chirst's indie rock cocoon - 'i am a scientist' by guided by voices (1994)

my goodness gracious me, the discovery of american lo fi in the post goth years of my late teens and early twenties was one of my journeys begun that has so far not had an end

it was the slow dawning of a realisation that cool music didn't just come from manchester or creation records or from boys with fringes that had surrendered to gravity long ago

in the four short months of chirstamaphone i've surely raved a bit on and off about pavement, who were my first (and remain stalwartly biggest) lo fi indie rock loves, and there's even some sebadoh and dinosaur jr to be found on here so far, too

it was my wearing of the iconic 'sordid sentinels' pavement t shirt when answering the door to potential flatmates in 1995 that lead jim and kelly into my life. jim had been discovering some of the areas of town that housed people with necks that were red and minds that were narrow. so when the blond haired american boy from ohio with a love of flying nun knocked on the green door which was opened by myself in said t shirt, the first thing he said to me was "oh, thank god!" and jim, kelly, rhys and i were friends ever since. linda and andy of the lo fi den around the corner made us practically a gang. we just needed to work a bit more on the knife fighting, but that's a story for another time

pavement was one of the many building blocks in a friendship that has lasted across a long time and a wide space

but this is ostensibly about guided by voices

jim loves guided by voices, and introduced them to me over the years 1994 - 1997. rhys had bee thousand on vinyl, and i loved chip chop changing between the two fantastic blue records on the flash turntable (just the one, and no microphones), and playing my faves (over and over again, yes, that's correct)

lo fi is deceptive. it makes you feel like "yeah, i can do that!" but you can't, really. gbv are the kings of lo fi for good reason - they make it look enchantingly simple, but it is exquisitely layered and addictive, held together with pure and succinct lyrics soaked in orginal quirk and sometimes echoingly tangible emotion

i'm totally in love with the lyrics of this song. i mean, come on:

"i am a scientist - i seek to understand me
all of my impurities and evils yet unknown
i am a journalist - i write to you to show you
i am an incurable
and nothing else behaves like me"

it's true. nothing else does behaves like me

good thing, really, too. if you ask me

which of course you did