Daydreams & Paving Stones

Daydreams & Paving Stones

Share this post

Daydreams & Paving Stones
Daydreams & Paving Stones
I Wanna Be Nostalgic

I Wanna Be Nostalgic

For a non-nostalgic 90s nostalgia.

Alexander Billet's avatar
Alexander Billet
Dec 10, 2022
∙ Paid

Share this post

Daydreams & Paving Stones
Daydreams & Paving Stones
I Wanna Be Nostalgic
Share

It’s 1994. I’m twelve years old, and music is – to my parents’ bewilderment – suddenly the only thing I care about. I’m searching out anything harsh, dissonant, and confrontational, and the louder it is the louder I want it to be. Of course there was plenty of Nirvana given that Cobain had just died, Green Day was just breaking out and exposing my sheltered suburban world to the sounds of the East Bay punk scene. But I was also trying to dig deeper into the sounds that had chewed away at the edges of the mainstream for years. Violent Femmes. The Pixies. Dead Milkmen.

I didn't have to dig particularly deep to find the Ramones. When I first heard “I Wanna Be Sedated,” it sounded just primitive enough to be quintessentially modern for me. When I looked at my friend’s CD collection after it played, I saw it was the first track on Ramones Mania, a compilation album released in 1988. The music video for the song was also released that year. Only later did I discover that the song had in fact…

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to Daydreams & Paving Stones to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2025 Alexander Billet
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture

Share