Songs That Rocked My Pubescent Heart

Dude, I've been giving this theme some thought and I've come up with a few truths. One, it hurts to rack your brain trying to think of the song that came next on a specific mixtape from 1994 Becca's you are just so sure that it would fit in perfectly with this thing we're looking for. I can picture the crowd reaction to songs at a party but not always remember the specific songs. Two, I clearly had two forces pulling me in different directions in high school. My friends that I spent most of my play-time with were into alternative and hip hop and that was great. But there were also the music people. The music/theater people to be more precise. These were people whose tastes strayed a little more towards the avant guarde. Does this pose a problem for me and this mix tape? Is this an issue that I can not overcome, these two forces -- pulling me by my hands and feet? There are clearly some songs from the first group that Rocked and there are clearly songs from the second group that remain, to this day, in my Heart.

Then I realized the answer. I had it all wrong. It's not the Rock factor, or even the Heart factor that makes this mixtape special -- it's the My factor. So I've thrown out a lot of the songs I had queued up and ready to go, songs I picked because they were the rockin songs of the day and I'm compiling a list of songs that rocked MY pubescent heart.

It was two or three days ago that I decided a song from this album was going to kick things off for us. It seemed to have just the right amount of everything. Most of my songs from the latter end of this era we're talking about are inexorably tied to driving around in my buddies Delta 88 Oldsmobile convertable, and perhaps no tape got more play from top to bottom than this one.

(Quick aside: that car, which wasn't a whole lot to look at -- very big and powder blue -- was every bit the babe magnet we'd hoped it would one day be in 8th grade as it sat on blocks in his garage. And perhaps nothing is a more telling testament to it's babe magnitude than the fact that 13 years later, I've still got my hooks in one of the young ladies whose eye was caught by it's magnificence.)

We were often Fast Forwarding or rewinding tapes back then to get to the songs we liked. The hits. But that wasn't true with this tape. The only cueing done with this bad boy was to rewind and listen to songs again so we could get the lyrics straight.

The tough choice was which song. There were a few that I threw out right away because I thought they were too on the nose, alrerady a part of our generations culture. I didn't want that, I wanted something that was part of my culture. A song that rocked my pubescent heart. I thought I had one picked. A song that I remembered vividly listening to time and again in that big car.

Then I remembered how this song started. And then I remembered every word to this song. And that's when I realized that there was no better place to start an awesome mixtape dedicated to pubescent rollicking than here where this one starts.

It's Coming Clean, Green Day. And it fits like a glove.
-- Ire

How is it that powder blue was the key to our high school babe-magnet cars? Of course, my '78 Camaro (with T-Tops) was also dotted with a liberal amount of primer (and rust), as well as tons of stickers to assert my alternative-ness.

In that car, and the various cars of my compadres, we also had our "staple" albums. This was one of them. From the opening of the disk, we would hear the "heybattabatta hey batta hey battabatta...", and it would be ON. The album had a feeling of power to it -- whether it was from the quality of the music, out newfound mobility and independence with an automobile, or the simple act of singing the word "motherfucker" at the top of your lungs with the windows down (there are many of them on this album, but my favorite is "...wake up, motherfucker and smell the slime!").

There isn't a weak track on the album, from where I'm looking (and with seventeen to choose from, that's no mean feat). Like you said, you only cued back and forth to clarify a lyric. So, I couldn't really go wrong with a pick here -- and I let your choice dictate what would come next.

We would always drive a little faster when this one came on. It's got that ooomph to it. And hell, it starts out with the lyric, "driving around, I got my baby and my top down..." You guys rode in a convertable.

How could I not pick it?

It's the motherfucking Red Hot Chili Peppers. The Greeting Song.
-- Kluv

Wooooooo! This mixtape is hot! I can barely touch it. I'm going to have to carry this disc to my car with an oven mitt. That album has always been one of my go to albums when asked about what are the most complete albums you've ever had. Top to bottom terrific. And that pick certainly has the stones that I was trying so desperately to convince myself I had back then.

My urge was to take a lateral step and keep up with the quick driving rock that painted so much of what I loved back then, but like our first Great Mixtape, I'm using the three spot to broaden our scope a bit.

Now this song has a lot of the same themes; music to puff your chest out to. But I stepped away from the alterna-punk scene to bring you this song that's close to my heart. It's the song that had rap music banned from the high school soccer bus. We used to ride and listen to music to get us pumped. This one tended to work a little too well to the point where there'd be a busload of kids singing its curse ridden chorus at the top pof their lungs.

