As I sift through what are admittedly hazy memories of my earliest days in Los Angeles (I didn’t have a job! Everyone I met drank a lot!) I’m searching through old blog entries to see just what I was doing in the days after my arrival in town. Steve and I went to see a screening of that Tim Buckley documentary My Fleeting House, I hung out with Ilya at Chango and blogged about whatever came to mind, I got stood up / flaked on (well, that citywide epidemic sure hasn’t changed in seven years), saw Lavender Diamond (blech!), and wasted time browsing the Internet. Except for on May 11th, when I drove over to Amoeba for the first time to do some record shopping.
As I stated earlier (yesterday, and Monday) that first trip proved rather fruitful for me. Until I learned about other, better record stores in Los Angeles I would hit up Amoeba maybe once a week to see if anything new had been added to their inventory. Sometimes I’d walk out with five or six records, other times I’d leave empty handed. I think as the years have weighed on that store I’ve found less and less there. Seriously, if you’re visiting LA I implore you to search for other, better record stores in the city. I can recommend many if you need help. It’s become something of a black hole — a time suck if you will — in which hours can be wasted wading through filth to turn up either nothing or maybe one decent record you weren’t really looking for, but oh well you’re there anyway, you might as well buy it.
That first trip though, on May 11th, 2007, was productive. In the miscellaneous ‘A’ section I found an American Analog Set album. In the miscellaneous ‘B’ section I found a rare Beulah record. And then a little ways away in the ‘S’ section I found a record by Silkworm I’d never heard of before. His Absence Is A Blessing. Recorded live in Chicago at a place called Hell’s Gate on October 25th, 1992. The record label, Stampede, I’d never heard of before. There are only five tracks spread across the two sides of this album, and this 45rpm 12″ vinyl format is apparently the only way it is available. On the official Silkworm website His Absence Is A Blessing is referred to as a single. It’s described by one of the band members (God, it’s been so long I can’t even remember who kept their site running) with the line, “Some people still think this is the best thing we’ve ever done. This was our introduction to Steve Albini, which was a revelation and a shock. “Scruffy Tumor” is my favorite song from the Joel era, with the layered guitars and the groovy different rhythms just a-shakin’ your booty.” There’s also a quote on the back cover that reads:
Men do not know the natural
infirmity of their mind:
it does nothing but ferret and
quest, and keeps incessantly
whirling around, building up
and becoming entangled in its
own work, like our silkworms,
and is suffocated in it…
It thinks it notices from a
distance some sort of glimmer
of imaginary light and truth;
but while running toward
it, it is crossed by so many new
quests, that it strays from
the road, bewildered.
– Montaigne, “Of Experience”
Silkworm — much like Beulah — is a band I don’t have to write much about, because I’ve devoted a lot of space to them in the past. Sometimes it’s difficult for me to sit down and really enjoy Silkworm records because of how profoundly sad it makes me to think about how good that band was and how tragic their end was. If you haven’t already read it — or if you are unfamiliar with the band — you should really read my interview with Tim Midyett (nèe Midgett) from the summer of 2005. It kind of speaks to why listening to that band can make me either really happy or really sad. That said, I’m really proud of the fact that I scored this record, because I’ve never seen another copy in the seven years since I found it.
Silkworm
His Absence Is A Blessing
(Stampede, STA-01, 1993)
A1. Scruffy Tumor
A2. No Revolution
A3. Eye Window [MP3]
B1. Pearl Harbor
B2. Motel Blues [Loudon Wainwright III]
