The albums you listen to in your first car hold a sacred place in your heart.
It’s a Shame About Ray by the Lemonheads will forever remind me of my navy blue Chevy Corsica name Grover, driving through the valley (Cuyahoga Valley National Park—not, like, THE Valley San Fernando) and my high school crew.
When the grunge scene hit my town, high school was still very much like The Breakfast Club. There were well defined clicks: jocks, burnouts, nerds, preps and us, the alternafucks. No joke. We were the kids who hung out at college coffee shops, dyed our hair unnatural colors, and got our faces pierced.
Listening to It’s a Shame About Ray always makes me feel cool. I may not be, I may never have been, but that’s not what matters. What matters is that feeling you get from the freedom of your first car + music that feels like it was written just for you + finding the people in life who let you be you and love you for it.