Thirty Five Year Plan

Music has always played a big part in my life, and I find myself getting wrapped up in different eras and styles at different times. My obsessions shift all over the place and constantly change, but there is one thing that will always hold true... one of the best feelings is that special charge I get when I pick up a record for one of those classic records from my teenage years. Nothing hits quite like that for me.

Dirty Rotten Imbeciles were a pretty big influence on me in those days. I had discovered Dealing With It when I was 15 or 16, and while none of the other D.R.I. albums came close to matching that ferocity, each one was still vital and important to this teen metalhead and helped shape how I saw the world around me. I remember when I first saw Crossover in the record store. Information was pretty limited in those days, and typically when a new album would show up in the store, it was a surprise. At first glance, I needed to make sure this was the same D.R.I. band that I was familiar with... Dealing With It had 25 songs, but Crossover only had 12... plus, what was up with that slick looking front cover? Right out of the gate something felt different. Still, with song titles like Go Die and No Religion, it had to be the real deal, right?

While Crossover marks a big change from the first two D.R.I. albums... kind of like the change from the first Suicidal Tendencies record to Join The Army... of course I still fucking loved it. It was still fast, snotty and with a strong Us vs. Them fuck you attitude. 17 year old me loved this record, and 35 years later I was just as siked to finally pick up the vinyl for it.