DIGEST 003: Bush

In these digests, I’m finding that I want to talk more about bands that might be kind of controversial, or dare I say cringe, to admit to liking. So let me perhaps further embarrass myself on the Internet and discuss a band that I didn’t even know I should be embarrassed to like until it was too late: Bush.

In the summer in which I turned 21, I was working at a grocery store in my ex’s hometown (yikes) but I wasn’t getting enough hours to sustain my lavish half-a-bedroom-in-Oakland lifestyle. I decided to also apply to what was not my favorite record store in the area, but the one where I figured I’d have a better chance of getting a job. To my surprise and excitement, I got an interview at their downtown Berkeley location. After security checking my bag, I was lead to the upstairs that was 95% loose paperwork, probably dating back to the opening of the store. I remember sitting barely a foot away from the man interviewing me (maybe the general manager?) in a folding chair. After a couple really basic screener questions, he seemed to understand I was a competent and agreeable enough person to be around; aka at least minimally employable. That’s when he hit me with the hardball question:

What music are you listening to lately?

I’d been listening to Bush, to tell the truth. I knew it was not the coolest answer, so I tried to hedge it a little bit:

“Oh, a lot of 90s alternative…” (this answer is never not true for me)

Like what?

I froze. I couldn’t think of another band name. The words simply wouldn’t come to me.

“Bush…”

Oh God… I didn’t think anybody still listened to them.

“Well, uh, I do.”

I think I redeemed myself by following that up with talking about the new David Berman project, Purple Mountains, and how I’d gotten the last copy of the single at the Amoeba down the street. Whether that guy really thought I was the biggest loser on the planet for still listening to Bush (maybe?) or he truly could not have cared less (more likely), I got the job. And I ended up leaving it only a few weeks in, but that’s a story for another time.

I always have to remember that moment, the moment where I realized Bush was not a cool answer to what kind of music one liked, whenever I listen to Bush. But I can’t help it. I’m a sucker for 90s alternative, even when it’s kinda bad. And I know there’s a decent amount of Bush that’s pretty bad.

But imagine if you a will a world where you have no preconceived notions of Bush; you know nothing of the drama between Gavin Rossdale and Gwen Stefani, you’ve never heard “The Chemicals Between Us” on the radio 20 times a day, you’ve never heard someone groan upon hearing their music. In that world, I think we all could admit to liking Bush.

Woodstock ‘99 Performance

This is the thesis and the antithesis, the alpha and the omega, the yin and the yang. It’s Bush at their best and their worst. For the bests, we have some truly sick performances of deeper cuts like Personal Halloway, Greedy Fly, and The Disease of Dancing Cats; a wandering but ultimately decent cover of “The One I Love” by REM; a half-cover of “Kerosene” by Big Black; Gavin Rossdale in peak heartthrob form. For the worsts, we have sound issues galore, missed notes, and plenty of cringey wanna-be-rockstar moments (Gavin’s proclamation of “I am a Black man” before Chemicals and the F-U-C-K cheerleader chant come to mind). Despite its flaws, I somehow almost always end up watching this performance all the way through, and it always scares me how much I genuinely enjoy it.

The Swallowed Music Video

This falls under a hyper-specific sub-genre of music videos from the mid 90s/early 2000s that I love: slow-motion party scene with the band right in the middle. It’s one of the more unique Bush tracks, with a blend of grunge and brit-poppy influences (I always hear a little Suede in this) and the lyrics are actually pretty great. It’s such a great song, and I’ve had it on repeat once again this week.

‘96 Virgin Megastore Performance

This is an incredible relic of the bygone era of Virgin Megastores. When I was a kid and had just moved to LA, I went to a similar event for Avril Lavigne at the Hollywood & Highland location, and this video does a great job of capturing how bizarre these things were. Seeing your favorite band play in what feels like a mall was such a strange thing that I hope the youth of today get to experience again. Not the tour-de-force that the Woodstock performance one, but a fun time.

Glycerine on Stern in 1995

And I’ll close it out with this impeccably recorded version of Glycerine, the song we are all probably sick of. Something about Gavin getting grilled by Howard Stern and the fantastic acoustics of the room makes this version go down easier than hearing the album version on the radio for the umpteenth time. You can enjoy the song for what it is: one of the best sappy love songs that came out of the 90s alternative scene.

Well, there it is. A sampling of proof that Bush is pretty good. Not that anyone asked, and not that I even need to defend 20-year-old me’s opinions. I just like reflecting on moments where I’ve been made to feel embarrassed about my taste in music (and as a young woman I have had many of those moments) and reaffirming that I’m allowed to like what I like, taste is subjective, but also Bush kinda objectively rules.