The song made a famous comeback though later that year when our not-sanctioned-by-any-governing
-high-school-body travelling team would all get out of our cars after a caravan drive to some town, set up a jukebox and sit in the grass putting our cleats on to this jam -- all while eyeballing the home team (who were, in my mind, eyeballing their girlfriends, who were eyeballing us -- but again, that part's just in my mind).

(This may have actually only happened twice, but I like the idea that we did it 50 times and there are some teams in Massachusetts still doing it as an homage to the team from Westboro with the puffy chests and the stones.)

It's Shit Kickers, House of Pain.
-- Ire

This one, contrary to what some may think, took a lot of work. There are so many places for us to go in this mix, so many corners of my pubescence to mine. I resisted this track at first, fearing that perhaps it was a little too on the nose -- a continuation of the last genre, sentiment, and foul language'd title.

But, then I realized -- just like the heart, the mix wants what the mix wants.

And, this mix wants Ice Cube.

This track rocked my teenage years in such a bad-ass way. The totally infectious hook in this one could often be heard sputtering through my blown-out old Camaro speakers. I might have driven more recklessly to this song than any other. I think it was the combination of the groove (which is fucking bad-ass) combined with Cube's smooth yet plosive delivery.

Plus, he says "fuck" a lot in this one. Never underestimate the power of bad language over a teenage boy.

It's You Don't Wanna Fuck wit Theseby Ice Cube.
-- Kluv

Yes.

We used to put Cube on at parties without a single thought or care that it drove the girls from the dance floor. They'd be back when we put REM on or something. Ice Cube was for the boys who wanted to become men. I love it. I'm excited to recklessly drive around Wilmington while it blasts from my speakers -- well certain parts of Wilmington anyway.

I was very (VERY) tempted to continue down the path we've started down here and hit you with something off the Judgement Night Soundtrack, another disc that was instrumental in my formative years.

But I've decided to move diagonally back towards the pack. It's not quite a lateral step and it's not quite forward or back. I knew that this group was going to make it onto our list -- for me at least, they are some of the heaviest hitters from my teenage years. The only trouble was which track to go with. I wrestled with the decision. There are less-known songs that I love and there are hits that everyone loved. It wasn't an easy decision.

But then I too decided that on the nose was okay if it was on the nose with a purpose. This whole tape stuck with my group of friends for about 5 years. It was never far from our lives or our mixes. We'd all heard of this band before, everyone had. But this particular album hit the same time that we did -- and this song was the first one that grabbed a hold of us. It is, dare I say the song that began a lifelong love affair with three of the baddest, hip-hoppin'est jewish white guys ever to come out of the city we love.

So what if it's on the nose, for me -- it's the song that most clearly conjures 75 scenes from my pubescent years.

It's the Beastie Boys, So Watcha Want, and you can't front on that.
-- Ire

See, you and I think frighteningly alike, my friend. Judgement Night was large in my mind on the last pick as well... such a key album to my youth (but, unfortunately, I only had the cassette). The Helmet + House of Pain one was possibly my favorite.

But, you were on the money with the Beasties choice. That album, that song -- it's quintessential High School. Hell, I remember vividly when I saw the video premiere on MTV (remember when they showed videos?). I also remember almost getting killed when the crowd went ape-shit waiting for them to come onstage at Lollapalooza '94, and, after escaping the throng of people by crowd surfing to the front -- heading back into the mass of humanity when the Beastlies started. Skipping through the pits we went, ducking fists and boots, all to the tune of "Sabatoge" (which had just come out and was blowin' up the airwaves...).

Truth be told, though, as great as the Beasties were that night, they weren't the band I was there to see. I was there to see my band. The band I listened to more than any other. The band that spoke to my teenage angst (real or imagined). The band that spoke to my geeky, romantic, heart. The Pumpkins.

This track is from another one of those almost flawless albums from our high school days. I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that it's the most important album from those years for me. And, with so many songs to choose from on the album, I really couldn't go wrong. (Hell, if it weren't for some meddling teachers, "Today" would have been our prom song...)

But, I've picked the one that has remained among the top of my favorites for a long, long time. It's a track that captures what SP always did so well for me (and was one of my favorite things about them) -- the ability to merge the quiet and the loud. The beauty with that blowin'-your-doors-off sound.

It's Mayonaise, by Smashing Pumpkins.

