My Top 1000 Songs #499: Goin' Against Your Mind

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

My old college radio crowd used to bristle at my embrace of the Grateful Dead... but there's no shortage of hipster post-punk bands willing to do some serious jamming, eschewing Ramones-styled 3-chord riff rockers for some extended guitar twiddling. Ever since Television's sprawling "Marquee Moon," there have been long, noodly workouts from the likes of Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo, and others--notably Boise indie rockers Built To Spill.

While a lot of fans prefer their earlier work, "Goin' Against Your Mind" (from their sixth LP, 2006's You In Reverse) is a personal favorite. A propulsive, nearly 9-minute opus, it's got a recurring 2-chord riff that gives Doug Martsch tons of room to stretch out, from the fast-paced catharsis of the verse/chorus structure to an elongated dive into deep space in the center. 

I still remember seeming them live on this tour, and the song soared to epic heights, every bit as spiritually revelatory as my favorite Dead jams. "When I was a kid I saw a light, floating above the trees one night. Thought it was an alien; turned out to be just God."

Live 2008: