A Northern Soul

City are Champions

Sports aren’t really a good topic to dedicate a tumblr post, but I can’t sleep because I can’t keep the words out of my head: Manchester City are the champions of England.

Context: I first became a City fan before the start of the 2004-05 season. This coincides with the time I first discovered a love for soccer. I went to Europe that summer for a music tour, and during my stay there the Euro 2004 tournament was going on. We watched the games because, well, it was sport, and we didn’t have to understand the language of the commentary to understand what was going on in the game. I loved watching this French guy play, he seemed to play with such grace and I had no idea how he did the things he did with a soccer ball. That guy’s name was Zinedine Zidane, only one of the best soccer players of all time (headbutt in the 06 WC Final not withstanding). This was the Euro tournament where lowly Greece, which had never won anything before, won the whole damned tournament. I still remember the reactions of all the people in the lobby of that Swiss hotel we were at when Greece scored the only goal of that final game.

Naturally, I needed a team to root for. And since I was a huge Oasis fan at the time, and the Gallaghers always talked about their love for their hometown team Manchester City, it seemed natural for me to adopt them. I could see all the parallels with my current fandoms, particularly my love for the Baltimore Orioles. City were the Orioles… they had last won the league in 1968 (Orioles: 1983… more recent, but still before I was born)… they had a hated rival who won everything all the time in Manchester United (Orioles: the Yankees)… they had fallen on rough times (Orioles: no winning seasons since 97)… passionate and fiercely dedicated fan bases.

I tried to follow City as much as I could. I saw their middle-of-the-road records every year and the sometimes excruciating losses. I saw whatever games they played on ESPN, which were admittedly not many.

I saw them get bought by an ownership group from Abu Dhabi and pour hundreds of millions of dollars into top flight talent. I had dreams of the Orioles undergoing the same miraculous turn of fate.

In one year, they made the turn to respectable. The next year, they nearly got themselves into the Champions League (excruciatingly losing their place on the last game of the season). The next year, I watched them beat Stoke City for the FA Cup, their first trophy since 1969, and finally qualify for the Champions League.

And this year, I saw them storm out of the gate and fumble away their lead over United. I despaired seeing them down 8 points with 6 games left. I saw them pull even with United. I saw them beat United to overtake them.

And on May 13th, 2012, I witnessed the most exhilarating sports game of my entire life.

When QPR scored their second goal to take the lead I was angry and melancholy. I believed that my personal sports experience would be defined by this. Only once have I ever seen my team win a championship, and that’s all I would ever see in my lifetime. The 2001 Ravens Super Bowl win would be the first and only time I got to feel the incredible high of winning the biggest game.

At the 90 minute mark, I was crushed.

At the 92nd minute, I saw Edin Dzeko score a goal. 2-2. I was given a glimmer of hope. My hopes were cynical, at best. Perhaps they would defy my past experiences and do it. 

At the 94th minute, I was screaming at my television, in utter disbelief at what I had just seen. Sergio Aguero had just put in the game winner. I didn’t know what to do. I could’ve done just about anything at that moment. Run outside my back porch and just run around the backyard screaming. As it happened, I think I just screamed and had spasms on my couch.

Today, I saw Manchester City become the EPL champions. And today, I learned why sports are so important to so many people around the world. There are people that don’t understand why this is.

It seems so stupid to be so attached to a team playing a simple game. And to get all worked up when your team loses. It’s just a game, right?

It is just a game, and it is stupid to take it personally when your team loses. It’s also stupid to derive such a sense of complete and total euphoria when your team wins.

But that’s just the irrational nature of being a sports fan.
And after experiencing the irrational sadness day after day, year after year, since 2001, today I got to experience the total opposite.

And this is what will keep me a sports fan for the rest of my life. 

Column: Sofa King Bent

letsgetbent:

GET BENT has the pleasure of introducing Tiffany Minton, Nashville-based musician, writer and all around artist, as our very first columnist! In her inaugural missive she takes us inside San Francisco’s Bauer Mansion, where her band Heavy Cream just finished recording their sophomore record with Ty Segall.

By Tiffany Minton

Hello, freaks. My name is Tiffany Minton. I’m calling this column “Sofa King Bent.” What can I say? It makes me laugh. It also clears me of the responsibility of thematic focus. I am going to project that most of these columns will be essay-like/op-ed because I nourish a deep well of criticism and opinions. I acknowledge the threat of being perceived as an unapologetic asshole and uninteresting. Don’t worry; I haven’t forgotten the old Salt N Pepa adage (“Opinions are like assholes, and everybody’s got one…”), but reading is sexy. That being said, I invite your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below. Feel free to ream at your leisure. This is my first contribution, so I appreciate that you’ve even read this far.

