No Trend – Teen Love

This morning got off to a rough start, chalk it up to having had Monday off I guess. Just enough time to get yourself a little bit out of the daily routine to leave us scrambling to get out the door. Consequently I forgot my breakfast, which I usually bring along in the car because I don’t have time to eat it before I leave.

I was annoyed with myself for not having my breakfast and looked through the seven or eight tapes I had in the car to choose one for Tape Deck Tuesday. Which is how I came to decide that today was the day for ON THE FRINGE OF THE FRINGE (Assorted new music) Vol. 1.

This tape was given to me by a guy named Fred who was a graduate student when I was an undergrad in college. I can’t remember what year it was but probably 1986-87. My on-campus job in the costume shop at the theater meant that I got to know just about everyone at the school who didn’t fit the dominant big hair/mullet, sorority/fraternity paradigm, simply because that was the only welcoming spot. Fred wasn’t one of the regulars but he was around often enough at one point to have heard the music I was playing when I was the one working in the shop. He suggested I might be interested in some harder stuff and he’d bring me some tapes.

I assumed he’d bring in some of his tapes for me to listen to during whatever show was being performed, or he’d let me borrow some for the length of the run. Instead he gave me two tapes, ON THE FRINGE OF THE FRINGE (Assorted new music) Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. He may have had these mixes at home already or he may have made them just for me, I wasn’t really sure. He was very nonchalant about it so I took them to be tapes he really didn’t need cluttering up his car anymore. The insert was typed, on a typewriter, which is an impressive level of detail, or an admission of horrible handwriting, either one. I’m typing it up the same way it appears on the tape for authenticity.

I’m sure I dutifully listened to these two tapes a handful of times so I could feel like I could talk about them if Fred came around and not sound stupid but my overall feeling was, if this is the fringe of fringe, I’m pretty sure the actual fringe is not my cup of tea. I had heard of some of the bands and maybe one or two songs were something I’d heard on one of the other college radio stations’ hardcore shows but mostly this was unfamiliar territory.

Side A
FLIPPER
Sacrifice
The Light, the Sound…
The Old Woman…
Sex Bomb
HALF JAPANESE
Mt. King/Louie Louie
Thing With a Hook
8-EYED SPY
Diddy Wah Diddy
Love Split With Blood
Lightning’s Girl
Lazy in Love
EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN
Seele Brennt
Sehnsucht
Halber Mensch

Side B
WILMA
Life Without Adjec.
Georgie Girl
BUTTHOLE SURFERS
Concubine
Eye of the Chicken
Creep in the Cellar
American Woman
TEENAGE JESUS
Red Alert/Orphans
The Closet
Burning Rubber
Crown of Thorns
Red Alert
NO TREND
Teen Love
Your Love
Karma Nights

Ironically, the box is checked off for noise reduction. I’ve kept these tapes all these years mostly because I never get rid of music and I’ll admit that back in the day, I liked having something like this as part of my collection. I didn’t have Volume 2 in the car with me today but I think that’s the one with Hüsker Dü and Sonic Youth, among others, so I probably listened to that one more often. As for Volume 1, this No Trend song brought instant recognition when I heard it as I pulled into the parking lot at work. Timeless, really.