Naked Raygun-Throb Throb

1987 will never happen again

The tape must have played through ten times up and back. It was 1987 and we were taking an afterschool road trip to Allentown to get Ramones tickets.

It was myself, Jason Garnet, and Lisa Quigley. She was rich and had a brand new Chrysler LeBaron and would do anything we told her because we were cool and "punk rock". Oxymoron anyone? As the car filled with Camel cigarette smoke, Naked Raygun's classic 1985 magnum opus "Throb Throb" roared out of the speakers. We sang along at the top of our lungs to their anti- nuclear/anti-macho/anti-Reagan anthems, bobbing our heads to their almost too catchy yet heavy guitar riffs.

It was late october and the sunset was spectacular, the car sped along route 100 and we spoke of all the things 16 year-olds do. We got to the Allentown airport music and bingo hall, scored the tickets and headed to a local mall for terrible food. I found cheap vinyl copies of Tom Waits-Swordfishtrombones and Tom Verlaine-Flash Light.

It was pitch black on the way home, and the air was so cold it bit your face. we kept smoking and rocking out and figuring out the world. Lisa dropped Jason off in Boyertown and me at my house in Elverson. That was it. Nothing spectacular. Throb Throb is a brilliant piece of work. It elevates Hardcore to a new level, an artistic peak. The songs are soulful, heavy, unforgettable. Jeff Pezzati's guitars will always remind me of autumn skies the way they burn and sear. When you go buy it at AKA music tommorow, bring it home and go to track 6-Roller Queen, a brilliant marriage of feedback, chunky riffs, and martial call and response, I want to get in a car chase with US Marshalls ones day so I can blare it as they chase me to the edge of a cliff.

Jason passed away in 1993. Whenever I listen to Throb Throb, I always hope he is somewhere where he can hear it too.
-Greg Trout

Celebrate Autumn '87 at:

Naked Raygun