1994 was a significant year for me. My best friend moved to Los Angeles, another friend was in Seattle or maybe Rochester, I can't remember. I spent the first few months drifting around chilly northern Illinois, working some lame temp jobs while living off the goodness of my dear parents, who I don't think knew how lost I felt although they might have privately worried about it. I don't know, they were pretty busy themselves and I wasn't saying much. And I wasn't helping them much.
Eventually April rolled around. Kurt Cobain died. He was the same age as me. I house sat for a friend's parents for five days or so. They lived in a quiet wooded area. I spent the evenings hanging out in their jacuzzi, getting stoned and reading books, including Charles Perry's The Haight-Ashbury: A History. I was working an awful temp job that week answering phones at an insurance agency. I remember this guy calling up while one of the owners was in a meeting and yelling at me to 'just get him, Okay!?!' F that crap. Why would anyone want to sell insurance?
By the end of April I had made up my mind to leave. I threw my stuff in the car and drove out west to Portland, Oregon. I got a job working at a Borders Books and Music downtown. It was a pretty fun job. I was there when the Britpop thing started happening; we played the first album from Oasis all the time. I loved it, and I loved reading about this band, lead by brothers vocalist Liam and guitarist Noel Gallagher. The Gallaghers always seemed to be arguing and fighting with each other. They did a tour of the US and played the Satyricon in Portland in September. A guy I worked with played in a band called the Lincoln Brigade and they opened for Oasis. After his set he came out and told me all about the quantity of beer Oasis were drinking and how they were building things with all the cans. They played an extremely loud show and I could tell Liam was really wasted. Afterwards, I saw him puking next to their tour bus outside the venue.
They also played my favorite song of theirs, Columbia. It starts off with 30 seconds of guitar noise, then gets into this groove that last the whole song. It has some great hooks, layers of guitars, and some fun singalong lines like I can't tell you the way I feel because the way I feel is oh so new to me. I particularly like Noel's guitar, the ringing note bend at 3:08, the riff at 3:26, and the louder one that begins at 4:04. Take that, Blur! and Cast, Supergrass, Suede, James, Pulp, Menswear, and all the other countless one word britpop groups!
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