I’ve probably spent more money on gasoline in the autumn months than any other time. It’s not that I travel much for any particular reason, those trips are usually done by early September. It’s not that I’m going to visit family or anything like that for the holiday season, or that I take vacation time when the leaves start falling. It’s because I found myself hitting the road for no reason at all. I would get off of work on a Friday, go home and change, and would be ready to just hit the road in time for the sun to make it’s drop below the horizon, right about the same time the streetlights started to come on. Some nights, I just went and visited with friends, other nights I drove for a few hours, trying to make sense of a world that honestly had quit making sense. I would eventually wind up back at my apartment, calmer, more collected and ready to lay down and rest for a bit before launching headlong into the weekend.
With dry leaves swirling in the breeze and some clouds mixed in with the dazzling colors of the evening, my usual rock music had no place. Instead, I wanted calmer, I wanted mellower. If I had any music on at all, it was something that brought my blood pressure down and soothed my temper from the heights of the work week. I was trying to forget the stress and drama. I wanted to get lost in-between white stripes as they flashed by, mile after mile. It’s been some time since I’ve gone on one of my evening trips, but maybe it’s time. A song like this one, a Cars cover by the Deftones, is an ideal choice. The original is a masterpiece with Ben Orr’s vocals haunting you with each word, and Chino’s sonically fluid vocals work well with the semi-electronica feel of the drum and acoustic guitar. It’s the kind of song that begs you to go get lost in a nighttime cityscape, with the glow from the gauges only being interrupted by the passing streetlight beams.
Whatever mood you have, or are in; you can’t go wrong with Deftones. It just makes sense.