High School seemed like such a musical blur (1988-1992)
I've been trying to figure out what would be the best way to start this blog. In my opinion, there is not a better way than giving my audience a snap shot of my music autobiography from my High School into my early years at University of Arizona as a College Radio DJ.
These are my fond musical memories of the 1990's...
At the beginning of the decade it was all about Depeche Mode's Violator. That album was such a watershed for me into non-mainstream music along with Jane's Addicition's Ritual de Lo Habitual and Nothings Shocking even though it was released in 1988. I had just come out of a major classic rock phase my sophomore year of High School lots of Led Zeppelin, Floyd, and the Doors. The Velvet Underground's Heroin set the stage for the heroin crazed world of Jane's. There was lots of Naked Raygun and Social Distortion, "Story of My Life" was such a great song and still is.
Then I heard Skinny Puppy's "Who's Laughing Now?," and "Dig It, and that just changed everything. Front 242 released Tyranny >For You<. I remembering the elation that I got personally for skipping school just to go see Nitzer EBB on the Ebb Head Fuck Head tour. Then all the great classics of the decade came out at the tail end of Senior year. Also in that time you discover all of big names of music like Joy Division, New Order, REM, Sonic Youth, Morrissey and the Smiths.
You rent the Hunger and you experience the awesome power of Bauhaus performing the first 4 minutes of "Bela Lugosi's Dead while lusting over Catherine Deneuve as David Bowie kills someone. Then there were the shoegazer movement of England, and lots of punk rock. I loved My Bloody Valentine, Ride, and Curve. There are all the Greebos like Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Wonderstuff and the Poppies. There was the Pixies and the Jesus and Mary Chain. Even though it's not their best album, I will always remember The Cure's Wish.
I gathered 6 of my closest friends and took them to the show for the Wish tour, my first experience of 3 hours of the Cure. Then there was Ministry's Psalm 69 which was huge along with My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult's confessions of a knife. That Nine Inch Nails band, where one day you are there only fan then a couple years later, the kids that made of the weirdo with shaved head in high school are high fiving each other and you 2 years later when the first couple drum beats of that Frat boy fucking animal song begins at a huge concert hall. There were the first couple Lollapaloozas that I went mainly 2 and 3.
All and all when you attend High School in a small town in the midwest during the time when the whole alternative music craze was about to break it was kind of exciting because, you thought that there just might be a moment when cool music that you were discovering would actually be played on the radio and then when turn a dial that station you are about to tune doesn't suck. Looking back now this such a naive thing because for moment it was great then it went to shit. Then there was Last Rights and the Inquistion ep that came out and that was just truly amazing. I was so mad that first show at the Vic was sold out and when they played Metro on July 21 I could not find anyone that wanted to go to the show. This one still hurts to this day. Oh yeah then there was Nirvana and that just changed the rules forever. Grunge was so huge! I was always more of a Wax Trax kid and more into what was going on in England than the grunge scene. to be continued....