Jen at 18: Through Song

God, have been starting so many posts with pre-posts of late. I should really stop doing that. Anyway: as per the almost voting that occurred over the weekend- I present myself (as best I remember) at 18… through song. Comment away like little beavers so I have presents when I return to blogging next week. In the meantime, have finally given up trying to use my anti social tendencies as the solution to the dramas in my life, and am going the other route, and have planned a week of (mild) debauchery (with the exception of Thursday sweet Hayley, which will be beautifully, blissfully innocent). I’ll tell you next week which approach was more successful (I’m guessing friends, booze and perhaps an odd joint is gonna win out. Sorry sobriety but you haven’t been living up to your promises). Finally: Zoe, you put in a good effort with the compliments, but unfortunately they were not effusive enough! (also welcome to commenting… AFTER A WHOLE YEAR OF SILENCE and on and off LURKING- our relationship has clearly gone to a whole new level). More importantly, that facebook post is pretty boring- it is basically every comment Bel and I made to each other on Facebook during June (I thought it was amusing for a second… but it’s pretty lame). I might put it up next if you still want to read it (as in- you’ll have to tell me, otherwise I won’t). Ps. Was extremely jealous of your Zara adventure Miss Zoe.

To the post:

Jobe’s recent comment referring to Radiohead’s Kid A made me realise there’s huge chunks of my music collection I rarely listen to these days. This is partly because my music focus has naturally changed over time- but a lot of it has also been due to my recent recoiling from anything with too much sound and depth as I so eloquently explained in this post (for a while, the only music I found bearable was mainly the electronic kind)- although, thankfully it was also cured by writing that post.

Anyway I was instantly nostalgic and listened to a whole bunch of crap I haven’t touched in over a year (maybe 2 or even 3 years???). So this time, instead of updating my box with whatever happens to be on the computer, I’ve made an effort (!) and put up a bunch of stuff I was listening to when I was 18-19 (I think, the brain can be fuzzy sometimes). Oh the memories.

Some notes on the playlist:

*My first encounter with DJ Shadow was on my way back from some hippy music festival that was really not that memorable. Went with a friend from highschool and a couple of guys I’d never met (acquaintances of highschool bud) who were ok company.  For some reason I thought almost everyone I met at the festival were dicks (not sure if that’s because I was young and silly or if they were just… dicks). Still remember my friend agonising about the fact that one of the locals who she’d become relatively chummy with (and I’d ignored on account of the fact I thought, you guessed it- he was a dick) was going to ask for her number as we were leaving, but she wasn’t interested and didn’t know how to go about rejecting him (he never asked). I also remember turning down a lot of pot (I really should have accepted, I probably would have had a better time) and that we never ate the pineapple we took up with us, because we were too lazy to cut it up. Anyway, my point: after a weekend of mediocre music and somewhat grating company, DJ Shadow was a welcome shock to the system. Have never been so relieved to listen to something in my life. 

*Which reminds me: that trip back to Melbourne was also my first introduction to The Lucksmiths, but I’ve never been able to listen to them for extended periods of time (specifically, I’ve never been able to listen to an entire song without getting fidgety)- so obviously they didn’t have as strong an impact.  The point here is, in a moment of insanity in which I ignored all my knowledge about my own taste, about two years later I purchased a Lucksmiths album on the basis of that strange trip, that I swear I tried to play once but for the life of me couldn’t finish- does anyone want it (it got good reviews)???

*There’s quite a bit of Jeff Buckley… because well, I listened to quite a bit of him around that time. I also listened to ridiculous amounts of Nina Simone, The Avalanches and Radiohead (unfortunately, I listened to Radiohead so much, that Ok Computer and Kid A are forever associated with the pain of completing yr 11 and 12 for me).  ‘Last Goodbye’ I’ve put up, because even though it wasn’t particularly memorable when I first bought the album, I found the more I listened, the more joy this song gave me… I’d be happily moseying along, and as soon as it got to that part of the song where it opens up, and he sings “ahhh, did you say, no this can’t happen to me…” I’d always grin.  How anyone could feel bad over a breakup after listening to this song, I don’t know. 

*I think Rocket Science was my answer to The Vines (no they don’t sound anything like The Vines, don’t get confused- also I’m pretty sure I was listening to them before The Vines- so….) and now I’m not even sure if I like them or if I just have a nostalgic attachment to them. Hmm… I’m pretty sure I still like them.

