|
Teenage Depression was founded by Daeve, Neil, and Kazumi (i.e. me) in 1982 in New Providence, New Jersey. We were in high school at the time. Daeve sort of played guitar and sang, Neil had just started to learn bass, and I played an old snare and floor tom using a broken drum stick in one hand and a piece of two-by-four in the other. We started out covering “Louie Louie,” “Sex Bomb” by Flipper, some Ramones tunes.
Daeve and I started writing songs together, usually with Daeve handing me lyrics over which I would quickly jot down “random” chords (“Reagan’s Gestapo” and “I Love Kate” were written this way); Neil began writing independently around the same time. Eventually, we started to sound like a “real” band. By 1983, I finally had a complete drum set, Daeve moved to just vocals, and guitarist Dave Keill joined to complete the quartet. That year, we recorded a set of demos at the home studio of drummer Paul Noser, a.k.a. Gus of Sand in the Face (a very underrated band). We thought we were sounding pretty good but I remember when we played at CBGB, a girl yelled out “Nice try.”
During our first year in college, Neil came up with the idea of recording a record. Since we all went to different schools, the band couldn’t do anything until summer. Greg replaced Keill (who went on to become a minister) and, in the summer of 1984, Teenage Depression recorded the “Skank or Die” EP at a small studio in Newark (favorite memory: driving by a storefront that had a sign that said “Pizzas in the Rear”). The title came from an article on the NY hardcore scene that appeared in Playboy.
It was during the “Skank” rehearsals that it became clear that there were conflicting ideas of what we were supposed to be. I think Neil wanted us to be a serious band (note the teen angst in his song “Caught in a Bind”). Daeve, on the other hand, had never taken it seriously – he had always wanted TD to be a satirical band. Greg and I just wanted to play music. When “Skank” was finally released, we got weekly airplay on Pat Duncan’s show on WFMU and a pretty decent review in Maximum RocknRoll.
Back at school, Neil decided to leave TD and form a pop group. In the summer of 1985, we took on premed student Colin Iosso as our bassist (we pretty much had to teach him how to play). By this time, we were moving away from hardcore. We tried our hand at King Crimson-ish songs with changing time signatures, a country tune, a cover of “Black Sabbath.” Mind you, none of this was played particularly competently. Pat Duncan came to see us perform at the Dirt Club in Bloomfield, New Jersey – I think he was so horrified by what he heard, he never played us again on the radio. Colin went on to become a doctor.
That was it for Teenage Depression. Greg went on to play guitar on G.G. Allin’s album “You Give Love a Bad Name.” To see what I’ve been up to, see www.myspace.com/kazumiumeda. Daeve moved to Madison, Wisconsin and has been performing as Mumber Toes while being involved in countless other projects, including Hintergedanken. In the early- to mid-Nineties, Daeve and I recorded some demos for a proposed “new” Teenage Depression record. This never got off the ground.
Just for the record, “I Love Kate” is about Kate Schellenbach, who was playing drums for Beastie Boys at the time.
OTHER PEOPLE’S OPINIONS
“Hey, buy this gnarly thrash record and find out everything these guys hate: anarchy punks, speed punks, Henry Rollins, frat boys, rabbits, moms, commies, Reagan, and probably themselves. However, they do love ‘Kate,’ the lucky girl. Music's pretty cool.” – Tim Yohannan, Maximum RocknRoll, November 1984
“One of the top 15 records of the month.” – Steve Spinali, Maximum RocknRoll, November 1984
“Straight edge bonzer ‘Reagan’s Gestapo’ is a cracker. Hardcore/Punk bomber ‘Anarchy Is for Assholes’ includes lyrics like ‘I’m a nihilistic scumbag so leave me alone.’ Also ‘Speed Punks Suck’ is an excellent US punk/core stomper. A great record.” – www.insekten-records.de
“A respectable chunk of collegiate punk-core.” – Hyped to Death 11
“Here’s a band that weren’t afraid to express their opinions. One of my favorite picture sleeves of all time. You don’t even need to play the record to know what this sounds like and if there is still any lingering doubt the song titles should provide some clues.”
– http://www.7inchpunk.com/?p=373 (This website includes sound clips of all the songs from “Skank” as well as comments from listeners.)
“...in hindsight a lot of those 'relevant' bands sucked and Skank or Die by Teenage Depression WROOLS!” – http://www.lastdaysofmanonearth.com/blog/?p=299
“One of the Top 200 Essential Punk/Wave Records – Worth it for the sleeve alone.” – http://pages.cthome.net/chrisrenna/200.htm
"TEENAGE DEPRESSION WAS AN AWESOME PARTY PUNK HARDCORE BAND FROM PROVIDENCE RI [sic] IN THE VERY EARLY 80'S. THEY ONLY RELEASED THIS ONE RECORD ON THE BULLDADA RECORDS LABEL, AND IT RULES, OKAY?... IT HAS 9 SIDE SPLITTING TRACKS: ANARCHY IS FOR ASSHOLES, REAGANS GESTAPO, WORKING FOR THE KREMLIN, FRAT PARTY, SPEED PUNKS SUCK ETC. EVEN THE TITLES ARE HILARIOUS. IF YOU COLLECT OLD SCHOOL HARDCORE THIS BUNCH OF IDIOTS IS FOR YOU. GEOGRAPHICALLY THEY FIT BETWEEN SSD, DYS, GANG GREEN AND THE FU'S ON ONE END AND AGNOSTIC FRONT, MINOR THREAT, VOID AND THE REST OF THE DISCHORD KNUCKLE HEADS. MUSICALLY IT IS JOKEY HARDCORE BUT TOTALLY LISTENABLE AND DOWN TO ROCK THE PIT THE NAME OF THE RECORD SAYS IT ALL: SKANK OR DIE." – http://www.popsike.com/php/detaildata.php?itemnr=110219659361
ABOUT THE COVER
Neil took the amazing cover photo of Daeve. Here are some of Neil’s memories of the photo shoot:
“The photo was taken in the entrance hallway of my house in New Providence. Because it had shiny wallpaper, Daeve and I deemed it ‘insufficiently hardcore.’ So, we got a roll of corrugated paper, and taped it up. The corrugated paper was what gave the photo a heavy, pseudo-industrial feel. To get the proper vibe, Daeve would prowl around the hallway, and then explode into a ferocious fist-in-the-air roar. I would try to capture the moment on a Kodak instamatic camera. This took a long time, because Daeve had me laughing so hard that I had trouble holding the camera steady.”
|
