Rogue Wave: my favorite song.
Rogue Wave - "Are You On My Side"
the notes start up densely, darkly. rippling knuckles slide the beat from finger to finger, in and out from index to middle to ring flip the hand and out, back around, steady, controlled, a steadily shimmering string. high and distant voices lure and lull and linger. falling into the crook of the drums, folded up between conveyer belts, the breath quickens as the rippling continues and the line is brought closer and closer. there is a storm rising, pulling matter from houses and gardens, growing stronger and faster and looming deep gray and brown, hiding the horizon line, pushing forwards, banging up against itself, a tornadoed dark. then a shift of light, a flutter of wind and flight, a cut from the scene (still the string weaves around the hand, incessant) and briefly the hushed voice implores you the most intimate and secretive question of its life.

are you on my side?

rising, building, storm particles swarming, infiltrating, stinging eyes, catching in the back of the throat, insistent. the beat has trapped any chance of return, any choice to get out, moving faster and farther and deeper and away - voices taunting, hushing, laughing with their twists and turns and dancing tribally, whistling, jarringly melodic. there has been nothing so hypnotically beautiful and intense by any recollection, and yet now what is the use of memory as everything familiar and important crowds the senses and presses, presses, pressures the mind and closed eyes, blood pumping so quickly as to possibly match the gasping breath - rising, building.

are you on my side?

i know you've been around.

farther, higher, the only thing to do is lose track, lose the mind, give up the fight, stare openly, blindly, directly into the storm, entranced by whipping winds and insanity, a spiraling helplessness while the knuckles continue to ripple, rolling the sound around each finger. the hand holds everything. a light surges and fires up the landscape, brilliant in yellows, the dark of the blue flashes into some crystal and the clarity hurts, blinding eyes, flashes prying into eyelids, louder and faster and brighter and bigger -

release. the knuckles have stopped. nothing has ever been so real as now, as this second when every pain topples over the edge into a slowly drifting, spinning leaf, nothing left of the storm but the dew on the grass and the explosion of color in the sky. follow the leaf with open eyes. still spellbound, still tied, still racing inside. this draws out emotion the likes of which make the tears come, make the eyelashes bat the reality away, make the feeling behind the ribcage dissolve as it burns. and just as the leaf descends upon the ground, so the sound ends, so the whirling of the brain clears, so you are new.

::::this is my favorite song.
Rogue Wave - Are You On My Side
not just by them, you see. by everyone.

there is a deserved buzz about this band. go find more of it at the hype.
buy their record, see their show, love them an ounce of what i do: their space  shan  6:53 AM  |  view comments (2)