Bright Channel >> Shiny new castles made of mirrors

Bright Channel - "Final Stretch"

(Flight Approved Records, 2004)

Here it is, the first song on Bright Channel's first album, recorded in May 2004 in Chicago by Steve Albini.  It's one of the most unforgettable and badass opening songs I've personally ever heard, with a guitar sound that could melt glass from 100 light years away.  The funky bass parts mesh with the choppy drumming to make for an irresistible hip-hop-style beat.

It has been said that within a few years, "Final Stretch" will likely replace Europe's "The Final Countdown" as the go-to song during the closing minutes of every sporting event.  The lyrics are ominous and obtuse, making this come as a perfect theme song for a dystopian sci-fi flick.  The ending of Sunshine comes to mind as a great candidate:

I got this coupon insert in the mail last week and was immediately struck by what I saw:

Today a freak storm with hurricane-force winds ripped through the state and swept my greenhouse away right in front of my eyes.  I watched it tumble across the neighborhood, then went out to find it an hour later.  It had blown about 200 yards away, across Hwy. 20.  Imagine how readily an umbrella will blow away in the wind, since it's essentially a parachute, then imagine a 6x8x7' umbrella.  I dismantled it in this lady's yard.  She poked her head out and I explained who I was and what I was doing, to which she simply said "Okay."  So my greenhouse lasted all of about two weeks.  Maybe this is the wakeup call I need to help me quit my habit of growing desert plants...  I found some of them about 40 feet away from where they had been, and my 200 lb. birdbath was knocked over.  I won't sit here and complain too much, since I remember a few years ago when Matador Records owner Gerard Cosloy's house burned down; on his sports blog, he merely said something like "Well, my house burned down," and left it at that.  And I was positive I heard a tornado coming (that distinctive train-whistle sound that they always tell you to listen for), so I'm pleased as heck overall at how little damage I got.  Amazingly, my staghorn fern that I've had for 13 years was totally uninjured, as were my best specimen aloes and cacti.  I just wish I had gotten a pic of the greenhouse.  Unfortunately, it's totaled and I'm going to sell the steel scaffolding poles as scrap metal.  I guess it just hurts karmically because I went out of my way to raise even more plants than I normally raise, so you'd think Mother Nature would try not to inflict this kind of thing on someone like me.  One of my neighbor's purple martin houses got blown down, but I didn't have the heart to look inside it for dead birds.

Planets with similar climates: Bailter Space - "Control" (1993), Lucid Nation - "Fun" (1999), Plexi - "Ganesh" (1994), Bleach - "Headless" (1991), Big Black - "Kerosene" (1986), Deftones - "Be Quiet And Drive (Far Away)" (1997), The Sound - "Fire" (1981), Moonshake - "Spaceship Earth" (1992).