Mental Ginger

Lincoln Blvd and Rose Ave

As this is my first visit to The Manic Room, I will start slowly. Perhaps this post is a response to the last post, containing an answer to the question posed, "Who is going to crack through our oblivion?" I also envision this writing as a "how-to." Before I launch fully into the substance of this writing, let me give you a preview of the how-to that will be contained herein: following reading this essay, you will be able to listen to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" as you've never heard it before.

I begin with a brief anecdote. I remember sitting in the parking lot of a local laundromat at Rose and Lincoln in Venice, California. Considering what comes next it, it must've been 2004. Looking across the lot, I saw a blue Ford Aerostar minivan, a child sitting in the shotgun seat, windows rolled down, his mother not there. The child was listening to the radio. As it was the summer of 2004, of course he was listening to "Hey Ya" by the Outkast.

The song had just begun and the child was already bored. It was the end of the summer and clearly he had heard the song hundreds of time. I watched him flip through the radio stations, pausing for a second on each station to hear the endless dribble issuing forth from mainstream radio. The child cycled through the entire dial and returned to you "Hey Ya." I literally watched him shrug and the begin bobbing his head to what is arguably the catchiest tune of this generation. [continued after the jump]

I here digress for a moment to point out that this is one of the saddest pop songs I have ever heard. This song is about Andre's inability to maintain his relationship to the sexiest women in existence, Erykah Badu. Just as "Ms. Jackson" was about the fact that Erykah's mom knew Andre was no good, this song is about the fact that Andre IS no good. You can hear it in the chorus, "oh oh." Listen to his wails as the song fades out. I digress.

Though the child had no doubt heard the song hundreds of times that summer, to the point where third teir presidential candidates were referencing it, (Wesley Clark anyone?), faced with the onslaught of mediocrity on mainstream radio, he had no choice but to put it back on and bob his head. You see, I would argue that there is something inherent to this song, some inherent quality that makes it great. We have no doubt forgotten, because at this point almost 10 years later, we must have heard this song a thousand times, literally.

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I remember where I was the first time I heard "Smells Like Teen Spirit." I was in my mom's Mazda Protege, picking up my friend, Torrey, in the morning on the way to school. He had recorded the song onto an audio cassette directly off of MTV. For those of you younger than 20, an audio cassette was a small plastic box that contained two reels of magnetic tape, onto which, the music was literally written and then read by a magnetized tape head, and MTV was a television network where all of us would hear music for the first time.

Now, I am generally a skeptical person, especially with new things. This is to say that there is a conservative streak in me. In spite of this, the effect was nearly instantaneous. I don't remember experiencing anything like it before or since. I immediately loved the song and for the next few months leading up to an epic RHCP-Nirvana-Pearl Jam, concert at the end of 1991, I had my first taste of what an earlier generation had called Beatlemania. But you all know what happens next. I was a junior in high school. For how long can anything remain cool to a sixteen-year-old?

Ten years later, well before I observed the child in the parking lot, I remember being perturbed that a profit motive had taken this song away from me. There is no way that I would have been able to play this song enough times own my to kill it. It was mainstream radio and its drive to play it and play it again and again ad nauseum and then play it again, that had killed this song for me. And dead to me it was. But I made an astonishing discovery.

Before I relate the discovery, led me intentionally digress into food theory for a moment. The question here is, "Why do the Japanese serve pickled ginger with sushi?" I have been told that the purpose is to cleanse the palette between sushi, that when a new dish is served, one can savor the new dish without tasting the remnants of the last dish on one's tongue.

As stated, this digression was intentional. Let me make myself clear, by returning to my astonishing discovery. My discovery begins with my becoming a fan of the digital hardcore act, Atari Teenage Root. ATR are perhaps best known not for any one song, though I might recommend, "She Sucks My Soul Away," "Destroy 2000 Years of Culture," "Revolution Action," or "Get Up While You Can," but more for pushing the boundaries of what constitutes music, being one of Gen X's first attempts at culture jamming, having a band member named Carl Crack, and for their unyielding stance against Western hegemony. During my anti-authority phase (I'll let you know when it’s over), I loved them and would roll around the west side of LA, singing "Revolution Action."

Which brings me to the discovery. It must have been 2002, because I remember "The Seed 2.0" by Cody Chesnutt and the Roots being big. One day, after an intense ATR session, "AND I'M RUNNING DOWN A BACK STREET! AND I'M NEVER GIVING IN!" I happened to flip the radio to KROQ. I was on the Santa Monica exit of the northbound 405 and "Smells Like Teen Spirit"came on the radio. There was this new feeling I had never experienced before. It wasn't nostalgia (oh, I remember the first time I heard this). It was like ATR had cleansed my palette and I was able to hear the song for exactly what it was, beyond my dim recollections of how hip or not hip I was in high school, beyond the endless airplay, beyond the countless imitators, perhaps even beyond Kurt's intentions, to the pure art of it. It was beautiful. ATR had freed the song from the burden of its cultural context and for that brief moment the song was able to be only what it is and I was able to appreciate it for this.

Kurt had no idea that Teen Spirit was a brand of deodorant. For Kurt, that simple song was about breaking through our oblivion. Unfortunately for us, David Geffen funds healthcare for the wealthy with the song's residuals, Kurt has long since joined Jimi, Jerry, Janice and Miles at the great session in the sky, and we are left with M.I.A.'s middle finger as our revolution action. I wonder though, can Alec Empire and crew still destroy enough of the last 2000 years of oblivion to give just five minutes of mental clarity, that Kurt might have a shot at showing us the possible once more?