"Can anybody hear me? I... just... want... to beeeeeeeeeeee... me!!!!"
-- Kluv

Okay. I've been agonizing over my pick. I've been trying every song I had prepped on my list of songs for this disc here in this slot and none of them seem to be where we are. It seems like in these moments of doubt I'm drawn to soundtracks. I, of course, tried to fit the entire Singles sountrack in and -- again -- it didn't quite fit.

Then a moment ago, I instant messaged you and promised that the pick would come in ten minutes. I was faking it. There was no pick. I'd bluffed, and bluffed badly. (Deep breath.)

I flipped back to my iTunes to force the issue and -- well, it turns out I didn't have to. The issue was right there in front of me. I'd left my library open to the Rs and there it was -- a very short step away from the Singles soundtrack as it turns out. An album that I'd bought for a few dollars a few years back and never really paid any attention to. I'd bought the album for this one song and I think it fits. In fact, square pegs and round holes notwithstanding, it fits. It fits because I say so.

Actually, it fits not just because I say so, but because one of the kings of musical/film teen angst agrees with me. He saw fit to use this artist again when he went on to make Singles, but the song that really got me was when Paul Westerberg was still with The Replacements and Lloyd Dobler was touting kickboxing as the sport of the future in Say Anything...

It's Within Your Reach, by The Replacements. And what it lacks it rock sauce it more than makes up for in pubescence.

Next song.
-- Ire

Daaaaaaaaaaaaag. Man, I forgot about that song. I forgot about that whole soundtrack. It single-handedly started me on a multi-year love affair with Peter Gabriel (1990-1992). That track has such great... ambiance. It makes me feel hopeful and angsty all at the same time. I guess that's what pubescence is all about.

This next track flows nicely from your pick, I feel. It was the first electronic-type album that I ever bought in my life. When I first heard this song at my buddy Josh's house, I wasn't sure what I felt about this song. I was thrown by the drum machine -- it kinda went against my early-alternate-ive heart. I was thrown by the fact that it was a band... of one guy. But then... I heard the pain. I heard the anger. The bitterness. The (again) teenage angst (real or imagined). Trent would get angrier and dirtier as the years went on, and I've still enjoyed his stuff -- but there is an innocence to it that still draws me to this one (it might be because it was the first song he ever wrote).

I also absolutely love the opening lyric -- it felt so good to learn it as a kid and speak it whenever the song would come on.... "Kinda like a cloud I was up way up in the sky and I was feeling some feelings you wouldn't believe and sometimes I don't believe them myself and I decided I was never coming down -- just then a tiny little dot caught my eye (it was just about too small to see) but I watched it way too long it was pulling me... Down."

Down In It, by Nine Inch Nails.
-- Kluv

This wasn't easy -- This pick was all about fighting urges. I'm getting the point where I'm worried about covering my bases... But I fought that urge -- didn't try to force it. The bases will be covered. I just need to trust it.

I fought the urge to play the song off of this same disc that is perhaps most closely linked to my pubescence. It's a certain track that we played second to last at every party and everytime I hear it it makes me relive about ninety different evenings. Even today, I feel as though it's too close to those times and those people to include here. That's the song that I distinctly remember one of my buddies telling all of us that he wanted played at his funeral. And he was as serious when he said it as the heart attack he will likely one day have -- prompting a very awkward exchange between his high school buddies and his wife and grown kids.

I fought the urge to write about how this album would have been remembered as equally essential to the grand scheme if this singer had only deemed life as unlivable as one of his more respected counterparts. (Okay, maybe I didn't fight that urge off completely.) I was there, this one's just as important...

I keep trying to come up with a clever way to sum up this pick. I can't. This album continues to rock my sox off. It continues to hit me in my gut and take hold of me like a fourteen year old.

I listen to this album and I need to fight another kind of urge altogether -- I need to fight the urge to ignore girls and homework and anything else I might be worried about, and dive headlong into a sea of my buddies and commence beating the shit out of each other.

You know how all the guys in Fight Club feel about fight club? That's how we felt about listening to this album -- we felt like we were better men for having lived through it.

It's Pearl Jam. Porch.
-- Ire

I cannot think of a better way to sum up that album, or that song, than you just did. I will leave it at that. I still get chills when I hear parts of it (and by the time I get to the "do-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-dooo" part in Black, I usually have tears in my eyes). With the next track, I know I can't match the frenzied passion of Porch. That song builds to this crescendo of guitar and wailing; and I would be remiss to assume that there are other tracks from then that could go tit-for-tat.

