I am a product of Generation X's dusk. I remember when Ronnie was president, Willow wasn't a Smith but a British dwarf, and MTV still played music. When I recently decided to quit my high-stress job I found out that reality doesn't bite as much as Winona claimed. I don't have my dad's gas card, but I do have the internet (Dinney-1 Winona-0). Since MTV was birthed the same year I was, I'll be counting down my favorite music videos leading up to 10.21.11 in honor of my first 30 years.
#1. Yes. I am driving the bus to hell.
#2. There is no need for an explanation of why this video made my top 30. There is no quirky story or justification for this video, just the title of this posting. See #1.
I don't know. Something about this song... won't let me go. Total one-hit-wonder by the band, "Sponge." No Pearl Jam, STP, Foo Fighters, Snoop legacy here. Just a song that I saw on MTV's "Buzz Videos" the summer after 8th grade. It was off an album called, "Rotting Pinata." I've never heard Sponge mentioned since, but on occasion I will hear an independent radio station play their song, "Molly (16 Candles Down the Drain)." Many people believe that the lead singer had some sort of 'thing' for Molly Ringwald, ever-famous with 80's pop icons the world over. I mean, it is pretty coincidental that the song title shares her name and is followed by a reference to one of her many, sappy, 80's movies. Fast forward to 2011 and most kids (including some of the older ones too) only correlate her with STS9 shows, Bonnaroo, and other festivals of that sort.
Molly.
Either way, this song followed me throughout the summer of 1995, mostly at summer camp. We all rocked our Puma's, Jinco's (don't lie), and Yin-Yang pendants on hemp necklaces. There were the guys wearing shirts of bands that none of us hardly knew and actually were probably dead or in rehab by that point.....
...UH-OH... I feel word vomit coming on... f.
Case in Point.
*** I'd like to take this moment to give a 'shate-out' to that kid who always wore his beat-looking "Stairway to Heaven" t-shirt on a daily basis. We knoooooow you went to the mall, purchased it at Spencer's, and took it home for your mom to wash and dry it on high heat, repetitively for 24 hours straight. We get it! You wanted to give us all the impression that you were by far the headiest, most learned, 13-year-old Led Head alive. We get that you were front row for Page and Plant, at 3-years-old, rocking out that t-shirt (that was 10 sizes to big for you at the time), ripping baby hits of hash backstage using your 'Baby Snot Sucker' bulb, all whilst your saggy diaper drug along the ground. Because of you, along with the three million other d-bags out there who have worn this shirt over the past 30 years, I now change the radio station if that song were to come on. Led Zeppelin has plenty of other great songs out there. Trust me. Buy an album rather than tring to listen to that jacked up, single, cassette tape you've had for some time now. ***
Elaine and her Sponge dilemma.
Back to ... ummm... shared conversations at summer camp, in regards to us all buying the Sponge CD that summer amongst others, i.e. Filter, Pearl Jam, Coolio, Smashing Pumpkins, etc. In retrospect, I believe I listened to "Siamese Dream" that summer a bit more than "Rotting Pinata." Ironically, I can't remember one video from Billy Corgan's said album, however I do remember some dude's video who named his band after an archaic, female contraceptive. Go figure.
I once was asked, "If you could hang out with any rapper for a day, who would it be?" My answer was easy. If Jay-Z is the best rapper alive, then Snoop has got to be the coolest rapper alive. Who else could go on The Martha Stewart Show, a day-time television slot mind you, stoned out of his mind, wearing sunglasses and make.... brownies. Really? He even encouraged Martha to mix in some of that "green ingredient," and I don't think he was trying to be organic either. If he can do that, morphing into a Doberman Pinscher has got to be a piece of ... cake?
On October 21, 1995, I celebrated my 14th birthday. Ironically, on October 21, 1995, Shannon Hoon was found dead in his tour bus prior to a Blind Melon show in New Orleans. He was 28.
Like many rockers in the 90's, dying appeared to be somewhat of a trend, with the two most 'in vogue' ways to go being suicide and/or overdosing. Shannon chose the later. He, along with a gaggle of rock star gluttons, like Kurt and Bradley, were pulling Seinfeld's before Seinfeld knew what "pulling a Seinfeld" meant.
The first time I saw this video was on the ever-popular, "Channel One News," with a young Lisa Ling as anchor. In high school, it was shown during the last period of the day, everyday, and I usually used these spare moments to finish my World Civ. homework from two days prior.
However, on this day Lisa closed by introducing a new music video from Blind Melon's most recent album, "Soup." The second I heard Hoon's distinctive voice, I gave up on completing my homework assignment and focused on the video, "Galaxie." To this day I'm sure many people will disagree with my choice, holding strong that "No Rain" was much better, but since this is MY blog, I'll go ahead and say that Chunkie McChunkerson dressed in her bumble bee outfit was played-out a long time ago. "Galaxie" and the sorcerer boy are much cooler. Boom-shock-a-locka, Bumble Bee Girl. Go cut yourself, but stay away from the blow and shotguns.
I vividly remember my best friend Cristin and I anticipating the VHS release of the movie "Friday." She was two years ahead of me, but our ages never really made a difference. I'm sure we drove to Blockbuster in her beat-ass Cutlass Cierra, as we did many times throughout the mid to late 90's, smoking cigarettes and trying to rap 2 Live Crew and Dr. Dre songs. Living in total oblivion, we had no clue that we were probably the whitest girls alive. Our families were upper-middle class, we hadn't kissed boys yet, and we listened to A LOT of Tori Amos. At the time I would have liked to think that we had some sort of edge and in retrospect maybe we did, but at the time all I felt outside of Cristin and my circle of friends was awkward, pasty, self-conscious, and very Caucasian. That all seemed to go away when we were riding in her car or hanging out at the Waffle House.
Cristin and I at her wedding in 2008.
You could say that we became a bit obsessed with this movie, as did many people of adolescent age. When Mrs. Parker bent over to tend to her lawn, Craig's dad took an hour to use the bathroom, and Deebo rolled around on Red's little-ass bike, we LOVED it. Everything we said was, "DAAAAAAAAAYUM!"or trying the fit the phrase, "You got knocked the FUCK OUT," into conversations that really didn't call for it. I'm sure we looked very classy throughout this stint. Underneath our foul-mouths and our Accutane treated faces, we really were the Southern belles that our mothers had intended us to be. We just took a detour and couldn't be happier about our different route.
Cristin ended up getting the soundtrack after we saw the movie. Compact Disc's were just becoming popular, and we had to listen to it in her room at first. Eventually we figured out how to record a CD onto a cassette tape so we could play it in our cars. We'd shout out every word to songs by Cypress Hill, Rick James, and Dr. Dre.
The album also birthed a music video that would resemble life pre-911. It featured Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg hosting a party on a stolen plane with Big Worm and Smokey in the cockpit. All sorts of people were on this jumbo jet dancing their asses off and having a damn good time doing it. The hook of "Keep their Heads Ringin" would forever be burned into my head as a result of watching it every afternoon on MTV.
However, on this day Lisa closed by introducing a new music video from Blind Melon's most recent album, "Soup." The second I heard Hoon's distinctive voice, I gave up on completing my homework assignment and focused on the video, "Galaxie." To this day I'm sure many people will disagree with my choice, holding strong that "No Rain" was much better, but since this is MY blog, I'll go ahead and say that Chunkie McChunkerson dressed in her bumble bee outfit was played-out a long time ago. "Galaxie" and the sorcerer boy are much cooler. Boom-shock-a-locka, Bumble Bee Girl. Go cut yourself, but stay away from the blow and shotguns.
