Memory man, part one
Over the last year or so, many new friends and acquaintances have asked about some of my past life in music. It dawned on me that I actually now have enough experiences that equal "stories". Being in the mindset that I've been in recently, I thought I'd relay a few in writing.
"The first time" or "What the fuck was that?"
When we were still teenagers, just after the first few Two Minutes Hate gigs, I can remember Marc and I at a bus stop, saying how we wanted to get away from the pseudo-Mod thing. I had picked up The Aquarian since R.E.M. was on the cover and started leafing through it to see what bands were coming to town. A few that didn't sound too familiar popped up: Husker Du. The Replacements. The Meat Puppets. The Minutemen.
All these bands were releasing new albums that week; R.E.M. had only just released "Reckoning". This was a moment, whether or not we were astute enough to realize we were going to allow ourselves to be swept up in. This was where American kids would reclaim the mantle of original powerhouse, guitar-driven music that wasn't light and disposable. Marc was immediately intrigued by Husker Du and the falling-over-themselves critical praise that "Zen Arcade" was getting. Another friend of ours, Bagman, was keen on The Meat Puppets. My oldest friend (to that point), Keith, hooked onto The 'Mats. And I hesitated, although I was cautiously drawn to this trio from Pedro. Especially as their new magnum-opus, "Double Nickels On The Dime" was released to rave reviews and comparisons to Wire. Hmmm.
Marc got "Zen Arcade" and immediately abandoned English-based pop. I joined him for the ride, but I was still smitten with R.E.M. and had let my hair grow, etc. to be more "psychedelic" (insert laughter). But one pot-hazed afternoon, while watching the late-lamented and much beloved U-68 (the only over-the-air video channel), the clip for "This Ain't No Picnic" came on and I was transfixed. "What the fuck was that?", I laughed to Marc. He didn't know--he was howling and we were high anyway. Three of the most disturbed looking mo-fo's I'd ever seen--especially the bouncy fat guy singing and the mental patient bass player with the google-eyes and pumping fist. This was The Minutemen? Holy shit. Fucking intensity like nothing I'd ever heard before.
Say what you will. Maybe it was the drugs. But I think it was the patience and the curiosity that sucked me right in, once I saw and heard that band. So Marc had the Huskers and I had those dudes from Pedro. Now we were going to move forward in the direction that we were supposed to. And with influences like those two as the cornerstone, we killed Two Minutes Hate off and gave birth to The Punch Line...
And I wonder where that name came from?
"The first time" or "What the fuck was that?"
When we were still teenagers, just after the first few Two Minutes Hate gigs, I can remember Marc and I at a bus stop, saying how we wanted to get away from the pseudo-Mod thing. I had picked up The Aquarian since R.E.M. was on the cover and started leafing through it to see what bands were coming to town. A few that didn't sound too familiar popped up: Husker Du. The Replacements. The Meat Puppets. The Minutemen.
All these bands were releasing new albums that week; R.E.M. had only just released "Reckoning". This was a moment, whether or not we were astute enough to realize we were going to allow ourselves to be swept up in. This was where American kids would reclaim the mantle of original powerhouse, guitar-driven music that wasn't light and disposable. Marc was immediately intrigued by Husker Du and the falling-over-themselves critical praise that "Zen Arcade" was getting. Another friend of ours, Bagman, was keen on The Meat Puppets. My oldest friend (to that point), Keith, hooked onto The 'Mats. And I hesitated, although I was cautiously drawn to this trio from Pedro. Especially as their new magnum-opus, "Double Nickels On The Dime" was released to rave reviews and comparisons to Wire. Hmmm.
Marc got "Zen Arcade" and immediately abandoned English-based pop. I joined him for the ride, but I was still smitten with R.E.M. and had let my hair grow, etc. to be more "psychedelic" (insert laughter). But one pot-hazed afternoon, while watching the late-lamented and much beloved U-68 (the only over-the-air video channel), the clip for "This Ain't No Picnic" came on and I was transfixed. "What the fuck was that?", I laughed to Marc. He didn't know--he was howling and we were high anyway. Three of the most disturbed looking mo-fo's I'd ever seen--especially the bouncy fat guy singing and the mental patient bass player with the google-eyes and pumping fist. This was The Minutemen? Holy shit. Fucking intensity like nothing I'd ever heard before.
Say what you will. Maybe it was the drugs. But I think it was the patience and the curiosity that sucked me right in, once I saw and heard that band. So Marc had the Huskers and I had those dudes from Pedro. Now we were going to move forward in the direction that we were supposed to. And with influences like those two as the cornerstone, we killed Two Minutes Hate off and gave birth to The Punch Line...
And I wonder where that name came from?
posted by R L Ross at
12:31 PM
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