Reading the tracklist of the new Mishka & Catchdubs Mixtape is a highly Proustian moment for me, sucking me back to times when Saturdays were all about hanging out in warehouses with steel plated walls that vibrated and distorted the bass of 'Hobo Humping Slobo Babe' to a hellish buzzing sound while I tried to get to second base with that cute girl in the Pearl Jam 'Ten' T-shirt.
Some of my all-time favourites are on this mixtape (Wave of Mutilation, Dive...), but some of those other tunes still make me want to stab someone in the mouth with a snapped-off plastic spoon during recess.
Download link + tracklist + genuine teenage moments after the jump.
1. Superdrag - Sucked Out
I wake up in a dark tent. The grass beneath me is wet. I've fallen off my inflatable mattress, which has deflated during the night, despite my weighing only 65 pounds with my combat boots on. This is the first time I'm camping out at a major festival with some friends. I realise the sound that woke me up just before sunrise is a huge drunk guy pissing on my tent roof. In the background, someone is playing a cassette mixtape with Superdrag. The pissing guy belts out 'Whooooooores motherfucker!' and leaves. I think about pumping some new air into my mattress, decide against it and zip open my tent. I crawl out wearing the clothes I slept in: cut-off army pants, Nirvana 'Sliver' shirt and combat boots. Two feet away from me, my best friend has prepared breakfast: whisky in a (smuggled) glass bottle and Vitabis cookies. I feel badass. 2. Elastica - Connection
I'm 15 and talking to an 18-year old girl with purple hair and a pierced nose. She laughs at my jokes and I'm proud of that. She asks me if I like Elastica. I've never heard of them but say I like their early stuff. She nods and lights a Belga cigarette. In her head, the tune I never heard of must be playing because she starts swaying her hips and singing "Forget it. Forget it. Forget it." 3. Local H - Bound For The Floor
No memory found.
4. White Zombie - Thunder Kiss ‘65
I'm in a barn. A friend of mine has organised a party while his parents are out of town. Six or seven 16-year old boys are sitting in a circle, smoking and drinking beer. I've put on my White Zombie CD and everyone's nodding along. I'm waiting for the track with Iggy Pop to come along: my favourite. About three feet from us a boy sits slumped on a wooden chair. His skin is greenish. He is barely breathing. Turns out he was on some kind of medicine when we started drinking. The rest of us are discussing whether an ambulance should be called. One of the bigger boys says: "He'll puke. He'll get better." And we leave it at that.
5. Björk - Isobel (Carcass Remix)
I'm in the mess hall at school. I'm 16. It's night. There's a kind of quiz going on. I'm drunk. An older boy comes up to our table and squats next to me. He tells me he's heard I like Björk, who has just released her first solo album. I say yes. He taps me on the back and says: "You're all right, man." He asks me what my quiz team is called. I tell him: "Iz Uma". "What the hell is that?" "It's Russian. It means: 'Beyond Reason'." He smirks and leaves me with my beer, which I have trouble finishing. 6. Oasis - Fucking In The Bushes
I'm watching 120 minutes on MTV. VJ Paul announces a new band called Oasis. I like them. The next day at school, I do a Liam Gallagher impression. It goes down well.
7. Beck - Novocaine
I walk into a small, darkened concert hall. The Sonic Youth gig will start in about an hour. Some guy called Beck is singing into a pink phone on stage. "Hello Barbie?" he says. I laugh. The girl I'm with says she thinks he's funny. I'm staring at a flyer handed out by a Sonic Youth roadie. It says: "Listen to Blonde Redhead". 8. Lo Fidelity All Stars f. Pigeonhed - Battle Flag
Pogo on the dance floor. Sweating. Everybody's wearing flanel shirts and/or knitted sweaters. I'm wearing skull rings on my fingers and a home-made 'anarchy' shirt. One of my best friends is making out with his new girlfriend in the middle of the dance floor, which annoys me. When the girl leaves, my friend leans in and shouts in my ear: "She has a cold. She can't breathe when she's kissing me." I nod and turn my back to him. Who cares?
9. Edwyn Collins - Girl Like You
I'm almost out of school. I can't decide whether I like this song. Some guy I hate tells me he thinks the lyrics are really deep. That settles it. 10. The Amps - Tipp City
No memory found. 11. Urge Overkill - Positive Bleeding
I'm in a movie theatre watching Uma Thurman dance to Urge Overkill. My hand is on my date's thigh. It feels warm. When the movie's over, I'm really excited, telling everyone that Tarantino guy is a total genius. My date didn't like it. A few days later, she tells me she's a ghost inhabiting the body of her dead baby sister. She's not joking. I freak out and leave her. She calls my house and makes tearful death threats. My father overhears us and looks worried, but doesn't know whether he should say anything.
12. Pixies - Wave Of Mutilation
I'm in the garage at a friend's house. A birthday party is ending. It's night time, in the middle of the woods. At midnight, the birthday boy and some of his friends decide to run across the nearby freeway on a dare. I'm bored. Later, someone plays the surfer version of this song. I've never heard it before and I think it's beautiful. A fog lifts and I'm blissfully aware of the night, our youth and the presence of my friends. 13. Smashing Pumpkins - Zero
Everybody is suddenly into grunge and indie. Two kinds of T-shirts become a real hype in school: Smashing Pumpkins 'Zero' and the Rage Against The Machine shirt with the burning monk. I decide that hypes really annoy me.
