Strip Mind...and me

There are two stories due to the same band in today’s and tomorrow’s post. For some reason, a little known Boston band from 1993 has affected my life in two interesting ways.

STRIP MIND…and me:

**HOW TO GATHER AN ELDERLY MOB** (warning F-Bombs and other assorted words of ill repute)

In 1994 I worked as a third key at the Strawberries record store in the Arsenal Mall in Watertown. A third key was basically the person who had a key to open up or lock up the store on days that the manager or assistant manager couldn’t be there. I had no real authority but at age 19 it would have gone to my head anyways. My manager, Mike, was a man who must have believed that the best looking man in the world was 80’s era Martin Mull and realized that was the way he wanted to look forever. He was a nice guy, not too strict, and fairly lenient in giving out the comp CD’s that always arrived at the store. Since he loved jazz and soft rock, this was great for a little metal-head like myself. The assistant manager, Bob, who I will have an entry about later, was someone who I would become really good friends with and I credit for helping me become the son of a bitch (sorry Mom) that I am today. When I left high school, I was shy and rather meek around people that I didn’t know and Bob showed me that no one was better than me and that I just shouldn’t give a damn what others think of me and who I am is the only person I can be. Plus he introduced me to some really nice women (thanks Bob). I am digressing from the topic a bit, but it is necessary for what comes later. Bob, who also helped me refine my musical tastes, unfortunately enjoyed metal as well so was my main competition to grab those precious, precious comps.

When the comp CD for the band Strip Mind “What’s In Your Mouth” came in on a night that Bob was off and I opened the next day, I grabbed it, not even knowing what genre it was, because the back cover shot of the guys in the band showed 4 long haired rockers and I didn’t want to miss out on any possible metal CD. Remember this was in 1994, before bands started cutting their hair.

(SIDE NOTE: The fact that I would sometimes pick CD’s based on whether the band has long hair is the reason I have in my possession, a Joshua Kadison CD and why I own the Crash Test Dummies first CD, in other words it didn’t always work.)

When I popped the CD into the store stereo, to listen before we opened, I was, I must admit, a bit taken aback. The mall had a mall-walking program for elderly citizens to come in and walk around before it opened. They had given me stares previously as the sounds of metal and vacuuming interrupted their conversations when they passed by the store front. This day was a bit different. I hadn’t looked much past the picture of the band on the back to the song titles, so excited was I to have procured this precious heavy metal comp CD. The stereo was set to random, so after the first song “Bastard” it decided to play track 6. And these lyrics below made me drop the vacuum and run to the stereo to turn it off:

(my thought process in parentheses)

NOTE: These are not the opening lyrics of the song, the song starts with some really unintelligibly sung lyrics

(pretty good song so far)

It’s not the clothes you wear

Nor the things you say

It’s not any of those

It’s not any of those

Not any of those

(okay fairly clean)

Don’t forget about me

I know we’re just friends

Don’t forget about me

I’ll be there in the end

(still clean)

Don’t forget about me

I know they're just friends

Don’t forget about me

Not Ever

(still okay)

Waiting

Wait for you to come around

Wanting

I want to make you come once more

(wait, what did he just say?)

Waiting

Wait for you to come around

Wanting

I want to make you come once more

(Ok, I think I see where he is going with this, but elderly people won’t get the double entendre so I’m still cool)

I wanna fuck your girlfriend

(ummmmmm)

I wanna fuck your girlfriend

(Shit, they’re staring, I think they understood that line)

Well maybe just a titty fuck

(where’s the DAMN off button)

The title of this lovely little ditty is as you might have guessed is, "I Wanna Fuck Your Girlfriend". So had I looked at the back of the album, well you get the picture.

As I reached for the off button, I realized that I had a crowd of people staring at me in disgust who’s average age would have probably been in the high 70’s had it not been skewed by the Martin Mull look-alike who stood shaking his head at me through the store front grate. Mike had come by, having accidentally left his wallet in the store the night before.

We had a brief talk and I was told to not play anything with foul language in it over the store stereo system in the future. Like I said, Mike was cool. After the talk I decided to have a look at this CD that I had now fallen deeply in love with. What can I say, I was a sucker for relationships that got me in trouble be it with people or bands. I love a bad boy.

From this I realized that in the future I should definitely look at the song titles before playing a CD for everyone to hear, also I should probably try to find out a bit about the band as well. Since there is not much info on the internet about Strip Mind, I will impart to you all that I know about them.

(INFORMATION INTERLUDE)

Formerly known as Seka, Strip Mind was a thrash-metal band formed in Boston in the early 90’s. The band members included Stu Shoaps (vocals), Tim Catz (bass), Billy O’Malley (Guitar), and Sully Erna (Drums). Yes everyone, that Sully Erna (far right). This was Sully Erna’s second band, the band he was in before he started Godsmack, and flooded the world of rock radio with song after song after song after song that you couldn’t escape if you listened in the late 90’s. The band was forced to change it’s name to Strip Mind after they were sued by the porn star Seka, who they had named themselves after. Their only album “What’s in Your Mouth”, was full of classy song after classy song. I have included the track listing below, so you can see how much of an idiot I was for not looking at the song titles first.

TRACK LISTING

1. Bastard

2. Lap Frappe

3. Texas Radio Horror

4. Young, Fresh, and Sweet

5. Pentapussy

6. I Wanna Fuck Your Girlfriend

7. What's In Your Mouth?

8. Don't Care

9. Kill Me

10. 23 Ways

11. Jingle My Bells

(INFORMATION INTERLUDE OVER)

So, if I had only glanced at the titles on the back album cover I would have realized that maybe I shouldn’t play this at work. Thinking back, it probably wouldn’t have stopped me, but I wouldn’t have had it so loud. From that day forward, the elderly walkers would start their journey at the other side of the mall and stop well before the record store I worked at, except for one cool old man, who came in the next day to buy the album...for his son.