So I'm bringing it down. I had to cool it off. (Well, the tempo, at least.) You see, this next song also comes from an album that, for many of us, was essential to our pubescence. When it came out during the early years of High School, there was a darkness to this album that made me feel... mature. There was something more to it. I'd like to think it helped me grow as a fan of music.

And I still think it's their finest work.

On paper, this song doesn't rock, per-se... but, I can clearly see the fourteen year-old me sitting in my room, playing this album on repeat. Listening to this particular song, over and over, trying to discern the lyrics (he was always so difficult to pinpoint). I can clearly remember the moment when I realized what the last lines of this song was. I can clearly remember my young mind being rocked by the stones contained in those words.

"You... are wild. And I'm... in your possesion. Nothing's free.

So... fuck me kitten."

Speechless. It's R.E.M ., Star Me Kitten.
-- Kluv

Doooode. Perfecto follow up -- for all the reasons you stated and a few reasons you don't even know yet.

As I mentioned, we ended every party in high school with Alive, by Pearl Jam followed by another song -- that other song? Nightswimming, REM. It seems only fitting that the grown versions of ourselves would mirror that in some way.

I had a very similar experience figuring out the lyrics to this song -- all starting with that, "Wait a second, he's not saying 'Star,'" moment. I think it fits. We needed to break this thing down a lttle bit.

Okay. Alright. Okay.

You had to know you had a taste of this coming. Here's a song that is firmly entrenched with the theater/concert band/jazz band group of friends. My love for this band came without all the usual trappings of the dirty stoner lifestyle. We literally liked what they were doing musically. Hey, Duckles was on board back then and if anyone shuns the whacky tobbacky it's him.

This was not my first pick to make it onto this list by these guys, but they are sort of hard to fit into a mix like this. I loved this one in high school and it's a fun one to rock out to. It also contains one of the finer lyrics I've ever run into:

"I think of you unheading all the times I've raised my cup. It's now I knew that you knew that I'd soon end up end up."

Now that is a pilot!

Another quick aside to my dad and I alone in a car. We must have taken Kate up to Vermont or been returning from a camping trip in two cars, because it was just the two of us and I was making him listen to all the Phish albums I had. Again, saying a mouthful without saying much at all. He, having heard more than just a few songs said something along the lines of, "Musically, these guys are very interesting. They can obviously play. The lyrics suck."

He was right for the most part -- I didn't care. I liked them. I still do.

It's Sample in a Jar, Phish.
-- Ire

Yet another stunning example of the timeless question as to why I never got into Phish. This will have to be remedied. Someday.

My next pick is intertwined with two bands that were of the Utmost Importance to me in my pubescent Musical Taste Forming. The first band was Jane's Addiction. They broke up a few short weeks after we started high school. Later that year, I would come to love them, worship them, on many different levels -- and for many different reasons.

But that story is not for now.

Fast forward to the fall of 1993. At this point, we were deep in our alter-native-ness. And, the band that was always our "white whale" -- the one that we'd never get to see -- had morphed into something else. Perry, the lead singer, and Stephen, the drummer, had started a new band. Porno for Pyros. The name felt dangerous. (It was rumored to be a phrase Perry used to describe the recent LA riots.) We couldn't even say it around our parents -- they surely wouldn't understand. We began to refer to them as "PFP" to be more secretive.

Our buddy Josh managed to acquire a bootleg tape of a concert they did (oh the days before the internet!) and we quickly learned their songs. Shite quality, but something very magical to it -- feeling like we were on the inside of something. The songs and their content, like Jane's Addiction before them, definitely not our parents music. "Bad Shit", "Cursed Male", "Blood Rag", "Orgasm", "Black Girlfriend" and, of course, "Pets".

Fast forward to that spring. April, school is almost out, the air is filled with possibilities. The album is finally released. Whenever I still hear it -- it reminds me of that time. It had a real dark, exotic quality to the album -- dirty, even (in both the sexy way and in the grime and gunk way). A lot of that probably stems from the bass on the album -- there's a richness to the whole thing -- I can still remember it thump-thumping from my Magnavox 5-disc boom box.

Dangerous.

And, none moreso, than: "...I took off my clothes, and came four times... could not leave myself alone..."

"It was Porno For Pyros, Porno For Pyros."
-- Kluv

Hoooooooo! that's a good one. I never really paid any attention to that album. I got into Jane's Addiction way late and wasn't really ready to quit them yet. But that's a good one. I had to take a shower after I listened to it -- do with that information what you will.

