|
|
|
 |
|
|
HOME | ABOUT | BIOS | EMAIL |
|
 |
| |
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
SUPERNAUT
1,000 Homo DJs
Single
TVT : 1990
[Buy It]
YOU AND YOUR SISTER
This Mortal Coil
Blood
4 AD : 1991
[Buy It]
CHINA DOLL
Suzanne Vega
Deadicated
Arista : 1991
[Buy It]
PINK MOON
Sebadoh
Smash Your Head on the Punk Rock
Subpop: 1992
[Buy It]
WINTERLONG
The Pixies
Single (B-side of "Dig for Fire")
4 AD : 1990
[Buy It]
I've been away from Moistworks again, living my life, doing the job of being me; there's been a small handful of boys, a larger one of television, and, I'm afraid to say, almost no music. The other night I went to hear a friend do a panel discussion about a genre of music on which he is considered an expert. I listened contentedly, had almost no idea what anyone was talking about (but loved the arguments and nitpicks and eye-rolls and all the things music journalists do when they talk to each other), and realized why I've barely bought a new album since 1999. I don't know how to be a casual listener.
In my teens and early twenties, I was a true fan. I heard a song I liked, found out who it was, got the record, got all the other records, listened to them chronologically, memorized the lyrics, read a book, and spent hours talking to my friends about comparisons and B-sides and who produced what and in what studio. I really don't have the time for all this now, so you'd think I'd have just easily transitioned into regular listener status like a normal adult. But no! Just thinking about hiphop, for example, totally stresses me out. I haven't bought a rap CD since A Tribe Called Quest. Imagine how long it would take me to catch up. I'd have to quite my job! It's bad enough that I'm a season-and-a-half behind on The Sopranos. My god.
Covers, back then, were often a starting point on my road to total immersion, to finding out about bands I likely would not have listened to otherwise. But it took work; I wasn't the kind of kid who could hear "Oh, that's a cover," and not ask who did the original and what record was it on, when it was from, what else did they do, etc. For example, I learned about the Velvet Underground from REM, which some version of the adult me finds somewhat cute, somewhat embarrassing. But back then in Framingham, Massachusetts in the late-eighties/early nineties, there were bigger problems.
I had black hair in my face, and Gangrene and Greenpeace stickers side-by-side on my bumper. I felt a strident need to compartmentalize everything, and to be a lover and a hater all at once (still one of my biggest conflicts). Despite my occasional environmentalist slash Gulf War protester leanings, I wanted to be a badass or at least a semi-badass, and, were it not for the Pixies and Sonic Youth, might have thrown Neil Young into a pile of boring classic rock. I'm sure I had anarchy symbols next to hammers and sickles Sharpied on my jeans, even though I swear I knew better. Parking-lot-wise, the metalheads were the most fun to hang out with during free period; we had no skateboarders at my school and they were the next best thing.
I went to Grateful Dead shows with my summer-camp counselor colleagues but told the skater friends I did have (from other towns), that I only went to make fun of the Deadheads and flirt with them in order to get free drugs. That wasn't a total lie; I hated the Dead for all the noodly shit, but when I heard Suzanne Vega's "China Doll," I went back and listened to Jerry's version. That heart-stabbing chorus at the end made me realize that those people actually did know how to write songs with words and melodies. (In this case the fact that there is only one chorus is particularly annoying, but only because it's so good you want to hear it again.)
Then, there were the straight-edge friends, the boyfriend who made me brush my teeth before making out if I had had anything to drink. I kept a toothbrush in his glove compartment; I have a very distinct sense memory of spitting toothpaste into gravel at the drive-in. He, speaking of topsy-turvy identities, ended up a drummer for a well-known Krisha-core band while working a day job at Baby Gap.Labels: covers, joanna
posted by Joanna
LINK |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
