5.
Descendents – I Don’t Want To Grow Up
The Descendents sung about something I could really understand: not getting girls. All their songs seemed to be about how they almost had a girlfriend, and then she broke their heart. Their singer was also very, very nerdy, which I also related to. They had this uptight male teenage aggression that came from frustration, but they were from California and knew good hooks – they were raised on the Beach Boys and all that. I Don’t Want To Grow Up has these really juvenile songs, but even when they’re making fart jokes or saying something gross, there’ll be a really pretty moment: [sings] "I been thinking good, good things about you…" Really sweet and teenage, all of a sudden, out of nowhere. Like, a teenage boy’s drawing dicks on his notebook, but then might also write a really sweet heartfelt letter to some girl. They kind of capture that. They have this famous live record, Liveage!, which they recorded in Minneapolis on their last tour in ’87 and I was at the show. I’m on that record! I always remember that as like a big teenage day: we were looking forward to it for three weeks, then taking the bus downtown and all buying the T-shirt… We all had these little point and shoot cameras and the album cover’s exactly like the shots I have at home – the guy who took the picture must have been standing right next to me. It’s not a very good photo. It was probably the roadie.
