I'd play Cannonball on the piano and record it on an Aiwa microrecorder, then mix it onto my Aiwa stereo cassette, then transer it via some Sima brand sound mixer. I loved producing my own soundtracks with purely analog devices. All from scratch, with scratchiness. Back when there was no iMovie but just two fourheads and a handycam. Man, it's time to do inspiring things again.
That two-page tab sheet I paid 99¢ for from Guitar Center has always been entrenched in the canvas of my backpack throughout my journeys in life. Every time I move, for a sense of continuity. I can't find it anywhere this time. Do you know where it is? Ah, fuck it. It's time to move on to the Next Big Thing. I've been waiting my turn for way too long.
