Flashback Friday

Nine Inch Nails may have been the music that introduced me to the alternative world.

Where I'm from, mainstream music is country. The few radio stations that played pop in the 1980s down south - well, it was a steady diet of such fine artists as Kylie Minogue, Bonnie Tyler, and Def Leppard. I think that last may be one of the first tapes I bought, and I still harbor a secret affection for "Pour Some Sugar On Me."

I was a band geek. I remember very few details of this one particular band trip - for instance, I have no idea why we went to North Little Rock, or how we wound up at the mall, or how my friends and I met this kid named Mac, a band geek from another school, or where he was from. But I do remember that he was really cute, and that he had this blue Corvette, and that we all got in it to drive from one side of the mall to the other, and that Pretty Hate Machine was in the tape deck. It may have been the first time I unabashedly asked somebody, "What is this?" and then went straight out and bought it.

I don't know what happened to the tape I bought. It's probably still in my bedroom at home. But I recently found a used copy of the CD and bought it. Listening to it, I was reminded of a line from a newspaper review of one of my favorite diners, which reads something like, "Like nostalgia itself, the egg cream is more fondly remembered than experienced anew." Just substitute the words "Nine Inch Nails" for "egg cream" and you've got it.

Nevertheless, this song still rules if you're just fricking angry.

Head Like A Hole