Sometimes reliving the darker periods of my adolescence is horrible...but then there are times when something jogs a memory of the moments that weren't miserable and I wasn't suicidal. Discovering OCEAN BLUE with Scott Danbom and watching with wonder as this 14 year old (?) kid made music on his then-state of the art keyboard. Driving aimlessly with Chase Valdez in his Karmann Ghia (I think it was orange?) and listening to THE SUNDAYS. Hearing THE PRIMITIVES and trying to convince my pal Dotti that they were great (maybe it worked, but I never sold her on THE PIXIES, she thought "Monkey Gone To Heaven" was noisy crap). Making mix tapes for Laurie and hoping to find some CURE b-side or live cut that she hadn't heard before...this was all happening while I was reading
No More Censorship inserts in DEAD KENNEDYS records and mail ordering SCREAMING TREES and RUN WESTY RUN records because they were on the same label as MINUTEMEN and HÜSKER DÜ. And it was all the same to me. It was all an escape. It was all a connection to worlds outside of our shitty town, and connections to the lifelines that we maintained within it. And this is where I went the first time I heard
BUMMED.