I've been wavering on the next song. It's one of three songs -- I know it. One sort of follows the whole, "I hope my parents never find out I'm listening to this, because I think they would cry and never make eye contact with me again." And the other two are both by one artist, so I'm really chosing between the one song on one hand and the two songs on the other.

This was supposed to be fun.

I'm just kidding. This is sort of fun. Really, all three songs work. They are all fun and reminiscent of good times and rollicking. I think I just need to piss or get off the pot. Why can't I get off this pot!?

ROCKmattyHARDPLACE
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Okay! Here we go. I thought about it. I'm going to make the decision by not making the decision at all! I'll choose the song that fits thematically -- and pocket the other two, just to try and squeeze them in later. I'll tear my hair out then and maybe get two out of three in here. This is a marathon, motherfucka!

Here.

I was apprehensive about using this artist on this mix. It's an artist that showed up on our last mix, while I was still struggling with not making that mix a bunch of songs that rocked my pubescent heart. But then I was reading your explaination to the PFP song, and I relived that same feeling, and remembered that these guys really shouldn't be left out.

Allow me to paint a picture:

I'm sitting in a large group at our prime table in the high school cafeteria -- you can tell this was pretty early in my tenure at WHS, because from about a third of the way through junior year a few of my dude friends and I took to sitting by ourselves in the corner of the (then) Freshman section of the lunchroom. I think if you went back to our original table you still might find some of the same yappy girls having the same yappy conversations they had at that table every day in 1993. We got sick of it and moved. They would come and visit, but they knew to never pull up a chair and start yapping.

My buddy, not Steve Scarpa, not Jean-Claude, walks up to the table (the first one) with that yellow walk man everybody had back then (not me). And he says something very profound. He says, "Listen to this. I taped it off the radio last night."

(I fucking love that. Does anything encapsulate that time better than taping shit right off the radio -- you know, with the deejay intro and everything? I love it.)

Well, what he played for me was this song. I'd never heard of the band -- though a few months later (weeks? maybe) the whole country would be buying the album. I remember pressing the headphones onto my ears to listen as hard as I could. I remember thinking, "This is filthy." But not, "This is filthy." -- the way Tipper Gore thinks, "This is filthy." I was more like the eyes bugging, slight smiling, head twitching version. My, "This is filthy," was followed by a silent but understood, "This is filthy, and I like this. This is my kind of filthy."

Even now, when I hear this song it makes me want to hear it at a concert. I think that even today, in my ripening old age, I would be hard pressed not to let the eyes bugged, smiling, head twitch evolve into something much larger and more destructive.

It's the song that plays over Dingess' daydreams about John Paul. Please don't tell my folks I listen to it.

It's Stone Temple Pilots, Sex Type Thing.
-- Ire

Filthy indeed. I can remember sitting in my bedroom one night and watching Alternative Nation on MTV (they used to play videos!), when they premiered this video. All I remember is being a little freaked out by the fact that it felt like he was chasing me through the whole thing. Great song. (And, I forgot the joy of taping songs off the radio! It took me almost a month to finally get "Nightmare On My Street" off of FM97.)

So, the next pick, for me, is a no-brainer. A natural transition from your pick, since it has so much in common. My buddy Jeff introduced me to the band/album when he picked me up one day at my house and he put the CD in. (Was there a better feeling than running out of your parents house, jumping in your friend's car, and speeding away with the music blaring?)

It was a sound that I had never heard from a band before. It, too, was most definitely filthy. (In all the ways you mentioned.) It was dangerous -- of that there could be no doubt. It was something that my parents (and Tipper Gore) wouldn't approve of. In fact, a few years later, these guys would stand on the stage at Lollapalooza in their birthday suits, with tape over their mouths, and the initials of Tipper's "Parents Music Resource Center" written on their chests.

It also felt liberating. Here was a band that was unapologetically political, controversial, and completely balls to the wall.

My pick is a song that still gets my pubescent heart all wound up when I hear it today. I'm sure you can remember the first time you heard it. For many of us, it was a watershed moment. A time in our lives when we learned to scream, "Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me."

It's Killing In The Name, by Rage Against The Machine.
-- Kluv

Suh-weet.

I knew that this album was in the cards for us. Perhaps nothing rocked my pals and I harder than the explosive debut of Rage. We loved it and this was obviously this song that invited us all to the party.

This is most definately one that I didn't want my parents to know I was listening to. I vividly remember five of us cruising through Westboro in the minivan one of my pals always borrowed form his mother. (One of the old Dodge Caravans everyone had with the wood panelling.) We were just driving through the backroads of the boro, screeming, "Freedommmmmmmmmmm! Yeah, Right!" along with the radio. Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me indeed.

