It has often been said: “If you give them enough rope, they’ll hang themselves.” But why should they? Maybe they’ll create an unbelievably elegant arrangement of rope; an impossibly monumental construction of coiled vision which could only be classified as rope sculpture, stretching a timeless strand of understanding between us and posterity.
-Crosley Bendix, from the liner notes to Negativland's Escape From Noise.
it was august 1988. i wasn't even 18 yet. i still had thick cheeks and cystic acne. my mom and i stood in line at san diego state's Zura Hall, my new home for the next year. it was registration day and we were waiting my room assignment. behind us stood a tall man and his tall son. we greeted them and exchanged the usual, "So, where are you from?" turns out the tall man and his tall son were from Novato, about 45 minutes from our hometown, the interesting part being that i had gone to school with the tall kid's cousin most of my life.
he was blonde and immediately crushworthy and we became friends.
D. was into music. this was our main topic of conversation. he knew all about the "alternative" bin in the record stores. the alternative bin was small and seemed elite, like something i wouldn't understand. i never even looked through it. this was before indie rock hit the airwaves. it was still the Madonna Years. needless to say, D's alternative bin knowledge impressed me.
he gave me two records that year that totally opened my eyes. i was handed a brave new world of unclassafiable music and it saved me. it flung me out of the nowhere land of classic rock and into something new, something of my people and generation.
Record #1. escape from noise by negativland. car bomb sent us both into spasmatic giggles. yellow, black and rectangular carved ruts in my brain forever. in a good way. maybe it was the crush on D. that got me interested in such weird music, but ultimately my brain was ready for expansion. and negativland satisfied.
Record #2. Bo-Day-Shus! by Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper. never ever heard of these guys before, but it seemed like i should have the music was so easy to love. their silly, fun melodies with smart aleck lyrics made me happy. i think i fell in love with D. after hearing bo-day-shus ("the art fag shufflllle! it don't take too much mu-u-u-scle!") nothing ever happened though.
*in a strange turn of events that i never would have even noticed without having met D., a couple years later i got flirted with by skid roper while working concessions during a concert. also impressive.
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