Karen Booth
What goes better with high school and hormones than German composer Johann Pachelbel? Not much, I assure you. Today’s RNRHS entry from Author and Musician Nic Brown has afforded me the perfect opportunity to discuss a timeless topic: make-out music. If RNRHS is a snapshot of high school in America in the 70s, 80s, and 90s (and I say it is), I have concluded that the rock-music-laden make-out session is largely a myth. First off, it turns out that a lot of people weren’t making out at all in high school. (Side note: everyone who had the guts to admit to their lack of action in high school also quickly pointed out that they made up for lost time in college.) And almost nobody was rocking to Zeppelin or Bon Jovi or Duran Duran. In fact, there was some seriously weird-ass shit being played in basements and station wagons across America. My blog is merely here to bring the truth to light…Pachelbel today, everything from “Peter Cetera bulljive” to the theme from Little House on the Prairie before that.
Nic Brown
Greensboro Day School, Greensboro, NC, Class of ’95, Currently: Author
Band and/or song that reminds you the most of high school: My friend Bryce and I listened to quite a bit of They Might Be Giants. Hm. We also listed to John Denver. But I formed my own band, Athenaeum, for my eighth grade dance and we stayed together all through high school. It was definitive. Left no real room for any other band in my file of high school rock memories.
Favorite piece of music memorabilia (poster, t-shirt, etc.) in high school: I cannot think of a single piece of music memorabilia that I owned in high school, or ever, really, save this: in middle school I wore a Corrosion of Conformity t-shirt until it appropriately corroded to the point that it could no longer be worn. That said, I don’t think I’ve ever heard a song by Corrosion of Conformity.
Band that you hated that everyone else at school seemed to love: Pearl Jam. This band embarrasses me still. The combination of Eddie Vedder’s voice and those oversized basketball jerseys and floppy hats worn by some of the members made it impossible for me to listen to this ridiculous group.
Best show or concert you saw in high school: This is easy: Sex Police with What Peggy Wants at Kilroy’s on Elm Street in Greensboro in 1993. I still haven’t recovered. It was the pinnacle of cool, and it’s all been downhill since.
Optional bonus question: Best high school make-out song: My girlfriend in high school made me a mix tape with Pachelbel’s Canon as the first song on side two. Took making out to a heretofore unknown level of erudite splendor.
Nic Brown is the author of Doubles. You can learn more about him at nicbrown.net.
I took great joy in reading todays RNRHS entry, from my pal and former Mammoth co-worker, Stuart Nichols. Like me, Stuart is a music nerd, and I think some of the best of these strolls down the musical memory lane come not from musicians (although you guys are great too, sheesh, don’t everybody turn on me), but from the fans–the people who live music from the other side. If you’ve ever met Stuart, you will understand why the mental image of super tall, super skinny, super white teenage Stuart at a Public Enemy show is priceless.
Stuart Nichols
East Mecklenburg High School, Charlotte, NC, Class of ’90, Currently: Money wrangler at Universal Pictures (go see Bridesmaids!)
Band and/or song that reminds you the most of high school: New Order. Specifically, the release of the double cassette (!) version of Substance seemed to perfectly synch up with my time in high school. I spent a lot of time on Boy Scout trips, family vacations, and school road trips with the headphones on during my glum teenager phase. My favorite song was probably “Procession”- How could any morose 16-year-old resist these lyrics:
“At night it gets cold and
You’d dearly like to turn away
An escape that fails
Makes the wounds that time won’t heal alone
Alone, alone, alone”
Combine this with the fun Ian Curtis backstory and you’ve got yourself a recipe for good times!
Favorite piece of music memorabilia (poster, t-shirt, etc.) in high school: My Smiths- Queen Is Dead t-shirt. In the back of Spin Magazine you could mail away a dollar to get the Burning Airlines catalog of euro/goth/new wave stuff. As I recall this was a painfully long process- the catalog took 4-6 weeks to get there, then you order some t-shirts and allow for another 6-8 weeks for delivery. Hurry up already! I must immediately show everyone at school how deep and gloomy I am!
I think this created an unnatural anticipation about getting the mail that has lasted to this day- I’m not talking about a delusional Roky Erickson-level mail obsession, but I do love to get the red Netflix envelope. Especially when it contains a documentary about Roky Erickson’s mail obsession.
Band that you hated that everyone else at school seemed to love: Ugh, Pink Floyd. Not the trippy early Syd Floyd, but the bloated, lazy garbage that was post-Syd Floyd. The Wall. Dark Side. And then the godawful inescapable Momentary Lapse of Reason came out. At that point, daytime MTV had devolved into either doofus hair metal or fat David Gilmour mumbling his way through an 8 minute long song in front of a laser beam circle. I think this is part of the reason a new wave nerd like me fell completely in love with Yo! MTV Raps when it started in the afternoons in 1988.
Best show or concert you saw in high school: The Fear of a Black Planet tour- summer 1990, Charlotte Coliseum. Public Enemy, Digital Underground, Kid N Play, Queen Latifah and the Afros. Heavy D & the Boyz was originally supposed to be on the line up, but pulled out after one of the Boyz, Trouble T Roy, died a few weeks before. I think he fell off a lighting rig at an earlier concert. Pete Rock & CL Smooth wrote one of the best hip hop songs ever- “T.R.O.Y.” about him.