Funny story, I was a member of -- I think BMG and Colombia House at one point, and I was never great about sending in the, "No, I don't want this months free CD." cards. I got home one day and anxiously asked my mom if the mail had come and she asked me what I was waiting for. I told her I was waiting for a cd. To which she replied that it had come a few days earlier and that she sent it back because she thought it was one that I hadn't asked for.

"Why on Earth did you send it back!?"

"Well, you're sister and I read the names of some of the songs on the back cover and we were both sure that it was nothing you'd ever listen to."

She was wrong. I listened to it a lot. In cars. Screaming. I still don't have that cd.

Here's my return of service. It's a quick volley back at yoo, I hope you can handle it. Hot potato!

(Someday we should play Hot Potato with a hot potato -- just to see if it's all it's cracked up to be.)

This is kind of an embarrassing story because it involves my seeing Gavin Rossdale and Bush in concert. I was young, I needed the money.

A group of us, right after Bush's debut album came out in 1994, were digging the song Machinehead and decided to go see Bush in concert. Whatever, shut up. We liked seeing live shows and it was about ten minutes away and there were bound to be girls there becasue the singer was young and apparently hot and at that time unattached. The concert was at The Aud (The Worcester Auditorium) and we didn't really know what to expect.

All in all Bush put on a pretty kick ass show at the small venue. Capped off by Mr. Rossdale coming out by himself for the first encore to sing Glycerine (very good) and then the band joining him to play an extended version of REM's One I Love (very very very good).

For us though, the show had already been stolen. We were very surprised that night by the band Bush had tapped to open up for them. At this time in my life I was pretty much going to at least one concert every weekend and I'd found that if you give yourself over to an opening act, they are oftentimes worth watching. Well we didn't take any coaxing on this night. The opening act grabbed us and through us all around the room. It was a blast. And there were girls there. I had two of my favorite things going on simultaneously. If I had been drinking a Snapple rasberry iced tea, it might have been the best moment of my young life.

This is the band that I was waivering between two songs on my last pick. Your pick sealed the deal. I decided to stay away from their modest hit and go with the song I remember most vividly from that night where they rocked my pubescent heart. I feel like it fits.

It's I Come From the Water, The Toadies.
-- Ire

Ah the beauty of BMG, Columbia House, Bush and opening bands. I must admit I never really knew the Bush, but he married Gwen Stefani, so I guess he can't be a complete twat, right? And as for the Toadies -- they very well should have been on the Songs I forgot to Love mix for me. Every time I hear something of theirs I'm blown away -- Ben-No even made me a "That Toadies Concert" mix, where he re-enacted an awesome Toadies concert in compact disk form with the album version of the songs they played. It was great.

That song is great. Why the hell isn't it on Guitar Hero? That's what I want to know.

I'm going to keep this rolling with a band that us Lancaster kids used to enjoy live down at the Chameleon Club. A posi-straight-edge hardcore band from NYC, they rocked our asses harder than any other band I can remember at that age. The sweat that you used to talk of, when we'd be drenched from head to toe and walk out into the cold air, steam rising from our clothes -- it was that kind of show. I remember looking next to me at Stevie C. & Klove and we'd be jumping, pushing, punching, dancing. And when we felt like we couldn't do it anymore -- the band would kick it up another notch. There are a lot of great songs by these guys that we loved -- they were big on crowd participation, made us feel special -- like there was "Us" and then there was " The Rest".

I picked this track though, because I think it captures their live energy pretty damn well. During this song, they'd pull the always-enjoyable trick where they stop playing, and the entire crowd would scream: "NOOOOOOO I JUSTNEVERKNEWLOVE!!!!!"

It's Guy Like Me, by Black Train Jack.
-- Kluv

Great fucking song. Great! That's the kind of music that throws me back to the mid 90's like no other. It's the kind of song that I used to listen to in small clubs or basements. The kind of music that I would still hear ringing in my head a half hour after the show, sitting out on the curb with steam rising off my skull. It's the kind of music that will now force me to make the toughest selection of all of our mixes.

I've never read Sophie's Choice or seen the movie all the way through, but I'm pretty sure that "Sophie's choice" is a choice she has to make between her two children. One she gets to keep, the other goes to die.

That's how this feels.

I saw Black Train Jack once. They were great. They put on a good show. But I wasn't there to see them. I was there to see my favorite band, well ever.

