[Previous entry: ""] [Main Index] [Next entry: "how to move on."]
11/16/2005: "in a beautiful place out in the country."
REMEMBERING FB THROUGH RECORDS
1. The Orb - "Little Fluffy Clouds"
The scene: Black Rock City, 2001. The sun was setting, in that typically stunning Nevada-desert way, and the sky was purple and red. FB was working on something in the camp, as usual. The dude was always working on something--building shade structures for the camp, toiling on his mammoth wall of LEDs, anchoring tents down with rebar, setting up speakers. I was wandering around with...Beck, maybe, who was drinking from a warm Thermos of Red Bull and vodka. The sky started getting darker. A string quartet, ringed by fire dancers, materialized somewhere near our camp. They started playing "Little Fluffy Clouds" by The Orb, arranged flawlessly for strings, in the middle of the goddamn sand. I immediately thought that FB should see this, but had no idea where he was. Later on in the night, a bunch of us told him about it, and he laughed and cursed himself for missing it. Then his eyes went wide, and he said excitedly: "That's the amazing thing about Burning Man. You would never see that anywhere else. You would never see a string quartet in the desert playing "Little Fluffy Clouds" anywhere else but here." His enthusiasm for Burning Man was contagious.
2. Underworld - entire discography
August 2001. We took I-80 straight across the U.S., and got into some furious fights along the way. Most of the time they were about things that were totally fucking stupid (what music to play, for instance). We got into a big argument in Wyoming about music. I wanted to listen to Exile on Main Street and FB wanted to listen to Underworld. I was exhausted and I was driving and I hated Underworld. Anyway, Exile sounded utterly perfect in Wyoming. FB kinda-sorta fell asleep in the passenger's seat and I was singing-drawling along with "Sweet Virginia" to keep myself awake, as the glorious unspoiled Wyoming landscape swept by. Trying to stop the waves behind your eyeballs.... FB got his revenge later on by blasting Pink Floyd's "Ummagumma" while driving in pitch-black darkness through nowheresville, Nevada ("NEXT REST STOP 279 MILES"). Then we bonded again when we discovered that we both dug The Orb's Orbvs Terrarvm, as the sunlight drifted up over the mountains. We finally got to Reno and marveled at its faded glory and seediness and how everything looked wrong in the raw early light of morning. We stopped at an IHOP in Reno and got pancakes. Even our waitress seemed so very wrong.
3. The Minibosses - "Metroid"
Arguing with FB sucked, but being on good terms was the best thing ever. My friends Droid and Noah and I booked the bands for MIT's Steer Roast festival in 2001. At the end of Saturday night--after all of the bands were finally over--I was feeling exhausted and underappreciated, I guess. I'll never forget how FB ran up to me, shook my hand vigorously, and enthused about what an awesome time he'd had and how much he appreciated the work we'd done. He talked about how much he loved the music--especially the Minibosses. (We raised money to fly the Minibosses--a videogame cover band--in from Arizona, just for the festival.) I was so, so happy that he'd had a good time. He had this incredible way of making you feel special, just by talking to you and paying attention to what you had to say, even if it was just for a few short minutes.
4. The Smiths - "This Charming Man"
Back to I-80. We were zooming through the endless flatness of Nebraska. FB had a Rio mp3 CD player in his van, which was the top technology at the time (the iPod hadn't been introduced yet), and a whole bunch of CD-Rs that were marked "1," 2," "3," 4," "5," and so on--his entire mp3 collection, burned to CD-Rs. We had no idea what was on what disc, or what the song names were (they had descriptive titles like "t01"), so he'd just throw them in at random. He tossed a random CD-R in and The Smiths' Hatful of Hollow started playing. Suddenly FB got all misty-eyed and started singing along with all the lyrics. (He had a pretty voice, too.) I remember that I started laughing. The Smiths just seemed so horribly fey in comparison with FB's badass, no-nonsense aesthetic. Then he opened up that two of his favorite bands of all time were The Smiths and Rush. (I could never quite wrap my head around his fascination with Rush.)
5. Boards of Canada - "Dawn Chorus"
The last time I saw FB before he died was on a beach in Long Island in July, about a week before I left for Germany. He set up speakers on the sand and blasted Boards of Canada into the ocean.
6. Orbital - "Attached"
One of FB's all-time favorite tracks. It's almost as beautiful as he was.
