The all the all of you

I went home to NH a couple weeks ago and impulsively grabbed a few things to bring back to NYC with me.  Specifically, old journals and mix tapes.  I suppose this was partially fueled by the new storytelling / personal writing kick I've been on lately - I'm constantly trying to dig into my past for a good story - but it was also for purely nostalgic reasons, especially with the tapes.  Allison left me her ghetto-blaster boombox before she went to London so I knew I could finally revisit the gems that I taped off the radio somewhere around 1995-1997.

I've been listening to these since then and oh. my. god.  Not only are they so full of adolescent angst (these covered ages 12-14), but parts of them are still pretty fucking awesome, if I do say so myself.  The fact that I taped the majority off the radio lends them an extra-special charm.

Side B of what I like to call "The 7th Grade tape" has a particularly stellar buildup of tracks, which I would like to recreate for you here, in video form.  You may want to put on a flannel and/or some Delias jewelry:

No Doubt - Just A Girl


Bush - Glycerine (holy crap, by putting those two songs next to one another it's like my 12-year-old mind was predicting the future marriage of Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale!  Whoaaaa.)


Toadies - Possum Kingdom (I forgot how creepy and messed up this song and video are)


Green Day - Brain Stew


and the best one ever.....
Spacehog - In The Meantime


I say "best one ever" because it was and always will be the best song on that mix.  It was my most favorite song for probably all of junior high and I played that section of the tape so much that I'm surprised it still works.  It's hilarious to me now that I loved this song so intensely even though the lyrics make absolutely no sense and I couldn't understand half of them anyway.  Early evidence of how I still always favor composition over lyrics, I guess.

As a bonus, I had an epic night of reading through my old journals yesterday and found this as further evidence:

The best song in the world is "In The Meantime" by Spacehog.  I think it has most influenced me to have a band.  I think about our band* and remember seeing them on Jay Leno at Cecelia's house whenever I hear it.

*What I meant by "our band" is the "band" that consisted of me and two of my best friends at the time, Cecelia and Sarah.  Collectively we knew about five chords on the acoustic guitar and I would attempt to "drum" with pencils on textbooks.  We spent most of our time thinking up cool band names (contenders being Hybrid Monkeys and Electric Toastmen... um... we weren't men).  I wish I could find a clip of that Leno performance somewhere online... I wonder if it would still shatter my world.

It's funny how not much has changed, though.  Well, Cecelia is married and has a baby and I'm pretty sure Sarah is a budding lawyer, but I'm still soundtracking my life with dramatic music and air drumming.

And I still I love the all the all of you.