This Is The Soundtrack To Hanging Out In That Dude's Van in 1990

Remember when the most interesting people were the ones that hated their parents? Whether it was a simmering subsurface rage at divorced, wealthy and emotionally distant ones, or just naked aggression at a loving family, these kids were the most fascinating ones in high school. They knew about the best bands, the best shows, and never had to worry about someone's loving concern for them getting in the way of their good time.

For about two years all I wanted to do was sit around some dude's room that got rearranged every week and plastered with Cure posters, smoking cheap weed and listening to the Misfits. We used to "spend the night" at this one guys' place every weekend, which really meant wandering around the streets of Norfolk drinking Cisco, smashing the bottles and crunching the glass under our all-too-new Doc Martens. Sometimes somebody got a home-made tattoo and we always ended up trying to score drugs from the drag queens at the Rocky Horror Picture Show. One time my face melted into my hand and a stone wall absorbed my ass.

This is an online mix tape that perfectly captures the ambient sounds from late ninth-early eleventh grade. It's vintage Berkeley-area punk rock, passionately played and shittily recorded. It's making me nostalgic for a time when angst was cool and you could tell the good guys from the bad guys by their t-shirts...yeah, those days were the best.

posted by Jeff Simmermon @ 10:14 AM