Ten years ago this weekend I and some of the most indie-rock-it-hurts ladies of the Ladycollege radio station roadtripped to Washington DC to attend the Simple Machines Farewell Party. I planned my outfits for weeks on end and threatened the driver of the car with certain death if we arrived at the Black Cat too late for me to see Grenadine play, because they were never going to play again after that night. Grenadine was my favorite Teenbeat/SM supergroup, sort of indie rock-meets-vaudeville-meets-lounge act that released two remarkable albums that I still listen to fairly regularly.
At the time I was hugely in love with the DC indie scene, led by the sassy Mss. Toomey and Thomson, Mr. Robinson, and their friends. I had pictures of them all over my room and always played a ton of their music on my radio show. I liked them precisely because I could go up to them and chat with them (and that I did!) because they were, in addition to being music heroes (to me and every other college radio DJ who read Sassy in high school), they were also regular people! With cool bands! I could be cool like them someday, right?
I was 22 years old at the time, so driving for 6 hours, watching shows until 3am, and then doing it again the next day and the day after was a dream come true and not something that makes me tired.
They were around the age of 30 when they retired their indie record label and moved onto other things. Maybe it's that magic age that makes you quiet the noises in your head and maybe give up a little, in a good way. Moving on=good, I think. I don't know. I'm not 22 anymore, so I'm having a hard time finding the words that described how I felt on those nights a decade ago. I'm sure I stood in front of those bands with a dopey smile on my face looking like a dorkasaurus, but I was a girl in love with a movement and a feeling. The Secret Stars played! Eggs!
I'm not in love with indie rock anymore. Oh well. We should always have fond memories of the time we were young and happy.
For the uninitiated, here is a video clip.
Posted by Zerd at March 30, 2008 09:46 PMI've been musing a lot lately on the "10 years ago..." memory tip.
Ten years ago I was still hitting you up to buy Manischewitz.
Was it ten, or eleven, years ago that I brought J-Kuds up to Smith to see the Magnetic Fields with you, and you deemed him "a train wreck"? I think it was ten.
Ten years ago I rented (actually just sub-letted for the summer) my first apartment, which I think I found on craigslist--another 10-year milestone, there.
Ten years ago I spent a semester in Greece.
Ten years ago you graduated, and I began to wonder about life after college. I'm still wondering about that, actually.