My Bloody Valentine
After releasing the excellent album Isn’t Anything, and before recording Loveless, an album that changed rock music, My Bloody Valentine passed through New York City on a short US tour. They enlisted J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr to act as soundman for them, which is one reason their set at Maxwell’s was so deafening. At this time, when they played the infamous noise break in “You Made Me Realize,” this delicious cacaphony lasted something like three minutes, but it seemed to go on forever. A day or two later, after I sweet-talked the band’s publicist into giving me half an hour with them, I asked guitarist Kevin Shields if they always stretched out that part of the song for soooo long. He replied, “Well, it depends on how bad the audience has been.”