Search - Happy Flowers :: Lasterday I Was Been Bad

A sentimental favorite

03/29/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I have a soft spot in my heart for this album. My friend Josh came back to high school from a visit to Princeton, with a hastily-recorded tape of various Flowers tracks. We would cram into his car at lunch, listen as loud as we dared, and howl with laughter. Mr. A and Mr. HCI introduced us to a style of flippant irreverence that has rarely been matched in today's alternately morose and lecherous pop music scene.I received a copy of Lasterday for my 18th birthday, from my soon-to-be brother-in-law. I was thoroughly impressed that he'd heard of them, and it was a bonding moment between us. It is the only album my long-suffering parents ever asked me to turn down the volume on.Lasterday's highlights are "We Rock" (Your band sucks! We hate your band! Your band sucks! We're the best band!) and the self-explanatory "If This Gun Were Real (I Could Shoot You and Sleep in the Big Bed with Mommy)". The latter we somehow convinced our English teacher to play while we were studying Oedipus Rex. Sure beats Tom Lehrer.I'd never heard the Ramones, and of course the Hives didn't exist yet. The Ataris were a mistake that had yet to be conceived. Green Day was probably still in Junior High. The Flowers were all I had that I could call my own. Lasterday is screamingly funny, mainly because it breaks the taboo of laughing about violence against children. Yet, unlike some groups, it doesn't seem to encourage horrific behavior. They're just saying, "Yes, we realize this is a horribly offensive thing. That's why it's funny". Still, it's not recommended entertainment for victims of violence or their loved-ones.I haven't listened to Lasterday in years and years. I have a child now, and Happy Flowers' pervasive theme of violence happening to children is more Korn than it is Lemony Snicket. But they were certainly influential.Josh got into Princeton, got the clear skin and the job in rock & roll. I'm an engineer in Oklahoma. But when I think about Lasterday, I'm a 17-year old punk again, drowning out my sister's Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam, and trying to piss off a world that thought they had seen and heard it all."