Anyway, Digital Underground was great at their Parliamentisms- I’m pretty sure Tupac was one of the 30+ people on stage wearing wigs and costumes. I was (still am) a huge fan of Fear of a Black Planet and was ready for Chuck D yell at me and feel guilty about being white and from the suburbs. Chuck definitely delivered while the somewhat scary S1Ws marched around waving their plastic Uzis at us. Being my first hip-hop show, I wasn’t prepared for all the waving of my hands in the air like I didn’t care and saying hooooooo. It was exhausting work, but with your whiteness already working against you, you didn’t want Public Enemy to get even more angry with you than they already were…
Optional bonus question: Best high school make-out song: As you may have guessed from the above, not really applicable to my high school years. However, I did discover Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks my freshman year of college.
Honored to have Alex Dezen from The Damnwells contribute to the RNRHS archives this time around. His band is one of my absolute favorites, a designation that’s easy to throw around, but I’ve been around the old musical block a few times. Steve and I own a kajillion records. We don’t hire a babysitter and drag our butts to Raleigh on a Tuesday to see anybody unless it’s majorly cushy backstage with an open bar and behind-stage parking. What can I say? We’re jaded. But, alas, we did exactly that a few months ago for The Damnwells. Even one man down (due to an unanticipated medical emergency), the show was incredible. It’s hard not to enjoy yourself when you’re thinking “Yay! I love this one!” every time they start a new song. One highlight of the show was “Soundtrack”, which Alex performed acoustically. There was a highly annoying woman standing near the stage, yammering above the music, and the icy stares of her fellow audience members weren’t enough to get her to shut her trap. Alex stood back from the mic and sang the second half of the song, loud and clear, which ends with one of my fave Damnwells lines: “But can you shut up long enough to fall in love?” It didn’t actually get her to stop talking, but an awesome f-you moment I won’t soon forget. If you’re interested in more info about the band (or “collective”), please visit their website at thedamnwells.com or check out the documentary “Golden Days”, which cleaned up in the film festival circuit and is a heartbreaking lesson in exactly how scuzzy the music industry can be. I can’t say enough good things about the new record, “No One Listens to the Band Anymore”, so check that out, too.
Alex Dezen
Birch Wathen Lenox, NYC, Class of ’96, Currently: I rock and roll and write
Band and/or song that reminds you the most of high school: I hated high school. I listened to The Jesus Lizard.
Favorite piece of music memorabilia (poster, t-shirt, etc.) in high school: A De La Soul t-shirt
Band that you hated that everyone else at school seemed to love: Creed.
Best show or concert you saw in high school: 13 Stitches at Acme Underground.
Optional bonus question: Best high school make-out song: “Barely Real” by Codeine or “Road to Madrid” by Seam. It’s a tie.
Hey all (not y’all)…”Just Like Honey” by the Jesus and Mary Chain popped into my head the other day, so I went in search of the video and watching it instantly reminded me of the Icicle Works video for “Whisper to a Scream”. They bear a striking resemblance to each other and not just because of the pasty skinned musicians. Icicle Works was 1983 and J&MC was 1985. Apparently, music video technology did not advance much during those two years. Just goes to show–you don’t need more than a backdrop, a wind machine, and a bag of leaves to make a video. The J&MC video has embedding disabled, or I would have included that too, but you’re smart–go to you tube and search for it.
Icicle Works “Whisper to a Scream (Birds Fly)”
RNRHS has been on a roll lately with Chapel Hill music royalty (if I do say so myself)–John Plymale, founding member of Chapel Hill bands The Pressure Boys and The Sex Police, now in the mix. The Pressure Boys were before my time, but I saw the Sex Police many times–I was even their booking agent for a while. John’s stage presence is almost superhuman and difficult to fathom if you only know him as laid back and unassuming John. He’s quite the opposite behind the mic, sort of like there’s a magical performer switch inside him. Most of us do not have that switch. I was able to see The Pressure Boys when they did their reunion shows in 2008 at the Cat’s Cradle. Talk about being overwhelmed, and not just by the vast number of my husband’s former classmates–the genuine adoration oozing out of the crowd seemed limitless. I can only imagine what it was like to see the band “in the day”. I’m hoping some of you will share some good stories in the comments.
John Plymale
Chapel Hill High School, Chapel Hill, NC, Class of ’82, Currently: Music Producer/Engineer/Mixer
Band and/or song that reminds you the most of high school: Boy, that could be hard to narrow down…I liked a lot of disparate things in 1980….from Earth Wind & Fire and Pink Floyd, to KISS and Molly Hatchet. I still like all those bands, so scuff off. But as High School wore on, I kind of fell in love with all of these English bands, like XTC, Madness, The Specials, and most especially Echo And The Bunnymen.
Favorite piece of music memorabilia (poster, t-shirt, etc.) in high school: My Oingo Boingo “Only A Lad” poster that was on my living room wall that Danny Elfman actually signed (while actually IN my living room in Carrboro!!).
Band that you hated that everyone else at school seemed to love: When MTV first started in 1981, we used to watch it pretty much all the damn time. There was such a dearth of videos out there for broadcast that lots of really wacky, low budget videos were on all the time. Those were the bands I tended to like. But I’d occasionally see these videos though for these bands that I’d honestly never even heard of, like REO Speedwagon, Journey, Triumph, and they were almost always live concert videos with a million people at the concert, and I was like “What the hell! Who are these bands, and who are all those people at their shows, and why haven’t I even heard of these bands before!??” I must have been living under a rock, wearing my Sony Walkman, and listening to nothing but my Bow Wow Wow cassette or something. But lordy I hated Journey et al.
Best show or concert you saw in high school: Either Oingo Boingo or The Lords Of The New Church at The Pier in Raleigh, or Black Flag at the Old Cat’s Cradle (in the current NightLight location in Chapel Hill).
Optional bonus question: Best high school make-out song: Oh, if only I’d gotten to make out some in high school…… (I guess that’s what happens when you spend all your time listening to Bow Wow Wow on your Sony Walkman for crying out loud….)
