I should have been a Riot Grrrl. The timing was right. I was a politically aware, music-loving twentysomething woman in the early-to-mid nineties, and somehow the Riot Grrrl phenomenon mostly passed me by. A few…
Browsing Category Voice of My Generation
Stop Using the Term ‘Dad Rock’
First they came for Wilco, at least that’s the first time I heard the term. Wilco was “Dad Rock” and it made me laugh, because at that point “Sky Blue Sky” had just come out…
Voice of My Generation: In Defense of the Gin Blossoms’ ‘New Miserable Experience’
It never occurred to me that my love of the Gin Blossoms’ “New Miserable Experience” was something I should be ashamed of until I wrote a short story for a Loft class in 2006. The…
20 Years On I Still Believe What Weezer Sang on The Blue Album
So today Weezer’s “Blue Album” is twenty years old. I cannot let any of the anniversaries of my personal cultural touchstones go unremarked. This is one of the advantages of making it to fortysomething. You…
Voice of My Generation: 20 Years in the Shadow of Kurt Cobain’s Death
Today marks the 20th anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death. Ten years ago I wrote about his death and a young man named Crazy Tony. Ten years ago I was more sentimental than I am now….
My Neutral Milk Hotel: A GenXer’s Perspective
I did not go see Neutral Milk Hotel at First Avenue last night. I won’t go tonight. Even though I was twenty-six in 1998, I didn’t see them that year when they played the 400…