Ramblings From Justin Penney

This weekend I ran sound at an event that consisted of high school aged bands from a semi-rural town. The dress, music, choice of covers, mannerisms and speech patterns wer identical to those of my high school years. The skaters look like skaters, the kids that skew metal still skew metal. The covers included Green Day and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Nothing recent though, the most recent Green Day song was off of "Nimrod" and the two Chili Peppers songs were off "Blood Sugar Sex Magic." There were a couple nods to older classic rock songs, but those seemed slightly tongue in cheek. There was also a cover of "Walk" by Pantera. Another song that screams '90s high school. Pantera was one of the few bands that really crossed the social pockets. Hicks, jocks and "us" all agreed that Pantera kicked some serious ass.

I kind of revel in the fact that we were so cool that kids are still being us. Though a considerable portion wants to yell at them to be themselves. Take what you are seeing and experiencing and make something new with it. These kids have grown up with the internet in their house. They can pull up any known musical form at any given time. They can keep in contact and collaborate with nearly everyone they know on a daily basis but they keep going back.

I'm sure our parents felt like this. My mom is still tickled on anything that hints at the 60s or 70s. I did have my Led Zeppelin phase, (apparently like all other males), my Beatles phase, my Sabbath Phase. All of these gave me something to connect with my parents or my friends' parents. I guess this is continuing.

My daughter is currently in to Hannah Montana and "High School Musical." I don't get these at all. Well, I did get the nude pictures of that one actress ... I do understand that. But she love the They Might Be Giants records that I've given here. A few nights ago "Everything Must Go!" by the Weakerthans came up on shuffle and Lily inquired about the artist. As much as I want her to go off with her peers and create or enjoy today, the aughts and the teens, I really enjoy when our tastes collide.

This whole 90s thing has me in a weird situation though, I don't have most of the music that I was listening to then! When I was couch surfing I sold all of my CDs to pawn shops for cigarettes, gas and beer. There are many times in any given week that I think of a song and realize that I no longer own that piece of music. Hopefully Lily won't take on that part of my teenagerdom.

# posted by Justin @ 11:05 PM