Growing up

33 degrees and snowy. O Malley got soaked and is totally making the whole room smell like wet dog. And he is snoring loudly.

It's been fun to watch and listen as the bands I grew up with have grown up too. They've taken some unexpected turns indeed. Ok, not all of them have. The latest Pearl Jam albums still sound like the Pearl Jam of my youth. Same with Foo Fighters, Oasis, and Weezer.

My family had recently moved into a new neighborhood and I was just starting ninth grade. I decided that this was my chance to reinvent myself and become "cool."

My buddy Alan's older sister first introduced me to alternative music. She was giving us a ride and was totally shocked that I had never heard of the band Green Day, so she played Longview from their brand-new Dookie album. Though it took me a few months to warm up to that type of music, that was the seed that started my interest. I think it might have been their Insomniac album that became my first cassette tape purchase.

I picked up every album that came since. They started off snarcky and irreverent. Not taking anything or anyone too seriously. Simple, catchy pop-punk rock riffs. Then they started dabbling in surf rock and Kinks-like classic rock. But back when I was 14, it would have been hard to believe Green Day would ever start releasing rock opera albums with Queen-like layered guitars and ultra liberal political lyrics. Snarky to serious.

Another favorite band, Radiohead, went from radio friendly Brit-pop to experimental and now they seem to be somewhere in the middle. They continue to surprise and delight me. But that's a post in and of itself for another day. Should we call this friendly to serious?

How about a band that started serious? Silverchair came along during the grunge heyday and tried and pretty well succeeded in sounding as rough and weathered as musicians 10 years older. They were only 15 when the album with this song was released:



But unlike a lot of their peers, it seems like Silverchair decided to have fun while expanding their art. Throw off the chains of trying to be taken too seriously. I didn't really dig it at first but some of their latest album's weirdness has started to rub off on me. Check this one out:

Silverchair - If You Keep Losing Sleep - Funny blooper videos are here

It is kindof funny to think that those same friends I thought would be impressed by my listening to Green Day and the Smashing Pumpkins later told me they thought I was weird for listening to it. Apparently, I didn't get the memo that the "cool" music was Coolio and Bone Thugs n Harmony and the such.