The Best of Jill Hives
I haven't heard Guided By Voices' Earthquake Glue in at least 10 years for no particular reason other than there is a lot of music in the world and a lot of Guided By Voices, too. But I woke up with a snippet of "The Best of Jill Hives" in my head a few mornings ago and I put the album on. The whole album is good, occasionally great, but something about "The Best of Jill Hives" legitimately brought me to tears this week.
A large part of it, of course, is that I can precisely remember where I was the first time I heard it. I was on State Road 31 going south from Indianapolis to Bloomington on a Saturday night heading toward my radio show at IU Bloomington's WIUX. I can't remember if I played the track that night but I hope I did. It was during a time in my life where I felt sad and lonely and where the bursting world of music I was uncovering constantly felt like a life raft. It is a perfect encapsulation of a 2-3 minute song that's like a distillation of all my favorite parts of the The Who that I often turn to Guided By Voices for. It is melancholic in just the right way. It is glued to a memory.
This post is just to say that music can be a magical time machine. May I forever walk through a mine field of little memories like this one.