Music and Memories

Oh, man, today is turning from Sloth to a Walk Down Memory Lane.

I'm still playing with the USB turntable. After rerecording the stuff I did yesterday, I am moving on to the local stuff not available on CD--mainly Iowa bands.

In one of my posts about Gabe's I mentioned the last time I was there--Iowa Comp Weekend September of 1988. I was a freshman in college and had come back to Iowa City for two days of local bands. During the second night they gave away a free album to the first person who knew the original name of the band Stone Wakening--I was closest to the stage and yelled the name first/loudest: Psychotrash. 1) They were a Cedar Falls bands, and 2) Duh, everyone knew that.

I took the album back with me to college, and I played it non-stop.

Shortly after the semester started, I met Shannon. Meeting Shannon was a trip, because after we became friends I found out she had devised a plan on how to meet me. She'd seen my on campus and decided she needed to know me and my purple hair. I had seen her on campus and decided I needed to know her and her long orange skirt (I eventually borrowed that long orange skirt--it almost dragged on the ground but I didn't care). But how we met and her three strike plan to meet me are a story for another time.

Shannon and I listened to the Iowa Comp II album nonstop. Listening to it now I feel like I should be smoking a Camel Light in the make-shift smoking lounge on sixth floor Miliken.

We played the hell out of this album--"Big Tough Dreams" by The Eclectics, "What if There's a Fire" by House of Large Sizes, and "Let Me in (Your Blood Bath)" by Artificial Limb Embrace. I would play the tape I'd made of the album I would drive back to Iowa. Holy Christ I loved this album. And I think I still do.