A band that was at the top of our list from the first time one of our buddies with hip older sisters turned us on to them early in 8th grade all the way through high school, college and beyond. A band that I saw countless times, each time with the same amount of excitement as the first. That first show where I got picked up off the ground by the rush of the crowd when the band took the stage and didn't touch down firmly again until song five. (That's what happens when your not yet in high school and weigh aboit 105lbs.)

So it's a tough choice.

I could have stuck with the theme and gone with a song I loved hearing live or a song with a nice quick-music-stop-for-crowd
-scream as the band was great at those ("Awww, fuck!" or "Burn this place down!" come to mind). I was tempted to throw in the towel, cop out a little bit and just say here's track one off of album one -- the rest are just as good. It also occurred to me to go with the peppy cover song that all the girls really liked in high school. That was always a big hit at parties. But ultimately I decided to do exactly what Sophie did and stick with my boy(s).

I went with a song that might fall into the It's So On the Nose that It Really Isn't Anymore catgory. When I stop and really listen to this song for what it was to me back then, there really is no other choice. I listen to this song and it's like looking at a photo album in my mind. I see friends and faces that I don't ever think about unless these guys are playing in the background. This is the song where they really put it all together. It's the song whose lyrics we all used to scream at each other at the top of our lungs.

It's Someday I Suppose, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones.

It's got the infectious horns that always drew me to these guys, one of the best bass lines you'll ever hear and well, when Nate starts in with the long numbing chord that rides through the intro, I still feel this song in my spine. And I've listened to it about seven thousand times.

These guys perfected the genre they helped to create with this song. Again, Nate shows this better than anyone nailing the light and fluffy classic ska riff in the verse and, in the same breath, bringing us the transcendant guitar heroism in the chorus. Dickie's voice is at it's raspy best. And I always got the sense that Ben Carr kicked his dancing up a notch or two during this song.

To try to talk about my life between 8th grade and Ithaca without talking about this band would be impossible. Perhaps no song better exemplifies what life was like for my crew of friends. This one was always there. Most of these songs I've picked have a funny story or anecdote attached to them. You'll get no such anecdote here. There's too many.

You will get this:

"The more I sort it out the more it gets distorted. I sort of think I'm better off just leaving it unsorted. The more I try to change the course the more off course it goes. Of course, I'll reach my destination someday, I suppose."

If that's not puberty, I don't know what is.

Thank you very much, goodnight.
-- Ire

Happy President's Day. My next pick has taken some time to formulate -- partially, because I felt the Bosstones choice by you was a perfect encapsulation of what this mix is all about, and could easily have ended there... and partially, because there was something nagging me in the back of my head. Like I was missing something that needed to be found before we finish this off.

I think I found the source of that nagging.

There was one element of pubescence that I've been forgetting. An element that is, perhaps, the main source of our teenage angst and joy. Girls. It was interesting and rare when I caught glimpses into the musical minds of those girls in High School, rarer still when I was in sync with the tunes that I found. But I can remember vividly the moments when this band created a tenuous connection between the guys and girls -- a band that deftly combined musical elements that appealed to both our interests. A folk accessibility and a punk mentality.

I remember being at some sort of theatre party (fall play, perhaps?) -- the sweet smell of patchuli wafted in the air, making those alter-native girls even more interesting to my young self. And I remember this band coming on the stereo -- it was as if everyone's (or, perhaps just mine) hormones were kicked up a few notches. By the time "Add It Up" came on, it magnified the excitement & uncomfortability. (I mean, how could it not? Everybody singing, "Why can't I get just one kiss?" -- knowing that "Why can't I get just one fuck" was coming next!)

I will always associate this band with those days of pubescence and all the crushes contained therein. And I will always remember this particular track to be the one that allowed any crush to let itself out -- if just for two minutes and twenty four seconds -- when all the guys and the girls got together on this rare occasion, singing, dancing, pretending to strum that guitar... but, most of all, screaming at the top of our lungs: "Big hands, I know you're the one."

Man oh man, did this song rock my heart.

It's Blister In The Sun, Violent Femmes.
-- Kluv

Very nice choice indeed, sirrah. You were right, no obscure club band was going to top the MMB, it was going to take one of the saved up heavy hitters. I couldn't agree more with your assertion that these dudes bridged the gap between estrogen and testosterone at a time when that gap was never so wide.

This song was once in my head for three and a half weeks. True story.

Okay, this song wasn't as easy a pick as its swiftness would imply. I wrestled with some other options (options that would mesh better with your bridging the gap theme), but when it came down to it, I had to stick with my gut. I knew that we were closing this thing out and I wanted to make sure the Irish band I listened to throughout high school was represented.