*The Placebo song is a T-Rex cover from the Velvet Goldmine soundtrack. Don’t imagine I know anything about Placebo- I don’t (are they any good??). Bitter Sweet is also from that soundtrack- for which the vocalist is Thom Yorke. I listened to a lot of this soundtrack (VERY LOUDLY)- my love for Iggy Pop and The Stooges was inevtitable after that.

*At one stage it seemed like everyone I knew in highschool was listening to Portishead. I didn’t want to jump on the bandwagon, so I pretended for a year that I didn’t listen to them. As you do. It was pretty stupid considering the basis of my introduction to Jeff Buckley was a friend’s obsession with him. When you’re 18, the logic is a little warped.

*I never said I had impeccable taste (oh, wait I did- whoops, I take it back)- so don’t judge me! Honestly, I like lots of things that I know are kinda shit. For instance I don’t think I’ll ever be able to explain my attachment to that song by Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch- I think it’s because it brings up so many funny images of the early ninties. Same applies to Arrested Development’s ‘People Everyday’. At least this more popular version of the song is much better than the album version, which I don’t think really compares.  Also, I’m not sure why- but I was listening to heaps of shit from the early ninties in general. 

*This was also around the time that I bought ‘The best of Salt n Pepa’ on sale at JB, so I listened to quite a lot of ‘Push It’ and ‘Let’s Talk about Sex’. I was living on my own at the time in a tiny apartment, and would feel the irresistable urge to dance like a lunatic to it at after getting home late (never any other time). In retrospect I feel pretty sorry for the guy who lived in the apartment next to me- not so much for the guy who lived below me, he was a jerk (he was also the ’super’, and for some reason had a video camera trained on everyone who went in and out of the building- for ’security’ purposes- it creeped me out to no end that he always knew what I was up to.  Also he kept on sending me endless letters about how my bathroom pipes were making too much noise, until we worked out it wasn’t even me, when I was away for a month.  Of course, he was aware of my awayness thanks to his lovely camera. Arsehole).

*Gimme Some Lovin’ kept on appearing on practically every mix cd I made for myself that year- they were for road trips and such; I was convinced that it was a really good road trip song- along with Ben Lee’s Cigarette’s Will Kill You, and Lynrd Skynrd’s Sweet Home Alabama.

*Road Trip status also goes to Belinda Carlisle, which was less my fault and more Vic’s. Regardless, Belinda Carlisle is what being a girl is all about people. I’m not positive, but I suspect my friendship with Vic is sustained by our mutual love for dear Belinda. How can you deny the genius lyrics of: “They say, in heaven, love comes first! We’ll make heaven a place on earth, ooh, heaven is a place on earth”, or “somewhere in my heart I’m always dancing with you in the summer rain” for that matter?

*Pete Yorn: I bought his first album without even listeing to it, on the basis of the fact that he looked kind of hot on the cover- it was a strange impulse buy that I’ve never repeated. He was fun on road trips too, but then he got stolen out of my car. It wasn’t a huge loss, and I suspect I’d be pretty indifferent to him now- however nostalgia has it that if I hear him these days, I am flooded with nice memories and overcome with a good mood.

*In truth, at 18 I listened to Joy Division’s ’Bizzare Love Triangle’ WAY more than New Order’s Regret… but I figure you’ve heard the former quite a bit, and Regret is a close second in the listening records.

*Patti Smith:  At the time, I thought it was like, my responsibiliy as a girl who was into ‘alternative’ music to listen to her. I had a whole list of angsty, angry female musicians I thought I was supposed to enjoy- PJ Harvey, Sleater Kinney, Ani Di Franco and Joni Mitchell.  Unfortunately I could never bring myself to listen to either Ani Di Franco or Joni Mitchell, it was just too unbearable.  But, I have to say I lucked out with Patti, I really did like ’Horses’.  I think it’s a pretty fucking good album.  At the same time, I don’t think I’ll ever listen to her again like I did at 19.  As good as I think she is, it’s not really in tune with who I am anymore, which is a strange thing to say, but I think accurate.  If I ever listen again, it’ll probably due to nostalgia.  (Hey guys- I have a really bad habit of using ‘like’ all the time when I write, in what I imagine is an ‘ironic’ tone- but does it actually sound like that??? Am way curious.) 

All this, and so much more! etc. Everything else is self evident: I was 18/19 and I listened to it a lot.

As usual, you will find the full list in ‘Music on the Box’.