When I Was Sixteen
-
Artist:
-
Album:
-
Track:
In what now seems like another life I was once a 16 year old grunger. I wore scuffed up doc martin boots, black jeans and thought Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr and Faith No More were cool. I cried when Kurt Cobain died. Whenever possible I would take a bus to London and would see bands play at The Camden Palace (now Kokos) and spend a lot of time on Oxford Street buying terrible clothes and obscure records. My parents' friends used to tell me to polish my boots and my auntie used to look despaired when she saw me turn up in black yet again. It all made sense to me, I was wearing my musical taste and anyone who dressed differently was just not cool. Hundreds of miles away, my future husband was busy growing freaky hair braids and wearing huge boots. This all changed within a couple of years and as I began to introduce brighter colours into my wardrobe (and music collection), made new friends and gained more freedom, life and my musical taste were never the same again.
I often think music collections can tell a lot about peoples' lives, like soundtracks to different phases. A lot of people talk about how a certain song reminds them of a feeling or a time in their life maybe in the same way certain smells can fill us with fear or comfort.
On a recent trip to see my parents, I picked up some of my old record collection and came across a 10" record called 'Locked' by a band called 'Mutha's Day Out'. Never heard of them? That's because they only released one album before they disbanded.
Mikal, Brice, Chuck, Jeff, Rodney, Lance and Randy from Batesville, Arkansas, (a town with a population of a little over 9,000 people) described themselves as "a cross between Stone Temple Pilots and just a regular bunch of guys."
I saw them play at The Camden Palace because I fancied one of the guys from a photo I had seen in a music magazine; I think it might have been Rodney. They wore dungarees, had long hair and their songs had a lot of shouting and Faith No More type guitar sounds; all the ingredients I thought necessary to make a great band.
I had long forgotten about them so thought I'd look up what they are up to now.
Mikal is married, has two daughters, and is in a christian rock band called Gazer.
Chuck and his brother Phillip are in a doom metal band called Deadbird.
Jeff is in a doom metal band called Rwake, but has reportedly returned to Batesville to nurse his ailing son back to health from heart problems, but will return soon to Little Rock.
Brice has a band called Nite Time Flu and jams with Jeff and Rod every now and again.
Rod is "doing great," according to Brice.
Lance now owns a recording studio in Batesville and does work on farms with chickens.
Randy is a bank teller.
All grown up with kids and 'real jobs'. I hope Jeff's kid gets better.
Here's the video for 'Locked' the 10" I found in my record collection:
Amazingly I don't think this song has dated too badly.
For more Mutha's Day Out Info:
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/muthasdayout
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutha's_Day_Out
There's even a petition to get them to reform: http://www.petitiononline.com/LoyalMDO/petition.html
What did you listen to when you were 16?
[Source: MySpace]
Comments (7)
GREAT post! Let's see, I was listening to _tons of stuff, but standouts for me would have to be: Wendy/Walter Carlos, Brian Eno, Men At Work, Squeeze, various Classical Compilations, Music from the Hearts of Space on New York Radio, Kraftwerk, Devo, early Genesis, Rush, Sugar Hill Gang, Kurtis Blow, Peter Gabriel, Todd Rundgren and Utopia, etc... etc...
What did I listen to at 16? Pretty much everything!
Until then I had been trying to dress like a 'metal girl' spraying can-loads of hairspray in my candyfloss hairdo, heavily applying black eyeliner and red lipstick, while officially only listening to rock, metal, funk punk/funk rock, and punk (although, in the privacy of my bedroom, I could from time to time not resist a bit of the 70s/80s soul, disco, funk, reggae, ska and new wave that I'd loved as a little girl - but at the time I would have never admitted to that to anyone).
At 15 or 16, I happily abandoned the extreme appearance in order to land what was my teenage dream job, working in an small independent music shop, selling and genre (classic, modern, religious, etc) in every format (paper, vinyl, cassette, CD). I only got paid for Thursday nights and Saturdays, but eventually I spent every day after school there, not just serving customers at the check-out, but trying to listen to virtually every recording available in the shop, usually accompanying and encouraged by the regular customers sitting at the 'listening bar' at the back at the shop where customers could sit down and 'try before buying'.
Eventually, when I was 18/19 the shop owner retired; he asked me (and others) to take over the shop but I had no means to, the lady who did shut it down and re-opened at a new location, axing the most precious of collections leaving only mainstream drab; just months later, as I'd moved away to "get smart and go to college", the place went bankrupt.
I never managed to hear quite everything. Still, fond memories, never to be forgotten, impossible to ever re-live. <sigh>
PS: As for the grunge era, I don't think I ever really made it beyond Nirvana and Soundgarden; as for Faith No More, I only ever liked one of their earlier songs, "We Care A Lot"; besides that, in my eyes/ears they were trying too hard at being like the Chili Peppers (who I had loved since the 80s, and still love to this day) and miserably failing at that... sorry...
I looked like a Twat when I was 16; I look like a twat now...and still listen to the same rubbish. Please call me a ambulance.
.
(You're a Ambulance!)
Thanks Vannatta, the bands you listed there sound very familiar to my brothers taste back then. He had a big influence on me, introduced me to loads of bands. He got me my first record when I was about 4, he wanted me to have a good record collection by the time I was his age-he is only 4 years older then me!
Jo - Working in an independant record store is still my ideal job, trouble is, there doesn't seem to be many left around here. Music blogging is the next best thing -right?! :-) I remember a story about a metaler girlfriend walking to school feeling a bit strange and then realising she had sprayed deoderant on her head and hairspray under her pits. Not good when you're a metaler girl.
Neill - I don't know what to say! :-)
Lovely post. I was listening to Greek rock bands, Nirvana, Hole, Screaming Trees, Morphine, Girls Against Boys, Afghan Whigs, and god knows what else :)
I still listen to some of these bands. Evolution shmevolution :)
I loved that song 'Witness' by Screaming Trees.
Only seems like yesterday...
Oh my gosh, Witness is my favourite ST song! Yay!
Faith No More as well, how could I forget to mention them. Seems like yesterday and ages ago at the same time :)