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January 19, 2005
My blazer is on fire
Rusty Santos - True Prep
A well-concealed fact about myself: I went to a small prep school near Philadelphia, from 8th to 12th grade. It's a strange atmosphere, being in prep school- it combines some of the freedom of college with strict traditions and wild academic competition. I mention this only because there's a line in this song where Rusty Santos says, "I'll drop out of prep school/go living on the lam", and it reminded me of this kid who, when I was in 10th grade, just up and disappeared from school one week. He was in the grade below me, and a 'boarder' (he lived at the school- I was a 'day student', a commuter) so we had few friends in common. But everyone was talking about it- what his parents were doing (freaking the fuck out), and what the faculty thought (that he was clearly insane, or mentally damaged somehow), and I remember sitting in the library's front lobby when someone came in and announced that they had found him somewhere in Delaware. He was just tired of school, so he caught a bus and left.
Not a classic anecdote, but this song has a feel to it that's very reminiscent of a certain particularly pointed anger that seemed to exhibit itself every once in a while among my prep school classmates- whether they were angry at their parents for sending them there, angry at their teachers, or with themselves for not being good enough (at sports or academics- either way)- that sort of young, untested anger all has the same weird and violent tinge. And you can hear it here- in the way Santos beats the living shit out of his guitar, and his matter-of-fact pronouncements of destruction.
'True Prep' was recorded live at an art exhibition in 2003, at the Coral Room. It also now appears, in studio-recorded form, on Santos' new album, The Heavens, released on Uunited Acoustic Recordings (two u's, that's right), which is the same label that put out that compilation 'They Keep Me Smiling' (curated by Hisham Bharoocha). You can buy the Heavens for a song ($10) from the wonderful Social Registry label. One quick interesting fact about Rusty Santos: he's produced the last few Animal Collective recordings, including the unparalleled 'Sung Tongs'. Smart guy.
Posted by matt at January 19, 2005 08:00 AM
Comments
This journal provides the most first hand experience to date on the true prep saga. An unconcealed fact about myself: i never went to prep school, although i admire to some extent the preppie lifestyle. have you ever seen that movie Metropolitan? It questions the value of social life. At my high school it was punks vs preps and at the time i was unfairly cast into the punk faction. But they were neither true punks nor true preps. I don't believe anyone knew much about style in those days, because no matter your style was second to your social / economic class, the most hard core punk would come from the most upper class, he'd willing to self-destruct, in a sense he hated who he was. He also hated the preppie values: fashion, money, social esteem. I guess this is why i grew to sypathize with the prep's position; sometimes what you see on the surface can be slightly deeper than anit-mainstream stance you try to imply.
Posted by: rusty santos at February 21, 2005 12:44 AM