Opal >> She knows the rain

Opal - "Supernova"

(SST Records, 1987)

Here's a classic from Opal's only album, the excellently-named Happy Nightmare Baby.  The band consisted of guitar god David Roback (formerly of Rain Parade), singer Kendra Smith (formerly of The Dream Syndicate), and drummer Keith Mitchell, but they were essentially just a duo of Roback & Smith.  Opal played basically a more autumnal, noir version of the rather lame "Paisley Underground" scene of the early '80s.  I first heard "Supernova" in summer of '97; not this actual song, but rather a faithful cover by the Texas band 7% Solution, on a covers cassette they sent out to fans on their mailing list.  7%'s male singer actually has a more effeminate and beautiful voice than that of Kendra Smith, so I will try to post it once I obtain the technology to rip audio from cassettes to mp3s.  I got HNB on CD not terribly long afterwards, but stupidly sold it about a decade ago.  And I stupidly passed on buying a used LP copy of it a few years ago.  Damnit, Chris.  Oh well...

According to Wikipedia, "Smith left the group during the Happy Nightmare tour, storming off-stage half-way through their gig in Hammersmith, U.K., effectively putting an end to the band.  Roback continued with vocalist Hope Sandoval, playing shows as Opal and planning an album to be titled Ghost Highway, but in 1989 this band became Mazzy Star and Ghost Highway was presumably released as [Mazzy Star's debut album] She Hangs Brightly."  ("Ghost Highway" is the name of one of the songs on that album... the best song on it, in fact.)  The rest is history.  Opal has never reformed; Smith went off to live in a cabin in the woods and then had a brief solo career on 4AD.  I had her album Five Ways Of Disappearing, but sold it a good decade ago.  I had a photo of Hope hanging in my locker in my senior year of high school ('94-95), which I had cut out of an issue of Rolling Stone.  It was just a slightly blurry photo of her wearing big sunglasses and standing there looking pasty and waifish, but there was something exotic and cool about her that I didn't find in high school girls.

None of the other songs on Happy Nightmare Baby are in the same league as "Supernova," though the poppy title ditty is pretty good and was allegedly a minor college radio hit:

I remember "Soul Giver" was particularly psychedelic, with lots of wah guitar.  "Rocket Machine" is pretty much indistinguishable from most of the Doors' songs.  "She's A Diamond" was used in the movie Boys Don't Cry.  I still hear "Supernova" from time to time on WTUL's Saturday night institution "Alternative Oldies," which only plays stuff that's at least 15 years old.  Note: XM Radio channel Sirius XM U does a similar show on Sunday nights, creatively named "Old School," and hosted by the very annoying trend-follower Jenny Eliscu, but you can hear some occasional gems on it.  Speaking of gems, I often wish that my birthstone could be opal rather than amethyst.


I have to call out one of my all-time favorite bands, Poem Rocket, for essentially stealing the drumbeat from "Supernova" for their song "Ka-boom," though it's possible they had never heard the song at the time.

Also, "She knows the sun" is "Supernova"'s first line, and a "crescent moon" is mentioned in its last line.  Well, a band called the Cowboy Junkies, with a sound very similar to Opal's (and a singer who sounded all but identical to Kendra Smith), were just coming up at this time, and, coincidentally or not, they later put out an album called Pale Sun Crescent Moon.

Opal: David Roback & Kendra Smith circa mid-'80s

I didn't mention it in my post on Saturday, but that morning I gave a ride to a guy who was embarking on a walk along Metairie Road past the cemetery to the Canal streetcar line.  And then a little later I did not give a ride to a woman who was frantically pleading for one in the Bywater area.  I was trying to figure out why I gave a ride to him (a young African-American guy wearing headphones) rather than to her (a tall, gothy-looking thirtysomething white woman with black hair and a skimpy black outfit).  I think it was because he was not asking for any help, and she was desperately trying to get help; maybe I just like helping people who are more of the self-starter type, though I generally do go out of my way to help those who are on the pathetic side.  So it to have been something more oblique, such as the fact the he was not likely to be offered a ride, whereas she would probably get one within a few moments of me passing her by.  Or that she may have been a prostitute or vampire, and if the former were true, I would not want cops to spot her getting into my car.  My instant assessment of her was that she was on drugs, and I think it was an accurate one.  They both had obstacles in front of themselves on that 100º heat index day, he a mile-long walk in zero shade, she a bridge.  In both cases, it was a snap decision, and it's hard to quantify how many things go into those kind of moments.  In hindsight, I think that bridge is one that doesn't allow foot traffic, so she may have had a valid reason for needing a brief ride.


Planets with similar climates: Concrete Blonde - "Scene Of A Perfect Crime" (1989), Yo La Tengo - "Decora" (1995), Lid - "Up" (1992), Acetone - "Sundown" (1993), The Bevis Frond - "Requiem" (1997), Warpaint - "Warpaint" (2010), Soundgarden - "Fresh Tendrils" (1994), Juned - "Pretty New Song" (1994), Poem Rocket - "Ka-boom" (1997), Magic Dirt - "Eat Your Blud" (1993).