Obviously, poetry is music’s anemic, mouth-breathing cousin, and I don’t think one exists without the other. Like, maybe Music’s mom made it take Poetry to homecoming because no one else would, but Music ditches Poetry halfway through the night to do whip-its in the bathroom with its real friends while Poetry stays at the table wondering how people can just start dancing like it’s nothing.
All that to say, if it weren’t for music, I wouldn’t be the middling poet I am today. As I am doing a lot of reflecting on my life, in midlife, definitely not in crisis, I have been revisiting some of the music I loved back when I listened to music by bands that still existed.
I was part of the punk/ska scene in Homewood, Illinois from like 1994 to 2002. (After that, I slowly stopped knowing anything about any media that came out the year that it was.) Homewood, despite being an indistinct suburban town, had one of the best venues in the region, Off The Alley, which was a short walk from my house.
There’s plenty to criticize and dismiss about punk - especially the parts that were actually just sublimations of the status quo in a spiky collar from Hot Topic. And ska I loved more than punk at the time but I enjoy it less now (so many white kids with the fake patois). But the culture was also a place where the rules of coolness were upended and where many kinds of weirdness were celebrated. Punk also taught me that you didn’t need that much to make compelling/invigorating art. And that getting a little punched while loud music played felt kinda good.
Below is a Not Safe For Work list of songs that were important to me at that time that I still enjoy. I could also make a less fun list of songs that were important to me that I no longer enjoy, but let’s keep it positive. I apologize for the hegemony of this mix - punk women were vital to the culture, despite the persistence of misogyny. The premise of this post is purely self-centered, but maybe you will like some of these little ditties too.
s/o to my brother Dan and my friend Ralphie for all the mix tapes they made me.
“Don’t Turn Out the Lights” by Screeching Weasel
You can also hear me and my aforementioned brother talking about this song on John Jughead Pierson’s podcast here. Jughead, as I am sure you know, is the lead guitarist of Screeching Weasel. And a treasure.
In my school, the punks were divided into Bad Religion punks and Screeching Weasel punks. I identified myself as a SW punk, but none of them knew who I was and I did not get to play in the softball game against the BR punks.
“Big City” by Operation Ivy
“Punk Rock Academy” by Atom and His Package
The “Package” that Atom has is a Japanese music-making piece of equipment that has certainly been replaced by a million apps, but at the time it was novel to see a one-man punk band. What I still love about Atom is how unlike anyone else he is, and the songs from a little later in his career moved away from punk into his own genre. I remember I was signed up for his listserv and slowly over the years he stopped posting about tour dates and would send occasional emails out to see if anyone wanted to play street hockey with him and his friends in Philadelphia.
Those friends play a prominent role in his songs, always referring to them by their first names like we knew them too. One might even say that friendship and community were the unseen members of Atom’s band. Now he teaches HS physics in Philly (here’s a nice write-up Vice did on him).
Also, check out his “I’m Down Right Amazed At What I Can Destroy With Just a Hammer” and “Upside Down From Here.” Maybe I should do a whole post on him. The best.
“Grandma Shampoo” by the Blue Meanies
“Dick of Death” by Pansy Division
Pansy Division’s existence was such a gift to punk kids who probably had a lot of lingering/overt homophobia. While “being in the closet” feels different now, at the time, we (I) needed Pansy Division to show us (me) that being punk rock also meant gay desire, romance, heartbreak, passion, love were not only valid but sacred and fun and worth defending. A celebration.
“Little Fingers” by Apocalypse Hoboken
“Everything’s Going My Way” by The Queers
“Even Hitler Had a Girlfriend” by The Mr. T Experience
This song is the ironic grandfather of the incels.
“Window Dressing” by SLK
This is the only song by SLK that I actually know. But it has stuck.
“I Like Food” by The Descendents
“Philthy Phil Philanthropist” by NOFX
That’s all I got for now. Let’s do this again sometime!