During the late 1990s, I was a undergrad in college and heavily involved in the “Christian” hardcore/punk scene. I started in this scene while in high school when I found out about Tooth and Nail Records during youth group events. The promotional material would compare bands on the label to “secular” bands, saying for example that if you like Smashing Pumpkins you’d probably like … Read More Christian Punk/Hardcore and Evangelicalism
Thirty years ago, I discovered Sunny Day Real Estate while watching MTV’s 120 Minutes late one Saturday night. I saw the video for “Seven” and immediately fell in love with the Seattle band, rushing out as soon as I could to pick up their debut album Diary on black cassette, the norm for Sub Pop at the time. Over the years, I’ve been able … Read More The “Psychic Colors” That Make Our Memories
My musical awakening came in 1994. A friend’s brother gave me a cassette tape on Nirvana’s In Utero, and I put the tape in my Walkman and rode my bike around the neighborhood, blaring “Scentless Apprentice” and “Radio Friendly Unit Shifter” as I careened down the road. I started listening to them a few weeks before Kurt Cobain died on April 5, 1994. As with … Read More Kurt Cobain and Bruce McCulloch’s “Vigil”
What is it about Stone Temple Pilots’ 1994 sophomore album Purple that keeps bringing me back? I didn’t really follow STP after Purple; in fact, I rarely even go back to their debut album Core, a record I listened to extensively when it came out. Yet, over the past year, I’ve been returning to Purple, again and again. Last fall, I drove back to my childhood home, a ten … Read More The Lasting Legacy of Stone Temple Pilot’s “Purple” in My Life
One of my favorite projects to incorporate into classes is the mixtape assignment. I don’t do this every semester, but I assign it probably once every two years. The purpose of this assignment is to help students think about connections between the themes they encounter in the literature and connect it with other parts of their lives, highlighting the role of literature and art … Read More Mixtape for Banned Books Syllabus
Interminable Rambling 