tired of strawberry leaves

I learned to drive stick in a car with only one gear. This sounds like a comical contradiction, but in 1989 my generous, if not mysterious friend Rudenotse lent me his sole possession: his ancient Toyota so I could continue to rehearse with the band Jesus Wept. Every week I would drive between the chill-jazz of Charlottesville to the noise-rock of Strawberry Street in Richmond, VA where Wept rehearsed… in a car with only a 3rd gear.

It was an exercise in concentration and chaos to rev and slip the stuttering, smoking clutch between hills and highways. And as Wept fell apart as all bands do, this song ‘tired of strawberry leaves,’ became a metaphor for distance – for that mad and meditative commute between two vastly different cities and worlds.

tired of strawberry leaves is the final song off the statik 1 EP released in 1989.