I'll always remember CIV, though. I don't remember the last time I actually listened to Set Your Goals, but I'll always remember CIV. (I'm listening to that album now as I write this.)
See, there was a time when the only 7" I owned was CIV's All Twisted single. It was (apparently) the second of three singles released from Set Your Goals, and, subsequently, was the only CIV 7" I ever bought. (I own Set Your Goals and Thirteen Day Getaway, though, so, ya know, street cred.)
The sleeve is all glossy. It's got Civ all twisted and warped on the front cover, and the whole band in suits and sunglasses on the back in this unbelievably cheesy 90s manner. The insert is a black and white photo of the band playing live with lyrics on the back of it. The A side is "All Twisted" and the B side is "Do Something." It plays at 45rpm.
The only thing remotely hardcore about the aesthetic is the font of CIV. It's the classic college bold. It's a font that any fan of hardcore would recognize instantly as that funny typographical bridge between punk rock and good grades. If I still had my CIV shirt today - a green shirt with red/yellow lettering -, most people would probably assume it actually did stand for something... Collegiate Institute of Valparaiso.
I don't know what compelled me to order the CIV special package from RevHQ. It came with the 7", the aforementioned-but-long-gone shirt, a big ass sticker that I later affixed to my 97 Accord, and maybe a patch for $10. I had never even listened to CIV before. I was a big Gorilla Biscuits fan at the time, and I guess someone (on the internet) told me I needed to hear Civ's post-GB band. But why not order one of the dozens and dozens of legendary records from Revelation? And why the shirt, too? Was I really that ready to be into a band I had never listened to? Apparently I was. I was pot committed before I had even heard Bane's "Ante Up."
Impulsively buying music, however, has kind of always been my thing. I was doing it before I had a record player and have done it ever since. On a label I like? That's a check. Members of other bands I like? Check. Some relationship to a type of music I like? Check. Is the aesthetic sayin' somethin' to me? Check Is it cheap? Check. It's low-risk consumption that has broken both ways over the years. Have I purchased some real garbage because of the above formula? Abso-lutely. Some gems? For sure.
It's hard nowadays to buy music impulsively: albums can be expensive, and it's easy to stream shit. Too, a lot of record stores have scrubbed themselves of robust used sections full of bands you've maybe heard of but can't remember but damn that name sounds familiar and this album art kinda looks like something you've seen around before and maybe this is who I think it is and I'm going to roll the dice because it's only $3 anyways so let's see what happens! For lots of people, though, and this is a good thing, the commoditization of vinyl has actually reinvigorated that risky business. I see it happening at Criminal Records all the time. People buying records on recommendation/word of mouth because they found the vinyl. That's cool. I mean, it's not cool because those people aren't cool, but it's cool. Also, there's nothing wrong with those people. I do that, too. I just intrinsically trust my mechanisms of word of mouth/recommendations more than theirs. That's my hangup, not theirs. Sorry - I hadn't been a dick yet in this post. Anyways.
I hope I always have enough money to take risks on 7"s and tapes and used CDs and LPs. I hope I always have a place to go to find them and a place to bring them home to and a device to play them through. I hope everyone else has these opportunities, too. Because who knows what would've happened had I not heard "Do Something" on the B side of a 7" I bought on a whim all those years ago?
It's still one of the hardest fuckin' songs I've ever heard.
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