I’m in a very isolated setting right as I write this, a (currently way off-season) resort/retirement community that is an hour’s drive away from the nearest town with one venue with regularly featured live music. Tuesday was the acoustic singer-songwriter night. I rudely talked to one of the performers during another’s set. “Do you like Jefferson Airplane”, I said. “I like Alan Parsons Project”, she replied, “and the Doors.” I said “You should check out Mazzy Star.” “Nazzty Scar?” “No, Mazzy Star.”
“It’s like blues/country but with a total psychedelic vibe, like…” Then I grabbed a piece of paper out of my pocket, it was a page copied off the internet with the lyrics to “Drain You” on it, I said “I don’t want to rip this piece of paper…oh whatever” and ripped off a corner and took a pen from the bar and wrote down “MAZZY STAR ‘She Hangs Brightly’ ‘So Tonight that I Might See’” on it, and explained “Mazzy Star is the name of the group and those are the titles of the records next to it”.
“Can I find these on the internet?”
“Oh yeah, they’ll be on there. They have the CD in (*names nearest town*).”
“If I hear the name on the radio I’ll stop what I’m doing and listen.”
“They’re not on the radio very much, they’re like from the 90s. Well…” I paused. “They had one big hit, they might play that. No seriously, just like go on the internet and get it, it’s fuckin’ good.”
She nodded in impressed disbelief of my seriousness. “You think I should check this out.”
I nodded like I had total Zen power and said “Oh yes.” I paused again, squinted at something to the extreme right of her, and said “You…should…definitely…have…a listen.”
Then I turned away, realizing that I should stop talking. I caught the barmaid’s eye and (having really bad cottonmouth) signaled for more water, and at the same time somebody initiated conversation with the woman I’d been talking to, so I could end the conversation. As soon as I asked for the water, I started writing on the ripped piece of paper just so I could look intense. I wasn’t trying to demonstrate any personal dislike, or visibly disparage the conversation – in fact, I continued it when it resumed. I just thought it had ended perfectly, because if she checked out Mazzy Star she would have another really cool CD to listen to, to start with.
Later, I thought…why had I deliberately not mentioned the third album? I (later still) decided that I could not justifiably recommend an album of which I knew so little. The title, and vague memories of two separate songs, are all I know of the third Mazzy Star album. I have made no effort to acquire a copy, and if presented with one will listen to it if only out of obligation to the donor, and come up with tiresome excuses for taking fucking forever to do so. Everybody has to deal with the third Mazzy Star album their own way, and some never will. But there are no bad consequences to spreading the first two records as far and wide as possible.
Except for, if somebody hears it and listens to it again a few years later, they might remember what you were like when you told them about it. (If you don’t know them anymore by then, it’s fine, but if you’re still around, it could get bad.) Although this time wouldn’t be as bad as the other times, like what’s the harm of some stoned guy in a bar, talkin’ bout a nazzty scar, now he’s got a car, to drive real far, not concerned about the way we are, in my mind my dreams are real, not concerned about the way we feel. Tonight, I’m a rock and roll star.
When the subject came up again, she said, “I don’t really know a lot of stuff from the 90s, you know?” with a mischievously experienced look that I DID dislike, due to being prone to it myself.
“Yeah”, I nodded, still not used to the ultra-strong weed in this part of the world. I thought of mentioning Primal Scream, then decided that you couldn’t try to get people into too many bands at once, so I stuck with the Mazzy Star topic. “I wasn’t actually there.”
(The reason I used the first album for the ‘subject’ instead of the second is because I think more people have the second one already. If you have it and don’t like it, or if like it and haven’t bought the first one, that’s cool. I haven’t got Hope Sandoval’s record either, but if somebody gave me that one I wouldn’t take fucking forever to listen to it, although I am getting pretty bad. I’m still working through a mix CD somebody gave me three months ago. There’s a good Josh Todd song on there, it’s written by Nikki Sixx [which is surprising, when you hear it] and reminds me of “Cut You Loose” by Royal Trux.)