14. Prodigy - Breathe
I'm at the Pukkelpop festival. The Prodigy are headlining the first dance hall tent ever. Technical difficulties. We wait for 2 hours. I tell someone The Chemical Brothers are the future. They performed earlier in front of a crowd of about 300 people. After two hours, someone comes on stage trapped in a giant plastic ball. Hilarity ensues.
15. Nirvana - Dive
I'm watching BBC News. The announcer says Kurt Cobain is dead. I switch channels to MTV. Kurt Loder confirms the suicide. My dad is watching this with me. I go up to my room where I blast a live Nirvana bootleg ('Blind Pig') at high volume. My hair is exactly like Cobain's. Before I close the door to my room, my father stops me and says: "Don't do anything stupid, OK?" 16. Hole - Plump
I'm DJ'ing at a bar. Someone hands me the new Hole cd called 'Live Through This'. It has the picture of a crying beauty queen on the cover. I'm thinking: "They'll never top this." Behind the bar, someone thumbtacked a cartoon against the wall. Two women sit knitting in rocking chairs at an old folks' home. One of them says: "You know, things haven't been the same since that Cobain boy died. " The oher grandma replies: "Honey, I was just thinking the same thing."
17. P.J. Harvey - Down By The Water
I'm reading a magazine. The magazine says 'Down by the Water' by PJ Harvey could not have been made a year ago, because the bass is so low it can only be produced by new technology. I tell someone deep bass lines are the future. 18. Luscious Jackson - Naked Eye
I'm sitting on the side walk with friends. It's a hot summer night. School vacation. The DJ is mixing Luscious Jackson with Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. Everyone is wearing cut-off army pants, girls included. Someone spills a home-made cocktail on the concrete. It fizzles like acid. I'm impressed by this.
19. Murmurs - You Suck
No memory found.
20. Ween - Push Th’ Lil Dasies
I've been in college for four years when I first meet another Ween fan. We're still friends.
21. Pharcyde - Pack The Pipe
I'm in a van with about four other guys, on the way to the first European Wu-Tang concert (in Rotterdam). We lose our way and end up in a local ghetto called 'Lapland' (really). Kids are lighting fires in metal trash cans and doing stunt tricks on dirtbikes. After driving around for three more hours with the Pharcyde on repeat, we finally arrive at the concert. It's cancelled. 22. NIN - Closer
I'm on my parents' couch watching the video on 120 Minutes, thinking this just might be the coolest thing ever. 23. Filter - Hey Man Nice Shot (Dust Brothers Remix)
No memory found. Always hated that song. 24. Cake - The Distance
I'm in college. Some guy in a blue polo shirt with a popped collar is talking to me about the lyrics to this song. He says: "I think it's about having to keep trying, like he's driving when everyone else is gone already. You know?" I nod and say: "I think he's standing still." The guy in the polo shirt looks at me like I just blew his mind.
25. The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Talk About The Blues
I'm at a John Spencer Blues Explosion concert. It's the same hall where I saw Sonic Youth perform. I came alone so I'm in the front row. The singer disappears after a few songs. When he comes back, he's lifting a porcelain toilet bowl above his head. The crowd goes wild. He smashes the toilet. The drummer looks worried. A fight breaks out next to me. I'm glad I'm there.
26. Marcy Playground - Sex and Candy
I'm watching MTV when an interview with the singer comes on. He says "Everybody loves this story, right? So I'm with my girlfriend at college and we just had sex and my girlfriend is eating candy and then my room mate walks in and says: "I smell sex and candy." He laughs. I'm not impressed.
27. Whale - Hobo Humpin Slobo Babe See above.
28. Stone Temple Pilots - Vasoline
I'm outside a party with a girl I kind of like. She says: "Scott Weiland is a genius." I make a face and she walks away. Who cares?
29. Beastie Boys - So Whatcha’ Want
I'm in my room with this on repeat, reading the booklet and copying the cleared samples in a school notebook.
30. Presidents of the United States of America - Peaches
I'm at a party where this song is being played for the third time in two hours. A friend of mine decides the best way to remedy this is to go to the DJ and ask him to play it again. As he leaves, someone leans in and says to me: "You know what that guy's nickname is at Soccer?" "No." "The Coke bottle." "Really, why?" He points at his crotch. At the DJ booth, 'the coke bottle' is looking at me and giving me the thumbs up. "Peaches" starts playing from the top.
31. Wheatus - Teenage Dirtbag
I'm at a small festival where James Brown will be headlining. To make sure I'm in the front row when that happens, I have to suffer through a Wheatus gig. It's hot. There are actual 12-year old Wheatus fans there. Wheatus comes on. Their set starts out awful and goes downhill from there. About halfway through, their inept playing has pushed me into a state of vague malaise, bordering on depression. I sit down in the middle of the crowd. To this day, that Wheatus gig is still the worst performance I've seen. Ever. By anyone. 32. Nada Surf - Popular
I'm watching MTV and the singer is saying that they wrote this song as a joke and their 'real' music is much more experimental. I find this funny.
33. Flaming Lips - She Don’t Use Jelly
Probably the video that made me decide to tape every episode of 120 minutes on MTV. I wish I still had those tapes.
34. Spacehog - In The Meantime
No memory found.
35. De La Soul feat. Teenage Fanclub - Fallin’
I'm at a party at a friend's house. It's summer. I'm drinking cold beer. Someone fed the dog space cake. He's chasing his tail. Very. Very. Slowly. 36. Weezer - Only In Dreams
I'm at a festival dancing to Weezer with a Coke in my hand. Tomorrow, I will fall asleep during one of the last gigs Jeff Buckley will play before drowning in a river. I feel good.