The abridged version of me is that I am a sociologist playing in a rock band. Historically, I am a drummer in bands you’ve probably never heard of, but currently in the band Heavy Cream, who possibly you’ve heard of. This of course doesn’t make me an expert on anything; but, I am gaining confidence in my ability to survive chronic or partial unemployment during an economic recession. Fiscal poverty seems to be easier to manage when you’re rich in personal time and creative capital. I’m just trying to keep the latter sustainable for as long as possible. Being a “working” musician is pretty easy to do in Nashville, which is one of the many reasons why I am so nationalistic about it as the best city in America, but definitely in the South.

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I love Heavy Cream and can’t wait to read more from Tiffany.

(Source: letsgetbent)

They say you have to play with the hand you’re dealt… but they don’t tell you that sometimes you’re allowed to fold and get dealt a new hand.

You just have to do your own thing, no matter what anyone says. It’s your life.

I think I’m going to start using this thing again.

…yeah.

(Stop Worrying and) Love the Bomb @ Wasted Space

This is pretty much shit, but I promised I’d post it.
Keep in mind that I wrote this on the plane to Vegas and was running on about 3 hours sleep.

Garage rock, at the moment, is undergoing an identity crisis of sorts. The sickness stems from the desire to sound professional. Garage rock is fundamentally opposed to the notion of a polished product. Shouldn’t bands like Times New Viking and Black Lips embrace their unfettered mess of a sound, as they did in their earlier recordings, since that is, in fact, the very nature of their sound? They compromised their sounds in “Dancer Equired!” and “Arabia Mountain” - though don’t take this as a complaint, mind you, they are both fine albums that capture something of the garage aesthetic, but lack that certain rawness and edge we’ve seen in their previous records.

The craziest thing about this trend towards a more, shall we say, refined (?) product in garage rock is the fact that these bands do not translate this into their live shows. That is, they put that element of Raw Power back into their songs when played live, even songs from their more polished albums. I mean, I knew a fair amount about TNV before I saw them at Black Cat - that they had very noisy, train-wreck quality records (unbearable to listen to, but you just can’t turn off your record machine), but their latest was “more polished”. I heard the record before the show and judged it a good listen. But I was not prepared for the onslaught of noise TNV would give these songs live. It was as if a sweet girlfriend had just invited you back to her place and you were expecting some fun, but then you’re caught off guard by the way she just, all of a sudden, turned into a sex fiend. At least, maybe some of the people who were only in it to hear songs like the ones from DE! were taken aback like that. Me? I thought it was awesome, but slightly schizophrenic. Which are you, TNV? Are you early period or late period Sonic Youth?

This perhaps has no bearing on the show I am actually reviewing, (Stop Worrying and) Love the Bomb at Wasted Space on 6/27. It was, to be concise, just about exactly what you’d expect from a basement punk show in DC on a hot summer’s night that promised hot dogs, burgers (beef and veggie!) and weed and cigarettes and sangria afterwards. 20 people (about 13 of which were actually performing) showed up for 4 bands. I should say that I was not too concerned about the opening bands - I actually skipped the third band because the basement was so damn hot I needed an extended respite. They were good, please believe. They definitely exuded the schizophrenic swagger of garage groups - are we tight or are we loose? (Thee Lolitas, based here in DC, absolutely have this down. They seem like the kind of band that should sloppily play their way off the stage, but they’re more talented than they let on).

But the night was all about my friends in SWALTB. They play garage punk: garage in the sense that they have good melodicism and catchy three chord progressions, punk in every other sense. And the set they played was punk - instrument cords unplugging from amps, microphones blowing, feeding off of every mishap and turning it into this ferocious monster. About the only thing missing was a mosh pit - and this could have definitely turned it into a legendary set. These guys need to get around a bit more in this city. My gut, based on other shows I’ve been to, says that the DC/Baltimore garage scene is thriving underground, but it could really thrive in the indie scene at large with some exposure. Luckily SWALTB are getting that kind of exposure - they supported Nobunny at a recent Black Cat Backstage and were offered to support Nashville band Heavy Cream a month or two ago.

I just hope that if they make it, they don’t compromise their punk-ness in their records as garage bands seem to be doing now. It’s okay to channel your inner Ian MacKaye.