Let's travel back in time to an era before the internet. A time when things like discovering new music wasn't a click away. I've been obsessed with music since I was 3 years old. Any early memory I have is associated with music somehow. Lucky for me, I was the last of 5 kids so I was exposed to A LOT of different types of music while growing up. My mom spoiled me with Motown. Not all of my siblings were so kind - a lot of Journey, Hall & Oates, disco, and Top 40 in the late 70s and early 80s. Within a few years my sister M would be a teen and into bands like Depeche Mode and The Smiths. Another year and it would be skate punk. We shared a room and I soaked it all in.
By the late 80s I had discovered the local college station, KDVS , from UC Davis. It blew my mind. Such strange music! Me and my friends liked metal - everything from pop metal/hair bands to speed metal and death metal. We also liked classic rock. However, the strange music I would hear late at night while insomnia kept me up was pulling me in. I remember buying The Pixies Doolittle when I was 13 and playing it for my metal friends. They looked at me very strangely and it was clear we were moving in different directions.
In 1993 I was all of 17 and very depressed. I was heavy into Joy Division. Then, one day I was reading the newspapers entertainment section and there was a write up on a local band called Tiger Trap. It sounded awesome! 4 young girls playing music (my #1 fantasy was to be in a band) and they lived in my city! Their record was released so I went to the local record store and picked it up. It blew my mind. I liked it even more than I thought I would. They were playing a show soon and I was determined to go. Gathered some friends up and went to my first punk show! Also on the bill? Cupid Car Club and Slant 6. Talk about a life changing experience! An entire world that I was on the periphery of through KDVS suddenly became mine. Independent music became my everything. If it had the K shield on it I figured it was worth buying. Kill Rock Stars quickly got onto my radar. So for the past (almost) 15 years I have lived and breathed independent music. I fulfilled my dream of being in a band, I was a dj on KDVS, and I can assure you that none of it would have even seemed possible to me if I hadn't heard Tiger Trap all those years ago.
These 2 songs are my very favorites of theirs. I'm a sucker for the verse, chorus, verse, chorus structure and the sweet sadness so You And Me is a given.
You And Me.mp3
Alien Space Song was released after the band broke up. It is from a split 7" with Henry's Dress on Slumberland Records. I found out about it when I was working at a local record store but it was already out of print. I was crushed! I somehow got in touch with Mike from Slumberland and I must have seemed really distraught because he found a copy of it somewhere in the Slumberland stacks for me. It remains a prized possession. This song sounds unlike anything else that was recorded by them and I think that it's a really great track.
Alien Space Song.mp3
2 comments:
that is an impressive bill for a first small club punk show. but what was your first concert experience? and what did your any friends you dragged along think of the TT, CCC, S6 show?
well, my very first concert was the beastie boys and run dmc on the together forever tour. it was 1987, i think, at cal expo in sacramento. i had eclectic taste!
my friends that went to the tt show with me loved it! they were all a bit older and into punk and stuff. i still felt pretty awesome for introducing them to tiger trap though!
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