By Neal Dusedau
The Melvins might be a band some people love, but I’m not one of them. “Revolve” was vaguely a hit in 1994 and I really liked it. But I actually bought the album before “Revolve” hit the radio. Was I in touch with the underground? Did I have feelers out to find out what the next hot thing was? No. The Melvins had been a moderately successful band for ten years when this album came out. But what made this album call to me was the power of Kurt Cobain.
I bought Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana by Michael Azerrad a few months after Cobain’s death. I wanted to buy it sooner, but word on the street was a new chapter on Cobain’s death was being added. I read it cover to cover in one sitting. Not only was it filled with great quotes from Kurt, but it was also an easy way to find out about bands I might like. After all, If Kurt liked them, they had to be good, right?
I don’t think I’ve owned an album that I listened to less in my life. Every time I popped it in I would skip straight to “Revolve” and when the song ended, my time with the album ended. I never gave the rest of the album a chance and I don’t regret it for a second. Listening to it now I still really like it. The sound of 90’s angst always warms my soul. Has any word fallen off the planet more in the last ten years than “angst”? I blame 9/11 and George W. Bush. How can you have teen angst when you think "evil-doers" are out to get you?
Meanwhile, this album began a sad trend that would continue all the way through college. Buying an album without listening to it, but trusting that it would make me cooler if I owned it. In middle school, how a band sounded was secondary. I just needed it to sit on my shelf, ready for a friend to casually ask, “Oh and what’s this band?” so I could school them with said band’s relevance and influence, proving my coolness or what a douchebag I was (depending on your point of view).
It’s not all bad. There were other bands that Cobain led me to that I ended up liking. I think this same book mentioned Sonic Youth. So when I placed my order for eight CDs for the price of one through BMG music service (tell me you took advantage of this deal in the 90s. not to be confused with Columbia music house’s rip you off deal), I went for Sonic Youth’s Day Dream Nation. It was actually completely awesome! But for every hit there’re tons of misses.
The last time I bought something solely on reputation and hipness was in Early college. At that time “Post Rock” was the cool thing to be into. I tried. I really did. But it was boring as all hell. Sort of like jazz if solo’s were forbidden. No, that’s not right. Like instrumental lite-FM. A few bands of the genre are great. The Sea and Cake, some of Tortoise’s stuff, Trans Am… But the band that started it all, Slint, put me straight to sleep. And their album is continually named the best blah blah of the all time by all sorts of semi-respectable indie websites. I think after I blew 50 dollars on Post Rock albums I learned to at least give something half a listen without buying it. And that’s how this all ties together: just like those crappy Post Rock records, I didn’t listen to a second of The Melvins before I bought the album. I wonder if younger folk reading this can even understand the concept of paying money for music, much less buying music without getting to hear thirty seconds of the song first to see if you actually like it.
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