2006-09-30 - 1:58 p.m. My knowledge of the Byrds does not run very deep, although I love all the hits and the few album tracks I'd heard over the years. They make Bob Dylan songs palatable to me. (Oh, hush, now, you know I have issues with Bob). But nothing prepared me for "Universal Mind Decoder," a truly astonishing instrumental from 1966 that I heard today for the first time, courtesy of the excellent new Byrds box set, which gathers songs from every album, including early Beefeaters and Jet Set numbers. Baby-faced Byrd photos poke out of every page of the booklet (they were only just out of their teens when they started), and the David Fricke-written liner notes are really good. And good lord what a sad story--so many early deaths, and not all of them were rock-n-roll debauchery-induced, either. Anyway, I'm having a lovely, Byrdsian day. And speaking of instrumentals, I have just stumbled upon a guitar duo who play nothing but instrumentals: Ecstatic Sunshine, whose Freckle Wars album is a pure delight. It's like jazz for people with no attention span, reminiscent of Tom Verlaine's solo stuff, or Mike Watt's Dos: lots of space but plenty of melody and juice. Today is the 2-year anniversary of my moving to Bay Ridge, and, as they do every year, they've closed off 3rd Avenue to throw me a big street fair. Thanks, Bay Ridge! I love your restaurants, your Bay, your ships and foghorns and trees, your dog-friendly parks and people who say "underwears," your 24-hour diners and gym and D-Donuts, your pretty houses, and my beautiful apartment building. I love your R-train stations and your big ol' bridge. Thanks for being my home. thoughts? (8 comments so far) previous - next blog archive contact