It was when I returned to Michigan in 1993 that music returned. I hung out with my friend Andy who was way into U2, and I'd discover them later. But it was a new album that came out that really got me.
I had heard of Nirvana. Although I missed the initial "Smells like Teen Spirit" craze. Seems crazy doesn't? That song was everywhere! But not in Southern Illinois. It had passed me by. But when I first heard In Utero, thats when I became a true music fan. It remains in my top ten albums of all time to this day for that reason. Something about the mix on that album just appeals to me. Plus I was heavy into puberty at the time and I remember the anger and feelings the album brought to me and it just felt like how I was back then. It made me realize who I was becoming. It was just the right record at the right time. In fact, it made me want to pick up the guitar! There was a neighbor kid who rode the bus with me and he played. So I struck up a friendship with him and we jammed at his house everyday on Nirvana tunes and other things that were popular at the time. I liked some other bands, but nowhere near the love I had for Nirvana. Then came April 8th, 1994. The day Kurt was found dead. I was in total shock. it was the first time a celebrity I liked had died. I was just devestated. For the next two years every April 5th (the day he died) I would take the day off work, burn incense (get high also) and jam on my guitar to every Nirvana song I had learned. Every album, all the way through. I began writing. Poetry mostly, but I wrote. Short stories followed. And then comics. I wrote "Amazing Bud," Which later morphed into my book: "Pleasant Life." The lead character? A musician who dressed in the grunge style with a soul of a poet who had nothing but music posters on his wall. The majority of them? Nirvana. So my work then was Mostly influenced by music I was getting into. My first CDs were Soundgarden's Superunknown and The Doors' greatest hits. I had been babtized and was officially in: I was a music fanatic.
1994 was a great year for music. I took the whole weekend off to watch the Woodstock 94 coverage on the TV. I watched all the bands play and loved it. But one band completely stole my heart at the show. And that was Nine Inch Nails. It was angrier, sexier, and harder than anything I had been allowed to listen to as a kid. The fact that they were covered in mud and playing so dirty and sloppy was just pure fucking rock to me. It was a career defining move for them, and I fell in love with all industrial bands from that point on. The list is endless. My industrial side (especially my love of NIN) is what I call my "dark side." I love happy songs and deep songs. But I also love a good dark beat and angry lyrics to offset it for when I am in the mood.
By that time I had started to write my own songs. I joined a band called "BRIMSTONE" with Idiothead.com Podcaster Shane Logan in it. We played a gig and practiced every other day. Eventually the band broke up and it was just Shane and I as a core writing duo. We formed a new band called "Arsenic" and played Halloween night in 1997 at the Beal City Bar. We jammed a lot and wrote a lot. But I am getting ahead of myself here.
In 1995, the Beatles Anthology was on TV and the albums came out early that year. I had late in 1994 started relistening to the old records that my mom showed me back when I was six. I fell in love with the Beatles FOR REAL this time. And Sgt. Peppers was the album that did it for me. I am a hardcore Beatles fanatic to this day and I've deified them on my list of favorite bands of all time. The only band to have that honor. If I meet a music lover who claims to hate the Beatles, sorry sir. I can't hang with ya. Its just an essential thing. Like air.
Credit where credit is due, Green Day did a lot for me as well. I was learning the guitar quite well by now and they specialized in bar chords. It would make the focus of a lot of my cover band songs. I still love Green Day today. American Idiot was an album of genius.
It was 1995 and I was heavy into music. I had discovered bands like Alice in Chains, Meat Puppets, Pearl Jam and practically everything else of the era. but one band was go awesome that I had to go see them live. It was my first concert. White Zombie!! Astro Creep 2000 was a great, great album and I had to see the performance. I was in awe of it all. But I was also in awe of the opening band:
The Ramones opened for White Zombie and I became a fan of theirs instantly after seeing their set. The next day I went and got their greatest hits and what would be their last album. When I saw them, that was their last official tour. I was glad to have seen them.
The last band I have to mention from this era is the Stone Temple Pilots. I am a huge fan of theirs. So much so that back then, I saw them twice on the same tour! I still love them today and I think they are severely under-rated. They are dynamic performers and Scott Weiland's voice is what I wish I could sing like. I'd call them a modern day Led Zepplin. Yeah, I said it.
Next time: METAL, late 90s, and the Game Changer!
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