Karen Booth
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….)
I used to live for Friday Night Videos when I was a teenager. I looked forward to it all week long. This will be my lame tribute to it, on Friday afternoons because most of you are at work and looking for an excuse to mess around on the internet for a few minutes. There wasn’t much of a thought process that went into picking this first one–I heard the song this morning while shuffling our entire music library (which creates some interesting segues, let me tell you). Post a comment or send me an email at karen [at] karenbalcom [dot] com if you want to nominate a video for a future Friday afternoon–my only rule is that it can’t be anything depressing. That means no Guns ‘n’ Roses “November Rain”.
Teenage Fanclub “What You Do To Me”
Hard to believe that installment 25 of RNRHS has arrived. Funny how some things seem to take on a life of their own. This has been an exercise in self-indulgence, allowing me to spend time re-connecting with old friends, making new ones, and unearthing my musical memories. I suppose that’s the advantage of having a blog, especially one with your name on it–you get to do whatever you want. Tom Maxwell is the guinea pig for the Silver Edition, rounding out a trifecta of Chapel Hill music fabulousness over the last two weeks that also included Greg Humphreys and Jim Wilbur. When I asked Tom to take part, his biggest concern was that there was no way to live up to Scott Carle. I agree it’s quite an undertaking, Scott should probably just hijack my blog for himself. Still, I defied Tom to be lame and he failed, and I have a sense that much like Scott Carle, Tom could have written about music (rock ‘n’ roll or not) and his youth for days. Last week I mentioned the urban legend of the long-gone R.E.M. t-shirt, but what I really want to see is the shirt Tom’s brother made for him.
Tom Maxwell
Mountain Heritage High School, Burnsville, NC, Class of ’83, Currently: Musician, Dad, Producer, Writer, Wine Sales Rep
Band and/or song that reminds you the most of high school: I haven’t really given it much thought, but the first two songs that come to mind are both by Queen: “We Will Rock You” and “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”. They were, both for the band and the time, remarkably pared down productions. I had suffered through the excess of the 70s, hearing Boston (the dude harmonized with his own screams!) and other inscrutables like “Tonight’s The Night” and “Blinded By The Light” being overplayed on the big Charlotte FM station. Those Queen songs are great pop, accessible, and came as something of a relief. Also, each have only about 20 vocal tracks; a kind of triumph of restraint for that band.
Favorite piece of music memorabilia (poster, t-shirt, etc.) in high school: My brother Steve made me a Small Faces t-shirt, which I basically wore until it fell off.
Band that you hated that everyone else at school seemed to love: By high school I was completely in my own musical world. I was scouring the record store in Asheville to find a battered copy of “The Velvet Underground” or Parlaphone releases of Beatles records. I had no time for Def Leppard or whatever the fuck people were listening to. High school, for me, might as well have been a monastery. I was in band, and therefore permanently uncool. I didn’t smoke, drink or do drugs. I had only kissed one girl, once. My real musical crisis had occurred some years before, with Kiss. Never liked ’em, which put me decidedly out of step with the middle school crowd. I guess everyone in middle school feels that way anyway.
Best show or concert you saw in high school: Didn’t see show one until I got to Chapel Hill. See above. I redeemed myself by seeing the Flat Duo Jets open for The Woods a week or so after coming to college.
Optional bonus question: Best high school make-out song: See above. My first choice for make-out music now would be anything by Hariprasad Chaurasia.
RNRHS 24 comes from Greg Humphreys, local NC musician extraordinaire and unfairly talented guy (I’m sure it seems fair to him, but to the rest of us…sheesh). It’s only a matter of time before somebody names him the honorary Prince of Orange County. Greg has brought us some cool memories, including one about the elusive old-school R.E.M. t-shirt. Many people who have done this blog questionnaire have either mourned the loss of am R.E.M. shirt or bragged that they still have theirs. Greg made some ill-advised alterations to his, but I’ll have to let him tell you about that. For as much as I loved R.E.M., I don’t think I ever had one of their shirts. Instead, I took a beat-up jean jacket and drew the cover of Chronic Town on the back with a Sharpie. I did a damn good job, if I do say so myself. Peter Buck even signed it when they were in Minneapolis the first time I saw them. My husband, Steve, just found an original copy of Chronic Town on vinyl and we were listening to it last night–if ever a collection of songs was meant to be enjoyed with the pops and scratches, it’s that one. Greg mentions here that going to see R.E.M. made him feel like he was in college. I remember feeling the same way, their music made it seem like we were older and cooler, at a time when that was what we all desperately hoped to be.
Greg Humphreys
RJR High School, Winston-Salem, NC, Class of ’85, Currently: Musician / Singer-songwriter / Performer / Producer
Band and/or song that reminds you the most of high school: I’ve got a few, so i’ll list them with an associated memory.
U2. Our high school band The Trash (Goode, Taylor, myself, Higginbotham) played almost the entirety of their “Under a Blood Red Sky” live EP. Not well, exactly, but often and with gusto.
Run-DMC. rockin’ ‘Hard Times’ loudly in Doernberg’s Volare, interior ceiling upholstery flapping in the breeze.
