Birthday girl
Photo: Sarah Espinoza
Will you hold my hand and dream with me?
Close your eyes and realize
We are floating
Can’t believe this little girl is turning 2. A year for each tooth. Actually, she has several teeth now and another is fighting its way in. Which is always fun as a parent. I will say this about Chunkers McGee, she’s often in an adorable mood and this particular bath was one of those times. Lucinda, you are adorable, hilarious, hangry, surprisingly strong, LOUD, love your laugh, bewildering, yawngry, and I love that you still have nap time. [clock ticks] Thanks to Adios Lounge co-pilot, Sarah Espinoza, for the excellent documentation. Great pic. Love you, Lucinda. Even if you occasionally think a diaper is a participatory event.
Why the Baptist Generals?
Sarah and I spent a lot of time with Jackleg To The Devotional in mid-2013 and we saw the Baptist Generals lay slow, measured, intense waste to the 4 people who stuck around for their set at the Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa (July 16, 2013). They’re not a pop band in any sort of marketing sense, but lead General Chris Flemmons has a ridiculous ear for melody that turns dark quasi-folk songs into epic heartbreakers undergirded by these unexpected, but immediately memorable melodies. So it is with “Floating,” a song that feels like the history of the universe, a meditation on life, death, evolution, reincarnation, and the relative insignificance of our physical selves. And yet, “Floating” argues, you can overcome impending existential chaos through intimacy and love. “Will you hold my hand and dream with me?” Has a very Built To Spill circa There’s Nothing Wrong With Love (1994) kinda feel. I dig that for the song’s final two lines, a wobbly high harmony vocal comes in to sing with Flemmons. Great production touch.
Happy birthday, Lucinda. Daddy will float with you anytime.
Lucinda and Daddy headed to the pumpkin patch
Photo: Sarah Espinoza
Baptist Generals – Floating
Jackleg To The Devotional, 2013
Sub Pop / Amazon
I was once the sand
Yes I was
I’ll go there once again
Yes I was
Will you hold my hand and dream with me?
Close your eyes and realize
We are floating
We are floating
In a million
Pieces on a sea
It tosses us
And tumbles us
Returns us
To debris
You look familiar
Will you hold my hand
What comes to blows
This weather shows us
Where will you go
And who will have us for awhile
A short time
I was once the sand
Yes I was
I’ll go there once again
Yes I was
Will you hold my hand and dream with me?
Close your eyes and realize
We are floating