hot out here

Labelscar finally got around to covering Brunswick Square Mall, my local growing up.  They’ve basically pegged the place: a second-rate mall in the heart of mall country, hopelessly dwarfed by its neighbors to the north (Woodbridge Center and Menlo Park Mall) and south (Quakerbridge, itself not terribly huge).  The other malls’ video arcades were better.  Their food courts were better; heck, we didn’t even have a food court, let alone a second floor.  But so I have so many childhood memories tied up in Brunswick Square that I continue to root for the underdog.

And it isn’t even the ugliest mall in East Brunswick.  That would have to be Mid-State Mall – or, more likely, Miracle Mall, home to a DMV office, a military recruiting station and an ever-changing array of grade-C anchor stores.  The only “miracle” is that it’s stayed open for decades.

After being tipped off by Ed Wong, I tracked down three videos by Malcontent, a band from my Rutgers undergrad days.  It’s tempting to think of them as the spiritual godmothers to Vivian Girls and Screaming Females (both from Rutgers!), mixed with the Slits and Shaggs.  They lasted less than a year and never really progressed past the “joke band” stage…but heck, I liked ‘em a lot and so did many others.  I even had them do a “Win A Date” contest on my WRSU show once during pledge week.  I think they took the winner bowling at Edison Lanes; they were supposed to report back on my show, but I don’t think they ever did.

Scenes from the Court Tavern, 1985:

A Reggae Song
Ena Get Your Hair Done
Leaving On A Jet Plane

Sadly missing from the YouTube archives: “Life Really Sucks” and “Ed Wong.”  You can still hear the latter on WRSU sometimes when Ed’s doing his show.

All from ivysilence‘s channel, whom I believe to be Cliff Livingston, guitarist about town and member of Dolphin Room and Lesser Koodoo.  You have to check out his videos if you lived in 1980s New Brunswick – he’s also got live clips by Pleased Youth, Bedlam and Matt Pinfield’s band Opium Vala.