Boston. watching friends play air guitar to ‘Peace of Mind’… I’ll leave the rest of the story untold so as not to humiliate myself and others.
Favorite piece of music memorabilia (poster, t-shirt, etc.) in high school: R.E.M. Reckoning tour T-shirt. Got it at the Duke Chapel concert I went to with Phil Morrison. Ended up cutting out the sleeves… shouldn’t have done that.
Band that you hated that everyone else at school seemed to love: Easy target, but I hated Information Society. Maybe the worst of ’80s pop in one band. Blech. I have to admit I never really liked Motley Crue or Hair Metal bands like Poison… just didn’t think the songs were that good.
Best show or concert you saw in high school: Again, hard to pick one, so I’ll give a quick list. Forgive me if any details are wrong, my memory is bad.
Stray Cats at Wait Chapel. Hooper in a white Panama Jack suit with straw hat and floral shirt. The Busboys opened and killed it.
R.E.M. at Duke Chapel. Sitting with the college kids in the balcony, feeling all college-y. Did Stipe do an acapella version of ‘Moon River’ ? I can’t remember. Holsapple-led dBs opened.
Fresh Festival at Greensboro Coliseum. Run-DMC, Grandmaster Flash, Fat Boys, Whoodini. The dancers from ‘Electric Boogaloo Breakin’ 2′ performed in a boxing ring in the middle of the floor between sets. Went with Phil and Jon Healey.
The Police at Greensboro Coliseum. Syncronicity tour. Rag outfits, Trampolines. Pure-T awesomeness.
Big Country at Wait Chapel. How I loved their huge Scottish rock anthems! Went with Trash drummer Greg Taylor. Later tried to replicate “In a Big Country” many times; failed. Wiretrain opened. RIP Stuart Adamson.
The Right Profile / The dBs / Let’s Active at Reynolds Auditorium. Phil put this concert together as a benefit for a Key Club food drive. We got to hang out with Holsapple, Dixon, Easter et al backstage and felt like the coolest kids ever.
Full disclosure: I love Jim Wilbur. Not many people can pull off the grumpy lovable guy thing. I can see him rolling his eyes at that statement–stuffing his hands in his pockets and walking away in a ratty old man cardigan. A million years ago (also known as the early ’90s), Jim and my friend, Liz, were boyfriend and girlfriend. Steve and I would hang out with them almost every weekend, playing a card game called Pooch and drinking beer. After a few drinks, Jim would threaten to make us listen to Steely Dan or some Contemporary Classical composer (I can’t remember the name of the guy he liked the best…Walter somebody-or-other). Then he would usually go on some sort of rant or throw his cards on the table in disgust and we would all laugh our asses off. Those were great days–sitting in the kitchen in the house on Jo Mac Road. I miss them. Jim and I used to argue about Steely Dan and whether or not girls like them. He was (and probably still is) very pro girls and SD, which seemed a little too convenient since he likes both of them. I maintain that girls don’t like SD, or if they say they do, they’re just saying it to either get a guy or keep him. And one last thing, while we’re on the subject of girls and guys and music…I can’t begin to express my awe at just how deep Jim had to dig for his best make-out song.
Jim Wilbur
Robert E. Fitch Senior High School, Groton, CT, Class of ’85, Currently: I work from the back of a used bookstore in Durham selling stuff on ebay – mostly vinyl and, until recently (sigh), it seemed like most of it was jazz LPs that ended up being shipped to dudes in Japan. When I’m not involved in the topsy turvy world of internet commerce, I fly around the actual world and play rock music with the Superchunk band. In many ways the day job is more exciting than the touring…. it’s definitely less stressful. Though, honestly, the band stuff isn’t too stressful anymore, either….
Band and/or song that reminds you most of high school: The indie/punk rock canon of the mid 1980’s was core to me. I’m talking about the Minutemen, Husker Du, The Replacements, Minor Threat, you know, those guys…. but I was also totally into Bruce Springsteen and Steely Dan. I didn’t see it as blasphemy to worship from different pews. Still don’t.
Favorite piece of music memorabilia from high school: One thing that kept me going through high school was reading Maximum Rock n Roll zine and just being nuts about hardcore in all stripes. I would buy every hardcore record that came into my local shop (Mystic Disc, in Mystic CT). If it was HC, then it was for me. I wish I hadn’t sold most of my collection over the years. Now that I sell on ebay, I’m aware of how well some of that stuff has aged. In a collectibilty-sense, that is. My favorite piece of memorabilia would have been a Minor Threat t-shirt that I got from a gift store. Looking back, I’m sure it was not made by or for the band. In other words, a sort of bootleg tee. I still remember wearing it once in the presence of DC HC royalty and being aware, quite suddenly and unexpectedly, that it was a faux pas.
Band that you hated that everyone else at school seemed to love: Twisted Sister. Now I’m not so sure about my feelings for Dee Snider and gang. Maybe they were onto something afterall.
Best show you saw in high school: Billy Bragg at the Living Room in Providence, RI.
Optional Bonus Question: Best high school make-out song: I guess it would have to be “I Can Dream About You (If I Can’t Hold You Tonight)” by Dan Hartman from the “Streets of Fire” soundtrack. That or something else equally pathetic. Was such a stupid romantic in high school.