I was also tempted to include the Canadian band I listened to throughout high school, and I regret that they probably won't make the list. (I planned on using their song, Enid -- I'd loved it so back then. I was going to retell the story of when you and I were sitting waiting for Studio 2 auditions to begin and Frants approached us and Dan Holobaugh (who was wearing a BNL t-shirt and rapid fired the lyric, "I can get a job. I can pay the phone bills. I can cut my lawn, cut my hair, cut out my cholestoral. I can work overtime. I can work in a mine. I can do it all for you, but I don't want to, " and the four way friendship that lives and breaths to this day was born. But then I thought, that was a better story for another mixtape about our love for the bone.

I've mentioned before that I listened to these guys and little else for a long stretch at the beginning of high school. They were from a movie a liked and played music I loved. This was always a song that rocked my sock off. It also has some important life lessons about how to treat the ladies -- which is an important thing to drum into the mind of a growing young lad.

The movie music is best remembered for the booming rich tones of their sixteen year old frontman -- but for my money, I always liked the tracks that were fronted by their movie manager and recorded only for the soundtrack. This is one of his.

It's Treat Her Right, The Commitments.

I'm black and I'm proud.
-- Ire

"Songs That Are Reasons We Loved The Bone". I like it. I also lurve that Commitments tune, which, after doing my best James Brown Dance, made me realize that somehow through all these years of knowing you, I've never seen the movie. How is that possible? Think about that. As for my pick...

It's time to talk about Jane's Addiction.

I've said that Smashing Pumpkins were my band in High School. But Jane's Addiction were probably the most important to me. It wasn't until they had broken up that I would find them. When I first listened to them, they completely blew my fucking mind. It's hard to describe what it felt like -- but, all I know is that in those times of puberty and confusion and broiling emotions, Jane's just made sense. They felt right. They made me feel like a grown up -- and not in the "I've got a job and responsibilities" way. In the way that while both Miller Lite and a 15-year-old Dalwhinne can get you drunk -- and even though beer is cheaper, easier to drink, and more popular -- that doesn't mean it's the best.

They made me feel like a grown up in that, just like when I found I could first "taste" scotch, there were these new feelings in music I hadn't seen before. Jane's brought me songs about life, love, drugs, sex and death -- all in the guise of not just art, but fucking rock. And while this may all sound like a huge, cliched assessment, I think I can boil it down to one moment from my Sophomore year.

By that spring, our group of friends had come to intersect with a group of Seniors who I thought were, well, the coolest. I don't really remember how we ended up infiltrating their ranks -- perhaps it was the shared art classes, perhaps it the same concerts attended, perhaps the afternoons and evenings spent at Dance Theatre rehearsal. Probably all of it.

At an age where a lot of things in our early adult lives just don't make sense, and the smallest problems feel like they can ruin your life -- the fact that the cool senior you look up to likes the same song as you can mean everything. And when one of those cool seniors (Sean Harmon -- still remember his name) comes over and gives you the homemade Jane's Addiction hat that you saw him wear all year (black baseball cap he glued a Jane's patch to)... well, I don't know if you can measure the amount of confidence something like that can bestow upon a skinny, pimple-faced fifteen year old kid.

That's what Jane's Addiction means to me.

This is my favorite track of theirs. I still get chills every time I hear it. It's about life, love and death. It fills both my pubescent and almost 30-year-old heart with rock and awe. It always will.

It's Then She Did, by Jane's Addiction.
-- Kluv

That's the capper. There's not much else to say.

It seems only fitting that this mixtape should end as we move from the teen tracks into the twenties. I see nowhere to go from there. There may have been a few bands left under unturned stones, but again -- we have to be saving songs for the box set re-release.

That is a great song. It's one I've not listened to in a very very long time. As I said, it's a fitting capper. I concur with your thoughts and I'm glad that you allowed yourself to expound on the scene, as I feel that my track descriptions have been running a little long (again, always thinking about the boxed set).

All in all, I'm excited about this mix. I'm excited to cruise around town listening to it like I'm driving to soccer practice or Burger King for the tenth time in six days. I'll listen to it while I drive to the mall down here and pretend that I'm driving there to purchase nothing, like I did then. I'll air drum and, when in the confines of my little office here, let elbows fly. I'll remember good times and friends forgotten. I'll listen to these songs and let them rock my heart all over again.

Good job.
-- Ire