In Defense of "Pubes. . . "

Dan has really gone apeshit with this, as I'd hoped he would. Footnotes? Wha? ¹

I suppose I should feel honor-bound to defend the mix he tore a few new ones in, but he pretty much summarized my defense in one line: I was indeed in college, and newly in college at that. Looking at this mix, though, I'm proud to say that with the exception of They Might Be Giants, most of my iffy high school tastes had passed and I can stand by most of those songs as being pretty awesome or occassionally tolerable. But, I'll get to TMBG in a second.

This is as good a time as any for me to explain my attitude towards making mixes for Dan, and for the most part making mixes for anybody, which has pretty much remained intact lo these years. My primary goal has been to find things in my collection that I think the person I'm giving the mix would like but probably doesn't have in his/her collection yet. I worry sometimes (especially in the ensuing years where my collection expanded both in size and in diversity) that Dan thinks I'm trying to drop a Snob Bomb on him but I could have put some seriously wimpy shit on this if I'd liked. And there are truly, truly some hits on this (as he's detailed). As he's correctly surmised, when in doubt, I included the fastest, loudest song I had from the band.

But, it's not only a college mix, but a pretty irritatingly cliche (in retrospect) college mix. It's funny how I thought I was hot shit for loving all these bands but man, it's pretty obvious I mostly read SPIN in high school and didn't got to a lot of shows until college. I'm glad Dan liked this one but I'm hoping my subsequent mixes showed a little more personality.

Looking that holy quintuplet of Indies involved, only really Sebadoh and Superchunk are bands I still really have a deep feeling for and it's because they actually wrote songs about people and life, and that means they'll resonate more than the rockin' (Archers), catchy (GbV), and, um, "smart" (Pavement). I made this mix at a time before I'd ever had a girlfriend or a relationship (nice one, Superstud) but lemme tell ya, when there were suddenly ladies and emotions and arguments and make-ups, Sebadoh became a necessity. Not that I put one of THOSE 'doh songs on this mix; as Dan pointed out, I put on the "rockin'" one. Same thing with Superchunk - those songs still yank out the occasional tear. Of all the huge hits that maybe would have stuck with Dan a little longer, I wimped out and put on "punk" songs. Such a waste - now look at Dan. I take responsibility.

Anyway, I'm going to spend some time discussing TMBG, who are sort of weird animal; they figured prominently in my high school musical (uh?) tastes because I was a dorky smart kid who liked thinking he was "different" (ugh) but wasn't punk or goth or metal or anything else that might have made girls like me. When I got more into the real and true indie and punk, I'd already overplayed every song TMBG'd ever put out and the cute/clever aspect of their songs started losing the joke a bit.

However, having lived in New York for over 7 years now, and having taken every opportunity to talk to people who really lived in the city and see it morph into this oversold, brunch-and-pugs wonderland for graphic designers, it's really interesting to read the liner notes from "Then..." (from which these two songs are taken, though they're originally from TMBG's s/t debut) and think of two nerds living in parts of Brooklyn that are far cries from the yuppified current versions and playing music in the East Village when it was a semi-scary place filled with desperately weird and interesting people scraping together creative lives because there was nowhere else in this country that could support such goofiness. Oh, and crackheads. Now, the East Village is an irritating, incredibly overpriced neighborhood that I generally avoid. Probably because crack's easier to come by here in Crown Heights. Anyway.

Those first couple of records (s/t and "Lincoln"²) really don't sound like anything else going on in NYC at the time (ESG - Sonic Youth - hardcore punk - Mars - Glenn Branca - James Chance - beginnings of crossover hip-hop) and the songs remain catchy as hell and really cool and DIY, self-recorded collages that seemingly wasn't meant for an audience of real people.

And, TMBG was a "gateway" band for me (and I doubt I'm alone here) - the story is thus. When our family first moved to Cloquet, MN (up near Duluth), I would fall asleep with my headphones on, listening to the radio. At the time Nirvana was getting their big break ("Teen Spirit" had recently hit) and I was of course excited by this new, strange, loud thing that wasn't at all like the metal that was on the radio, but I didn't know what "punk" really was except that I'd heard the Ramones on beer commercials.

One night, trolling the dial, I stopped on what I thought was the rock station because I heard a Nirvana song³, but when I heard a They Might Be Giants song (who I know from Tiny Tune Adventures) (God, am I a tool), I kept listening - turns out it was KUMD, Duluth Public Radio, playing "alt" rock, which they did every weekday night for two hours. Radio tapes of this show became my staple listening for the first half of high school. (Turns out I wasn't that cool - the really indie station was across the river at KUWS, which played legitimately cool and weird stuff during the same night hours but was harder to pick up on my little radio).The rest is, well, mixtapes.

Anyway, I don't listen to They Might Be Giants anymore hardly ever, but I'm glad they were around. And, I guess I'm glad people are still excited about them now, though they seem more for kids of cool parents. I hate cool parents.

Roundup: I guess if I was going to pick ONE SMITHS SONG EVER for Dan to try to like, Bigmouth's the one. "Out There" still remains one of Juliana Hatfield's few truly lasting moments - check out that fucking exploding teenage chorus! If I never heard another Pixies song the rest of my life, I'd be fine; who still gets excited about Pixies songs?. Sugar, like all Mould material, gets harsher grades the older I get in part because I was so in love with the guy (and, y'know, still am) that I didn't recognize how much filler he writes; "Mind" is a good example of that. I bought that Dino Jr. tape at the WalMart in Orange Park Florida; good idea. "Kill the Musicians" was my first full-price record purchase in Tallahassee, at the OLD Vinyl Fever across the street from what used to be the Publix I was employed at on Pensacola Street.

This mix wasn't that bad, I suppose - just not all that imaginitive or interesting. Here's hoping they get better from here on out. . .

¹ Yes indeed, this was a reference to Dan's inability to keep a bathroom floor clean. At the time, though, I was being confronted with Communal Living in an All-Male Florida Dorm That Didn't Have Air-Conditioning. Dan, I'll admit that you were a better roommate than 75 other guys in a building that was scheduled for remodeling the next year so when something broke they just told you to stop using it, which is why my floor only had one working shower.

² Our sister Debbie actually gave me her cassette of "Lincoln" back when I was a freshman in high school - she was over being cool at that point. The other tape that I scored in that giveaway was the Dead Milkmen's "Beelzbubba." Thanks, Deb!

³ Soon, I would learn that this song was "Breed."