Nevermeind released 15 years ago

Being slightly bored while Em's away in Sydney for the fortnight, i've gotten nostalgic

I think a bunch of us was at mikey's (MyMan's) place watching Rage when I first heard 'Smells like teen spirit' and was instantly captivated. It was a revelation - at the time I was pretty much about the East Coast Hip Hop; Public Enemy, BDP, Beastie Boys, De LA Soul, Tribe Called Quest etc and the growing dance scene (but lets not mention acid house). Ouside of that i think the only non-rap stuff i liked was Violent Femmes, the Smiths (though i would never had admitted it at the time), Sonic Youth (i discovered 'Goo' because of Chuck D on 'Kool Thing') and looking through my cd collection i have Lenny Kravitz's first album which i remember liking. At the time, iwas in year 11 and it was all about Guns and Roses and Metallica which i just did not get. But when those chords vibrated out of the tv it just swung my head. It was raw and made a connection that most of the other stuff out there just failed to do.
Most other music was about ' the you', about someone else; 'i love/hate you', 'you are so great' or songs about other stuff like being taken down to paradise city. Here was a song about 'the me'; 'here we are now, entertain us' - sure hip hop was mainly talking about how good 'the me' is; i'm a great rapper, i can kick your ass. But i wasn't a great rapper, and whilst i probably could kick your ass i didn't really want to - so there was never that connection (except with hip hop except for being vilified and untrusted for being young - though i'm embarrassed to think now that i somehow equated the black experience as my own.)

And being a self-involved angsty gen-xer (though there wasn't a name for it back then) i made it all about me; i hate school, i hate my job, i hate etc and i have no idea what i'm going to do. It was easy to grab Kurt's lyrics and make them about me.

So back in 1991 we watched the clip again on Rage after 6, then on Video Hits and then again on Smash Hits. Yes, this was mine.

I remember i year 12 social that i went to which was not going well; the girl i was with didn't find me charming especially when an ex-girlfriend bound up and started yelling at me because i failed to tell her that i had broken up with her and that i was talking about her to the other guys. I tried to talk my way out of it but i was getting my balls nailed to the wall - but i really deserved it because i was a bit of a arsehole - but still after 30 minutes i had hoped she would have run out of breathe. Then "smells like teen spirit" started up - all the boys surged for the dance floor and with a "I'm sorry, I gotta go" i ran off and moshed - hiding out on the dancefloor till the end of the night. Because i'm classy.

After Year 13 me and B. went to San Francisco for a month to just hang out. It was coming up to New Years Eve and Nirvana and Butthole Surfers were playing in Oaklands. Tickets were $150 which was out of budget plus Oaklands was way out of town and my Uncle, who we were staying with would be no help in transport "I'll be too drunk to pick you up". So we agreed we would miss the opportunity and see them when they toured Australia.
Well two months later that blew up in my face (and caused much jealousy with my cousins who saw his 2nd to last concert ever in Slovenia).

So today i'm digging out an oversized flannelette shirt, torn jeans and remember when my fringe came down to my chin while i mumble something about an albino AND a mosquito.