I really can’t say

I admit I’ve never been an easy person to shop for – even worse when it comes to music. Christmastime at my house usually meant fat gift certificates to Newbury Comics since no one had any idea what I was listening to at the time. Besides, if there was a band I was into, I probably had every vinyl, cassette and import CD they’d put out. No, it was rare when the gift of a CD was under the tree for me. So when Christmas morning of 1991 rolled around I was surprised to receive the compilation Guitarrorists from my brother. If I recall correctly told me he walked around Newbury Comics looking for something – knowing he’d just know when he found it. After almost an hour of scouring the bins he found this baby in the infamous ‘miscellaneous’ section and knew he’d struck gold. Between the name of the disc and the long list of contributors (most of which he’d never heard of) he figured it would tickle my fancy.

I don’t remember the exact story behind the album but I recall the challenge had been to craft a song with only guitars – no other instruments were allowed (although studio tinkering was.) The twenty-six tracks were my secret weapon for the next four or five yeas of mix tapes. Heck, just the song titles made for great copy on the cassette inserts. Need something off-kilter and feedback laced to add some extra punch to a mix of noisy punk and industrial music? Steve Albini’s “Nutty About Lemurs” fits the bill. How about something psychedelic with back-masked sounds and curious background sounds? Try Kramer’s “Ovulation Always Brings Me Down!” However, mix after mix and college radio show after show would feature Kathy Korniloff’s “I Really Can’t Say.” The sweetness of the acoustic strums and country lead guitar are balanced by the waves of feedback hiding underneath, eventually pulling all the sound down and away. It’s a beautiful track without being saccharine, soft without being limp, light yet firm to the touch and able to stay crunchy in milk.

PLAY:

DOWNLOAD: Kathy Korniloff - I Really Can’t Say