Megan just burned through the entire series of Dawson’s Creek on Netflix and it got me feeling all nostalgic for my High School years. While there weren’t really any love triangles in my group of friends and none of us waxed poetic as often as Pacey or Dawson did, I did have a friend that looked a lot like Joey and I may or may not have taken her to Prom. Anywho, here’s some videos to get you feeling all nostalgic too.
Dave Matthews Band – Crush
Before These Crowded Streets was the defining album of my Senior year. When I rented my Prom tux (yes, it did have tails, so what?), I got a free Proclaimers CD (the one with the Friend’s theme). That CD was promptly taken to Wal-Mart and exchanged for Before These Crowded Streets, and DMB’s latest didn’t leave the disc-man Velcroed to my dash for the rest of the year. I was crushing pretty hard back then, and every time I dropped her off for the evening, I’d drive home blasting this song, singing along on cloud nine. The video captures that feeling perfectly for me. From Stefan Lessard‘s heavy bass intro to the martini in the Jazz club, it is the veritable definition of smooth (something I was anything but).
The Smashing Pumpkins – 1979
This video just oozes nostalgia. While I wasn’t nearly “cool” enough to do most of the things in this video, some of my fondest memories of High School were driving around in cars with nowhere to go. We would sometimes do this thing where we would get to an intersection and flip a coin to decide which way to go. One time we ended up in a pet store. This song was on heavy radio repeat back then and for good reason. These days, the song instantly transports me back to those days and this video by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, long before they directed Little Miss Sunshine, captures that spirit perfectly.
Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
This was my pre-driving High School life to a tee … Well, minus all the Red Dawn overtones. I used to ride around with my friends, ghost-riding my Sonic 6, hanging out under bridges, riding through the bayous, and shooting bottle rockets at passers-by all summer long. Luckily, we weren’t under martial law, though Houston did impose a curfew while I was in High School. Amazing video by Favorite Video Favorite, Spike Jonze.