Meeting People Is Easy

During Kim Gordon’s commentary on the ‘video’ for “Perfume-V” on the Slow Century DVD, she talks about how she was very nervous about meeting Stephen Malkmus, that she was convinced that he was going to be too smart and cool for her. This just blows me away, because I’ve always thought of Kim Gordon as being one of the most intimidating and standoffish characters in indie rock – to think that she’d be so cowed by Malkmus is kind of astounding, really. I did get to meet Malkmus once – I was introduced, said hello, shook his hand, and quietly/nervously kept my mouth shut. It wasn’t so scary, but I certainly was too afraid to attempt to communicate with the guy. I think I am a lot more nervous about the prospect of meeting Gordon – I’m sure she’s a very nice lady, but I don’t think I would know what to say at all. The only things I can think of to talk to some of my favorite musicians about are all extremely geeky trivia questions, and most people really hate being asked that kind of stuff. Especially since a lot of my questions are about why people chose NOT to do things – “Stephen, why did you re-write ‘The Hexx’ for Terror Twilight?”, “Bono, what’s up with that awful Mike Hedges mix of “Numb”?”, “Lee, why don’t you sing on more Sonic Youth songs?”. It’s hard to work questions like that into conversations without seeming insulting…