Common Burn
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Across from the main campus of the University of Minnesota, there is a former seminary turned food court called (not kidding) the Dinky Dome. Inside this utterly bizarre structure is (was?) Espresso 22, one of the only coffeeshops around campus that not only allowed smoking but it seemed to encourage it. The owner was a chain-smoker who compulsively played checkers (or chess) and listened exclusively to Mazzy Star. The languid, slow burn of So Tonight that I Might See and Among My Swan seemed particularly suited to the sheets of smoke hanging above the stressed the comparative lit majors. I logged enough hours in Espresso 22 to all but ensure emphysema in the future, but I relish those memories because they’re so closely attached to the sound of Hope Sandoval’s small breathy voice. And a funny thing seems to have happened in the years after Mazzy Star’s heyday: the trademark sound (heavily reverbed vocals, prickly guitar figures) they helped create never exactly fell out of fashion. While there aren’t a thousand Mazzy Star acolytes clawing their way up the iTunes charts, the hazy, nostalgic feel of “Common Burn,” a surprise single that will prefigure an album sometime next year, doesn’t feel at all out of place in a world of Beach House, Cat Power, and She & Him.
