Peter Frase

I try not to go in for dour pessimism in my writing, but this weeks links are heavy on the doom-and-gloom. The one pleasant thing to come up today was the 20th anniversary of Nirvana's *Nevermind*. (Although maybe it's not all pleasant if, like me, you feel incredibly old contemplating that fact.) See [Latoya Peterson](http://www.racialicious.com/2011/07/29/race-riot-grrl-the-black-rock-movement-and-nirvana-the-teen-espirit-revisited-overflow/), [Amanda Marcotte](http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/music_fridays_here_we_are_now_entertain_us_edition), [Spencer Ackerman](http://spencerackerman.typepad.com/attackerman/2011/09/incesticide-changed-my-life.html) and [Matt Yglesias](http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2011/09/23/327504/the-gateway-drug/) for extended coverage.

You probably have to be almost exactly my age to see this anniversary as a huge deal--any older and you'd have already known about the underground Nirvana came from, any younger and you wouldn't realize how much music and culture seemed to change after *Nevermind*. Yglesias and Ackerman both say that *Nevermind* didn't fundmentally shake up their understanding of music, but I can't say the same. I didn't have any older siblings to introduce me to punk rock, so I learned about it through Nirvana. There are very few moments in my life that I can vividly recall with a kind of "where were you when JFK was shot" specificity; one of them is the 9/11 attacks, and another one is the first time I heard "Smells Like Teen Spirit". I was 11 years old, sitting at my desk in my bedroom and doing my homework. I had the radio tuned to a Top 40 station (probably [KDWB](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KDWB-FM)), because that's what I listened to at the time. But when "Smells Like Teen Spirit" came on I actually stopped what I was doing, turned around, and just sat there staring at the radio, listening to it. I had no idea what it was or where it had come from, but it was unlike anything I had ever heard before; I immediately decided that whatever it was, *this* was the kind of music I listened to from that point on.

From there, it was on to Fugazi, and then Minor Threat, and many more obscure finds from the bins at [Extreme Noise Records](http://www.extremenoise.com/). So this week's roundup of doom and gloom will be accompanied by a carefully chosen gourmet pairing of apocalyptic hardcore and crust punk, which I might never have known about if not for *Nevermind*.

- [We're doomed](http://www.tnr.com/article/economy/magazine/94963/economic-doom), political dysfunction version. Musical accompaniment: Extreme Noise Terror, "Fucked Up System":

- [We're doomed](http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/09/19/only-advanced-degree-holders-see-wage-gains/), wage stagnation version. Musical accompaniment: Assrash, "Kings of No Future".

- [We're doomed](http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/09/judge-worries-recording-police-will-lead-to-excessive-snooping-around.ars), not even pretending to be a free country anymore version. Musical accompaniment: Doom, "Police Bastard":

- [We're doomed](http://thinkprogress.org/media/2011/09/20/323856/yahoo-censoring-occupy-wall-street-protests/), really really not even pretending to be a free country--hey, maybe that Mubarak guy was onto something! version. Musical accompaniment: Discharge, "Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing".

- [We're doomed](http://lbo-news.com/2011/09/20/does-productivity-unemployment/), not only is Obama clueless about the economy, he's a worse feminist than Larry Summers version. Musical Accompaniment: Spitboy, "Isolation Burns".

- [We're doomed](), they killed Troy Davis edition. Musical accompaniment: Amebix, "Axeman".

- [We're doomed](http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2011/09/16/europe%E2%80%99s-lehman-moment/?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed), Euro crisis version. Musical accompaniment: Tragedy, "Beginning of the End".

- [We're doomed](http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/09/fbi-islam-domination/), the FBI thinks counterrorism=Muslim-bashing version. Musical accompaniment: Destroy, "Burn this Racist System Down".

- And to sum it all up: Code 13, "Doomed Society".