Alternative Rock Music: August 2004 Archives
I should back up.
That whole 1992 shoegazer thing? I was really in. I wore horizontal striped t-shirts and stayed up way past my bedtime to watch 120 Minutes (RIP) on Sunday nights. I bought Moose imports and had half hour conversations with my friend Sarah about which girl in Lush we'd rather be, Miki Berenyi or Emma Anderson. I went to England and tried to talk to people in record stores and got rebuffed, devastatingly. It was actually kind of an intense phase, now that I think about it.
Except that I wasn't exactly a phase. I like all of those bands still, but I really love Ride the best. I have probably listened to them an average of once a week since 1992. I have found over the years that Ride is a really good band for sitting on the couch and thinking about the foreign exchange student at school who didn't know I existed. I went through a period in college where I couldn't go to sleep, even at my most staggeringly drunk, until I listened to the B-side of Going Blank Again. Now I know that Ride is a really good band for yoga, and when I get around to making the yoga mix that actually has good music on it, I will finally make my fortune.
Ride was one of those bands all about two guys: Andy Bell and Mark Gardiner who were from Oxford. (Even though I like to consider myself a relatively composed person, I think if I were to ever meet Andy or Mark at a party, I would pee my pants with glee to bask in their hotness. Really, they're very cute boys.) So Ride started playing a lot of shows at the rather ominously named "Jericho Tavern" in Oxford. This attracted the attention of Alan McGee, who ran the Creation label, and they were signed. (The Republican National Convention is starting in a few short days in New York, which, I think will merit a lot of me avoiding the outside world and going to my happy place. My happy place, this week, consists of my Creation Records video compilation, and about which I could talk at great length.)
Ride recorded a few e.p.s and a full-length, Smile, and were deemed the great white hope by the hyperbolic British music press. These albums are all slightly psychedelic with fuzzy guitar and have a vaguely churning, droning quality. "Close My Eyes"? "Like a Daydream"? Totally good.
In February 1992 they released the first single from their second album, Leave Them All Behind. I think this might be my favorite song ever. It's super long. I love weirdly long singles, the audacity, you know? And it had this black and white video that really sealed the deal. Going Blank Again was release a month later. It had the poppy "Twisterella" and slightly more opaque "Time of Her Time". They toured the hell out of the album going to seemingly every city and college town in the country.
By 1993, Ride was tired of touring and tired of each other. I don't blame them, one of them even didn't get to see the birth of his son because he was on tour. They recorded another album, but ditched their melodic wall of sound vibe for a classic '60s and '70s rock vibe. Bad call. Also, the album was more or less split in half, with Andy's songs and Mark's songs because, naturally, they hated each other. Things got worse: critics hated them, fans ditched them, they needed to record albums but no one had written any new material. They even played with a full boy's choir. And yet no one seemed to care. They split in December 1995.
But let's remember how good they once were. If Ride were a flower, they'd be a lilac. If Ride was a color, they'd be kelly green. If Ride got its due, they would be Greatest Band of All Time.
