Remember when you were younger and you were just this kid kind of stumbling into teen hood and you weren't so sure about yourself or any of your peers and all the girls (or guys depending on your sexual preference) were lame and no one understood anything? Ahh... Those were the days right? Paranoid about every movement but on the outside declaring you didn't care? Grasping desperately to connect but somehow just missing? Then, wait, whats this? A hand reaching out, if you're lucky, to help guide you through the next five to six years of your young life. That hand for me was punk rock music. Granted I was new to the game I held on to it as tight as I could, lapping up anything that was dropped into my dish. Keep in mind this was 14 years ago and the Iiternet was almost non-existent, especially for poor old me. No illegal downloading, no Purevolume, Myspace or Facebook. These were the DIY days still. I would basically grab up anything that had faster music and beat it into the ground. More often than not, they were Doc. Martens samplers that were really terrible minus one or two songs and even those songs looking back today make me cringe.
Now, I will try to explain the first big three for me. These are the bands that had me hooked first and even after I had moved on to bigger and better things I held onto these three and even now I still listen to the records that grabbed me...
I will start with Guttermouth. These guys will get the most heat from all three or four people that read this blog. When I was but a wee Trailer, my world was full of terrible music. All of my friends at the time were either into nu-metal faves Limp Biskit and Korn or trying to be gangster and I couldn't even begin to explain what they were into since I was 12 and I didn't understand rap music at all. Lucky for me I had discovered a skateboard. That skateboard opened all kinds of doors for me that should not have opened. Anyway, there was this chick across the street from me and she was like 17 and smoked weed with her hippy parents and loved Tool and so on and so on. She did however think it was cool that I was twelve and liked faster music. One day she handed me an album named "Full Length LP" by Guttermouth. HOLY SHIT! My world instantly turned up on its head. The hole in my heart was becoming full. The first time I heard "Racetrack" I want to say I probably stomped something into pieces in my room but that would be a lie. I still don't know what Mark Atkins says through out most of that song.
Next up, something a little more happy. My best friend had started going out with this girl (*side note: we were in seventh grade so I don't even know what you would call that relationship although we would regularly go to the skating ring where he would feel up her shirt and she did fail eighth grade so he would catch up with her. That's love right?). Like I was saying, he started dating this total bitch of a girl that I would have to put up with on the reg for like two plus years. He was gangster and she was nu-metal/alternative/step-kid/gross. It didn't make any sense but the one redeeming factor she had going for her is she had a copy of MXPX's "Life In General". she told me that I might like it and let me borrow it. It was never returned to her. Ever. Bitch. With this album I found out that punk rock music doesn't always have to be an asshole. Sometimes it can be happy and about girls, which I sorely lacked in my life.
And the last in the bunch. My other best friend growing up had an older brother that was this more metal head-than-punk asshole guy who was like twenty and never hung out with us cuz we were 11-12. When he would drag us around he would try to embed racist shit into our heads and force us to listen to Cannibal Corpse. All in all he was pretty lame. He did however, listen to mostly punk rock before the dark lord gobbled up his soul and spit out a neo-nazi tool bag. I snuck into his room one day, stole his cd book and grabbed AFI's "Very Proud Of Ya", double taped it and then put it back before being caught. This album is the probably the most "punk" of the bunch and was the nail in the coffin for me.
After having this trifecta of double time music firmly under my belt I began to expand my horizons at full force. Reading those liner notes front to back and finding other bands names in the "thank yous" section, I would save up lunch money for Best Buy and the nitro mail order. I started going to shows and finding more and more music.
Now lets add fourteen years to these bands existence. Two of them are still sort of the same but not quite and the other is almost unrecognizable. Guttermouth and MXPX are still out there doing their thing but on different scales. Guttermouth barely tours and has a rotating line-up like a high school hardcore band. Their albums seem to always be just short of the mark these days. And lastly, you never can tell if they want to be a full fledged punk rock band or this weird synth thing that pops up randomly. It's pretty weird. MXPX still tours on the occasion but took on a more friendly radio approach (which is odd considering they are already sort of a christian band sometimes) and they just didn't age well with me. AFI is pretty much a stadium cock rock band now. their last two albums didn't do it for me and Davey doesn't know if he wants to be the chick from Beetlejuice or Axel Rose. Its just not for me.
Lets jump ahead to me at 25. Things have undoubtedly changed. I'm no longer a snot nosed teen. I live on my own, have a car note and pay my taxes. Some would say I'm a respectable citizen of the United States. The punk is still in there but I am no longer giving middle fingers to cars passing by and I ditched my studded belt years ago. Instead I feel a little more intelligent and can argue as good as the next. I still think the world sucks, not because my favorite band sold out but because there is a Walmart at every interstate exit and corporations are stripping this world to dust. I still have my nose ring, but I take it out when I go to work. Things change.
Did I, at twelve have a different approach to these bands, thus giving them a far better chance? Of course. I had never heard any of them or any thing like them. My ears were virgin and they were the suave older dude smoking cigs with a mustache and an '87 camaro at the skating ring. They stole my heart and well, my punk rock v-card. Does that change the fact that there were better bands out there doing the same thing? No, they were who I came into contact with and connected with forming a bond. Do I hate them now like I do that dude? No way. I went and saw Guttermouth last year when they came and it was one of the best shows I have ever seen in my 13 years of shows. They brought the proverbial rain as they say. These bands are still the same bands but have grown and changed over the years. I cant hate them for that. I can hate some of the material that they put out but that doesnt change the fact that "Black Sails in The Sunset" will most likely be in my rotation till I can no longer hear. It doesnt change the fact that "Steak" is probably one of my favorite songs ever and it is a Guttermouth song. Now, add in the fact that I have changed over the years as well and boy, the world just got a lot bigger. How can I expect them to play to my same tastes? I cant.
To the point of this entire entry. People, much like music over a vast amout of time changes. The song may remain the same but the people playing it to the people embracing it, or lack thereof, change. We are an ever changing variable in a world full factors. The people that I grew with may have changed their ways and their haunts over the years but nine times out ten, the same person is still in there. Unless of course they got sexually molested by their frat house buddies or crack took a serious hold on them. Those things can change a person at the core I would imagine. Things just change, flat out.
I love all of my friends. Some of them are more family than family. I dont want this enrty to alienate anyone of you but I felt it needed to be said and I hope you understand. I feel like when I am around some people these days, they just don't look at me the same and I do the same to them. I would rather not argue about it but maybe they will read this spiffy little blog of mine and the message gets across that way. So all in all, things may have changed in more than a few ways this last year but I still love you guys. Call me when you want to go out on an adventure.
-T-pain, signing off turds!
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