So, what were you doing 30 years ago?

[OptimalOptimus]

I was 8 years old. So playing with my Super Nintendo.
I don't remember that album but I do remember the legendary MTV unplugged performance

 

[Yaralag]

I notice you're in Houston so maybe haven't kept in touch. He's still playing in town, working at the local GC last I saw him. He's like Kevin Bacon, nobody's ever more than a few people away from Cardel in this town.

I talked to him a couple of years ago. I'm about due for a chat to catch up. I didn't know where he was living. He always seems to bounce between the valley and the mountains. He wanted to get the group back together for a reunion show. I'm just too darn busy for that unfortunately. The last project we did together was in the early 2000s called Starthistle. We did some small festivles and played some bars. Members of the West Coast Rhythm Section would sit in. Life, marriage and kids happened and the availability to play lessened. Last I heard he was a truck driver.

 

[LBS-bass]

I talked to him a couple of years ago. I'm about due for a chat to catch up. I didn't know where he was living. He always seems to bounce between the valley and the mountains. He wanted to get the group back together for a reunion show. I'm just too darn busy for that unfortunately. The last project we did together was in the early 2000s called Starthistle. We did some small festivles and played some bars. Members of the West Coast Rhythm Section would sit in. Life, marriage and kids happened and the availability to play lessened. Last I heard he was a truck driver.

I'll send you some links to some of his pages via PM. I'm sure he'd be happy to hear from an old bandmate

 

[LaklandLaksNADA]

Makin my grand ol entrance through the waterside of life.

 

[ComicBass]

I was 3 years old.

 

[Wambemando]

30 years ago, I was playing a SS Cort Slammer with a mullet and MC Hammer pants.
I saw my first concert back in January - it was 2 weeks before my 14th birthday.
My two favorite bands... Anthrax and Iron Maiden at the Rochester War Memorial.
My love of skateboarding is evidenced by my Airwalks and Tony Hawk medallions on my bass and T-shirt.
In June I saw Firehouse, Trixter, and Warrant at Darien Lake Amphitheater.
I still hadn't heard any Grunge yet.
We didn't have cable at home, but my father would videotape MTV and Headbanger's Ball at his MC's clubhouse when he could.
That's how I heard my first Grunge song... "Outshined" by Soundgarden. I didn't consider it anything but "Heavy" at the time, but that band "Nirvana" sure sounded weird.
Not as weird as the Black Flag cassette that I randomly bought a year beforehand, but it was definitely something different than Hair Metal.
Around the same time that I became aware of the Grunge genre, my parents decided to move from rural NY to suburban NJ.
Everything changed for me at that time.
I quickly rid myself of my mullet and stonewashed jeans and adopted the outfit of a 90s skater with a backwards hat and pants down past his a$$.
I began playing Hardcore music within a year of moving to Jersey, mostly due to RATM and similar bands.
It was a huge shift in both music and my life, and things would never be the same again.

(*I am guilty of enjoying all of the music of my youth, including Hair Metal.)

 

[SLO Surfer]

Was in Middle school trying to learn Metallica and rhcp songs on bass.

 

[MustangWally]

30 years ago? Deeply into oil & gas engineering in Brisbane Australia, working what seemed like every waking hour with nary a thought for music. Dang near killed myself doing that, saw the light ten years later and went back to more gentle pursuits.

 

[DirtDog]

I clearly remember unplugging the TV from the one AC jack on the wall so the whole band could have power, the night of the first Gulf War. We were playing a dive that was so divey I doubt you can top it.

Thats the bar that I worked at!

 

[Rib 13]

I was in my 20s but I didn't get it.......I thought Nirvana were a godawful GarageBand ( and I still feel that way). I wouldve rather seen Stone Temple Pilots or Soundgarden get all the grunge accolades.....

however, i would like to point out a great time in rock music history that goes largely unrecognized:
1989 - 1993

Hair bands and Jheri Curl were fading. The (corporate and indie) music scene was waiting for the next big thing. Every major label and minor label were trying EVERYTHING out to see what sticks. There was such a great variety of music out between those years. The industry was trying out Post-metal, Funk-Metal, Rap-Metal, Industrial Rock, Industrial, Techno Rock, Grunge, Shoegaze, New Jack Pop and RnB, etc etc etc......I never heard so much variety on the radios than I did between those times...On just one station you could hear Jesus Jones, Soundgarden, Saigon Kick, Chili Peppers, REM, Crash Test Dummies, Depeche Mode, Pearl Jam, Infectious Grooves, etc etc and even bands like Front 242 making an occasional mainstream radio appearance

