TEENGENERATE were one of the first really “out there” bands I ever heard. I was 14 and super into the Ramones and the internet. The lovely newsgroups of the World Wide web opened the door to other kids my age in my city that had the same fire and passion.
Somehow I became friends with a young man named Brian whose older brother, a fan of all things Japanese (that also had something to do with the internet) had suggested he buy their “Smash Hits” cd from a local record store. Upon learning of my love of the Ramones, Brian thought I may like it.
What is weird is that at the time, I remember not hating it but not loving it.
I think I really liked Sex Cow but I was really stupid and it was probably because the name of the song was Sex Cow. In their defense, the song does sound like Sex Cow and you can’t not name it that.
Revisiting about fifteen years later I slapped myself in the face.
Every song is completely unhinged straight forward rock and roll. Pure. No ego. You can hear the same thing in every single song : we really love playing this song and so we figured we would share our happiness with you.
That’s it.
The snarliest guitars playing the most efficient chord progressions and hitting all of the wrong notes.
The bassist only knows the root notes and the pentatonic scale and that is all we need. The amp probably needs to get kicked every third song to stop distorting, but sometimes we don’t remember to do that, and that’s ok.
The drummer is always overlooked person in this type of band.
It would never work without the most charitable man. The guy who is just going to be serious back there, not let it get out of hand by not missing one beat, never slowing down, never runs out of energy – and most importantly, never makes a wrong move when it comes to the fills.
Here are my three favorite Teengenerate songs, all off Smash Hits! and all three covers and that makes it better. They are so good I listened to all three twice while writing this. I just said fuck it…let’s listen one more time.
Wild Weekend
That kick drum is so fucking loud its great. The guitars are absolutely perfectly tuned for specifically those power chords. The background vocals in the chorus kill me. Been singing it wrong since I fell in love with it. I legit have no fucking idea what they’re saying and I’m not going to ruin it by googling it.
Just Head
This is everything I’ve ever wanted in a punk rock song. I say that every song I hear on this record, but I truly believe it with this one. Full blast from the get go!
I have no fucking idea what the guy is screaming about and I have no idea what planet he’s from. The kick drum is 3dB too loud and in the history of the world, not one person, has ever complained about it. Like all of the best songs in this genre, it sounds like it’s getting faster and faster and might fly off the fucking turntable. Seriously listen to the rhythm guitar playing in this song. Its Johnny Ramone on HGH.
Burn My Eye
Again, they’re working with the works of our strongest elders, but turn it up. Seriously sounds like the mixing board is ALL RED and the engineer is spraying a fire extinguisher all over the place while the band doesn’t notice a thing. Fucking smoke coming out of the tape machine. The bass player finally gets to show off, how the hell is he playing that fast and not missing a note. What a shit hot song.
Go buy this record.
FIVE STARS
