Teenage Kicks

Lately I’ve been revisiting albums that I used to listen to in high school. Believe me - not a lot of that crap stands up. I listen with feelings of shame and disgust at my pimply virgin self of yore. It’d be really cool to say the dub-tapes in my Walkman back then were Black Flag or the Misfits, but they weren’t. Not even close.

I didn’t have a cool older brother. I came from the worst taste in music and have been clawing myself back to myself ever since. You gotta start somewhere, but man, I was such a fucking dork.

I remember exactly where I was when I first heard Nirvana.

My friend and I were walking to school with our socks down doing the share an earphone each technique. I hated them. I was afraid of them. Their music scared me. That sounds so dumb, but it’s true. I liked all those other pussy ‘grunge bands’ that were 'really deep, man'.

It took me a very long time to understand what good music was, mainly because I'd been held under the baptism water of FM radio since birth. The only way to find out about music was to buy it. I had no money for a $35 CD so my nerd crew and I would ride our BMX’s around, steal tapes and dub copies for each other.

It wasn’t all bad. There are a handful of albums that haven’t dated to these ears. Pick of the bunch is Nirvana’s Incesticide compilation from late ’92. After In Utero, it’s my favourite Nirvana release. My favourite songs were and remain the covers: Molly’s Lips, Been A Son and Turnaround. Back then I didn’t know they were covers and I’d certainly never heard of Devo.

I didn't know that punk was an attitude before I heard this either. It’s funny how much you don’t pick up on as a kid. I never connected Kurt’s cover montage with the title pun or even that the title was about such a taboo subject. In high school it didn't matter, this stuff was a portal to another world.