S & E is almost legal

Has it really been 20 years? 20 years since this beauty came out, an album that would play a major part in the young life of a wayward young man? Back then our hero was a 21 yr. old derelict living above a gas station, it was the spring of my junior year at Podunk U. and when we got this up at the old radio station i was tempted to steal it, i was like what the fuck is this and why hasn't anyone ever made a record like this before? Of course this was during the period so meticulously covered in the Late Night Maudlin Street and it wasn't like i could sit around and fret about the demise of my nuclear family all the time so in the time in between, and there was a lot of time in between because i did my best to avoid going back to Cleveland for awhile, i made my way through life shucking and jiving to Loretta's Scars...

That summer was the one summer of the next five that i wouldn't spend in OCMD, i would spend it at Podunk U. crashing in the Hassler's room while he went home for the summer, i had scored a job at the physical plant at the university, a job that consisted of cutting grass and trimming hedges and doing grunt work... except on the second day there the admin walked in and said they needed somebody for the carpentry crew, i was so hungover i could barely even look up but i watched her scan the room, a rather fetching middle-aged woman who'd most likely spent her whole life in this town, her eyes flitted back and forth until they came to rest on me and the she said, "how bout Kono, i think he'd be alright", all i could think was what the fuck? i couldn't pound a nail to save my life this woman must want to torture me but by the end of the first week i realized she had a soft spot for the derelict types, she had hand picked me for the cushiest job in the joint, hanging out in dorms and watching telly, sleeping off hangovers in dorm rooms, my job consisted of fixing towel bars and checking drawers to make sure they were working, any real work i actually told the carpenter about, i worked with a midget kid i called Toad, he was into bad metal and wasn't actually a midget just short but i could tell i scared the shit out of him and i let him know early on that work was for suckers and that i'd do what i had to do but i'd spend most of my time sleeping and fucking about and getting stoned and drunk on lunch break...

I had some fond memories of that summer as i suffered through the heat and Hate the cat brought half dead animals to my window every morning, the job was only monday thru thursday so every weekend was a three day affair and yet i still couldn't make it to work on time or at all half the time, sometimes i'd just fudge the time sheets, i didn't fucking care, every now and then i'd stop in the office to say hi to the admin and she'd smile and ask how the job was and i'd smile back and say good and i'd swear i saw her wink at me the one time, basically letting me know that she knew and she knew i knew, laughed about the old man who was my boss who'd forget we were even working with him, he'd leave us in buildings and drive back and we'd have to walk and the guys back at the plant would laugh and say "Peanuts you forgot your crew again" and he'd just grab his lunch pail and shrug and head towards his car...

Though i think my favorite thing about that summer was going to the mini-mart every night after the bar closed, it would be between 2 and 4 a.m.. and there was a rather effeminate gay man who worked there, i'm sure he took alot of shit in that fucking town but i was always cool with him and i was always wasted, we used to shoot the shit a bit, Tim was his name, each night or more correctly morning i would stumble in for some Gatorade and some chips on my way home and roughly 3 or 4 hours later i'd stumble back in and get some coffee and a donut on my way to work, one night he told me that when i first started coming in each night and then again in the morning he thought i might be homeless or insane or both, i smiled and said he might be right, he was a good guy though and i noticed as the summer went on i usually got charged light on my purchases...

Of course summer turned to fall and the crew and i moved in above that infamous clothing store and the Hassler and I would spend countless hours listening to this album and dissecting it in every way possible, from lyrics to riffs to noises to nonsense, i was 22 by that time and spent most of my time drinking malt liquor, smoking dope, taking acid and eating mushrooms, all between or sometimes during class, it was then that i broke into the business of moving grass and back then this album was like a soundtrack to my fucking life, it was played at all hours of the day and night, from the middle of the afternoon with the sun beaming in and the curtains blowing in the breeze, to those late nights spent high on mushrooms under the fluorescent flicker of the kitchen lights as the snow fell on a deserted main street, through parties and semi-parties and my favorite time when two good friends would sit around sipping their beers and pulling tubes and just grooving and talking about the music and the books and the life they were leading, fucking young and somewhat innocent then, still am i guess, well maybe just young and not so innocent these days... and since this is a birthday part of sorts i give you my favorite song off this record, from the first time i heard it i loved and it hasn't lost it's luster some 20 years later... cheers

(for those who want more they'll be bonus songs over at Konogulf music)