Since it's getting hard for me to move around as easily I as used to (I was a fast walker but alas, the body, she deceives me now and so I do a slow stroll instead of a brisk overtaking as I hit the 9 month mark of pregnancy), Doug and I spent last night at home listening to records. Not CDs, records. We have quite a collection but rarely pull them out unless it's one of those times, like last night, where we each play a song from some record that we used to love. The jackets are in good condition but we noticed how yellowed the inside sleeves are -- just like our parents' old joints. Last night I put on the Cramps' Bad Music for Bad People (still sounds pretty good), A Certain Ratio ("Shack Up," which is like, the coolest song ever - pre-math rock for all you indie rockers out there), Foetus (Jim Thirlwell's pre-industrial gem - so weird to listen to now but genius nonetheless), Medium Medium's "Hungry So Angry," and Doug E. Fresh's "D.E.F." (gosh, rhyming was so much more fun back in the late 80s).
When we were kids my father used to take us to Korvette's every week (Sam Goody was too expensive) and me and my brother and sister used to get to pick out a record we wanted. I grew up with a lot of music around me. Some good (Beatles), some bad (Partridge Family - which isn't even really music.) I've been thinking about my musical history lately and how much it has impacted me. The first time when I saw the movie Tommy and heard The Who's music. (I talk about this on-camera in a fantastic new DVD put out by Miss Bettina Richards of Thrill Jockey Records called Looking For A Thrill. Other folks like Steve Albini, Bjork and Archer Prewitt also wax about their first major magical musical moment.) Going from The Partridge Family and the Monkees -- pre-packaged music -- to real rock sounds skewed my head around. The same thing happened a few years later the first time I got acquainted with punk rock. It was scary and new and I can pinpoint the first time I heard Gang of Four's "Damaged Goods" and proclaimed that I had to have everything that band ever produced. Then a few years later, it happened again with rap and the first time I heard "White Lines." It hasn't happened (for me, anyway) since then. I know there is some kind of musical resurgence going on now, but to me (an old timer who thinks Bikini Kill sounds like X-Ray Spex, not the other way around), I'd rather stick to the originals.
I know. I'm old.
When we were kids my father used to take us to Korvette's every week (Sam Goody was too expensive) and me and my brother and sister used to get to pick out a record we wanted. I grew up with a lot of music around me. Some good (Beatles), some bad (Partridge Family - which isn't even really music.) I've been thinking about my musical history lately and how much it has impacted me. The first time when I saw the movie Tommy and heard The Who's music. (I talk about this on-camera in a fantastic new DVD put out by Miss Bettina Richards of Thrill Jockey Records called Looking For A Thrill. Other folks like Steve Albini, Bjork and Archer Prewitt also wax about their first major magical musical moment.) Going from The Partridge Family and the Monkees -- pre-packaged music -- to real rock sounds skewed my head around. The same thing happened a few years later the first time I got acquainted with punk rock. It was scary and new and I can pinpoint the first time I heard Gang of Four's "Damaged Goods" and proclaimed that I had to have everything that band ever produced. Then a few years later, it happened again with rap and the first time I heard "White Lines." It hasn't happened (for me, anyway) since then. I know there is some kind of musical resurgence going on now, but to me (an old timer who thinks Bikini Kill sounds like X-Ray Spex, not the other way around), I'd rather stick to the originals.
I know. I'm old.
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