1989 - 1993 really needs its own special place in music history

 

[glocke1]

I just flashed on this, and looked it up...maybe they didn't matter to you, maybe they meant everything to you, maybe you hated them because they 'ruined everything' (whatever everything might have been for you), maybe you weren't even born yet; as for me, I was a little beyond the intended demographic, but I liked them. They didn't exactly catch me by surprise as I had heard plenty of similar, forerunner stuff in the previous few years, but was amazed that something so raw was on mainstream rock radio. My only gripe was the over-saturation.
What am I going on about? 30 years ago this month, Nirvana entered a studio with Butch Vig to start recording Nevermind, and while there wasn't exactly one pivotal moment like 2/9/64, the following October was definitely a before/after period. I don't think anything like that would happen again.

Hmmm...30 years ago I think I was probably wrapping up my first year of college at the U of Montana in Missoula.

Those were good times. Carefree, lighthearted existence living in a great town.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

I just flashed on this, and looked it up...maybe they didn't matter to you, maybe they meant everything to you, maybe you hated them because they 'ruined everything' (whatever everything might have been for you), maybe you weren't even born yet; as for me, I was a little beyond the intended demographic, but I liked them. They didn't exactly catch me by surprise as I had heard plenty of similar, forerunner stuff in the previous few years, but was amazed that something so raw was on mainstream rock radio. My only gripe was the over-saturation.
What am I going on about? 30 years ago this month, Nirvana entered a studio with Butch Vig to start recording Nevermind, and while there wasn't exactly one pivotal moment like 2/9/64, the following October was definitely a before/after period. I don't think anything like that would happen again.

What was I doing? Ignoring Nirvana. In the early 90's I was concentrating on building my financial services practice and playing oldies.

 

[joelns]

Back to the recording of Nirvana's first album, it'll happen again. No idea when or what the context will be, or even if any of us will like the music. But there will be some band or musician that comes up with something revolutionary that catches on.

30 years ago, May 1991, I was in College, dating the woman that would later become my wife (we just had our 27th anniversary). I had left the event band I was in to go to school, and wasn't playing much at the time.

 

[MoeTown1986]

Being 4 years old.

 

[butterfingers1]

Graduate student with pregnant wife, bass collecting dust somewhere.

 

[OregonJim]

I clearly remember unplugging the TV from the one AC jack on the wall so the whole band could have power, the night of the first Gulf War. We were playing a dive that was so divey I doubt you can top it.

We were playing at an outdoor park in the mid '80s with a newly-constructed concrete half-shell over the stage. About 10 minutes into our first set, we noticed that many people in the audience were pointing at us with astonished looks on their faces. It seems they were watching cracks develop in the concrete right before their eyes as we played. Thankfully, somebody cut the power to warn us and we got out from under that thing before it collapsed. The amps and instruments weren't so lucky.

 

[lowendrachel]

I was eleven. I used to dance and listen to MC Hammer, Vanilla Ice, Salt N' Pepa..

 

[PWRL]

I was in my 20s but I didn't get it.......I thought Nirvana were a godawful GarageBand ( and I still feel that way). I wouldve rather seen Stone Temple Pilots or Soundgarden get all the grunge accolades.....

however, i would like to point out a great time in rock music history that goes largely unrecognized:
1989 - 1993

Hair bands and Jheri Curl were fading. The (corporate and indie) music scene was waiting for the next big thing. Every major label and minor label were trying EVERYTHING out to see what sticks. There was such a great variety of music out between those years. The industry was trying out Post-metal, Funk-Metal, Rap-Metal, Industrial Rock, Industrial, Techno Rock, Grunge, Shoegaze, New Jack Pop and RnB, etc etc etc......I never heard so much variety on the radios than I did between those times...On just one station you could hear Soundgarden, Saigon Kick, Chili Peppers, REM, Crash Test Dummies, Depeche Mode, Pearl Jam, Infectious Grooves, etc etc and even bands like Front 242 making an occasional mainstream radio appearance

1989 - 1993 really needs its own special place in music history

I agree. Those were some great years for music. I was in boarding school and roughly the first half of college during that time, and there was something great dropping every week, it felt like.

 

[Nuage420]

Pre K... so naps. Maybe pissed myself?

 

[Picton]

1989 - 1993 really needs its own special place in music history

My high school years.

But I mostly listened to what my older brother had been listening to, an eclectic mix of '80s stuff I still enjoy. I knew the writing was on the wall and the good times were over when I first heard Jane's Addiction on KROQ.

Couldn't stand much about early 90s music.