Do You Have Flashback Songs?

   I was working my way through the stack of mail on the corner of my desk that seems to magically grow with each passing day - isn't it wonderful to be a grown up?!

   I have my earbuds in and am listening to a compilation of punk and hardcore tracks that my brother assembled for me for Christmas and on came Crimpshine's "In My Mind."

   And off went my mind! Back to junior high and the first time I heard "the Lookout bands" - bands like Crimpshine, Op Ivy, and Green Day. In fact, now that I'm thinking about it my introduction to that whole East Bay scene was when I heard the Isocracy 7" played by my best friend's older sister, home from college for a weekend. She had stumbled across one of their live shows in Berkeley and bought the record. This was probably 1986.

   It would be roughly 4 years later that I found myself playing bass in a band with three of my schoolmates, opening for none other than Green Day in front of count 'em 30 people in a barn..yes, a barn in the middle of a Saturday afternoon. We got shut down by the cops so Green Day had to play acoustically!

   Anyway, I love these flashback songs - I think for me they are too numerous to accurately tally. But that is part of what makes them fun. You never know when or where you'll hear one or where you'll be taken when you do!