Teenage Love: Still 'too dumb to quit'

Rus Harper, lead singer of Teenage Love 13.

Rus Harper, lead singer of Teenage Love 13.

KNOXVILLE — For 25 years, off and on, Knoxville punk outfit Teenage Love has been delighting, disgusting, and above all entertaining our town's more adventurous music lovers. With decades of experience under its belt, the band serves as a reminder to newcomers of what punk used to be.

Teenage Love, sometimes seen listed as Teenage Love 13, got its feet wet in 1984 and released one album, a cassette, titled "The Corndog Cassette" before taking a 13-year hiatus. Before and after regrouping, despite more than a handful of lineup switcharoos, the band achieved its share of milestones, mostly in sharing stages with a number of rock legends.

"Most of the milestones, to me, would be getting to play shows with some of our fave punk bands who were touring in the mid-'80s," says frontman Rus Harper. "Booking the shows did have its perks, of course. So we got to play shows at Vick and Bill's Deli on the Strip with Dead Kennedys, Suicidal Tendencies, Descendants and others. A couple of clubs in Atlanta had us play in front of Adolescents and The Flaming Lips. That was pretty cool.

"The band was originally together for 7 years. The reunion happened 13 years later in 2004 because someone was getting old bands together to do a show, and we decided what the hell. The original disbanding can, I believe, be attributed to 'extreme dysfunctionality' or something like that."

While the vast majority of its releases, including 2009's "No Excuses" and others whose names are mostly too profane to name here, have come out since the regrouping, Harper maintains the difference in style between past and present is negligible: The musicianship and lyricism has improved, the intensity and message have stayed on point.

"John Sewell wrote all the songs except for where I contribute lyrics," Harper say. "He's written some of the most catchy and enduring tunes I've ever heard. We've remained pretty consistent, I think. The oldest songs are throbbing punk songs with socially irredeemable lyrics. The newest are more technically complicated and involved, but still, in the end, irredeemable. We play better technically than we used to. We're not trying to recreate insanity of the '80s because we couldn't anyway."

When asked about the turnouts of then and now, Harper added: "I'm mostly seeing these same poor freaks that always came and got trashed to our music."

Teenage Love says the current incarnation intends to perform infrequently in the years to come and hopes to continue recording as well. Of course one cannot adequately sum up the Teenage Love experience without giving due attention to its notorious live show, which includes colorful costumery and theatrics and has resulted in occasional intervention by the authorities.

"We just wore wacky clothes and emulated our influences - glitter rock, New York punk, Stooges, KISS, Alice Cooper - in our own way," says Harper. "I ... still have my floor length psychedelic glitter coat.

"I always looked up to Iggy for flashing the crowd, so how could I not?"

While pop punk acts and mall-ratism seem to fall in and out of favor both locally and worldwide, Teenage Love serves as an example that true punk just won't die. As something of a life-long Knoxville music staple for his contributions to Teenage Love as well as numerous other projects, Harper seems a qualified historian and advisor to the Knoxville scene.

"I like what John (Sewell) says about advice to other bands," Harper says. "He said, 'Don't do it! Our 'longevity' is because we're too dumb to quit.' Knoxville's always had a thing for music. There's always been freaks to make it, listen to it and get (mad) about it one way or another, but the good bands are really good here."

Saturday night Teenage Love is set to play what will serve as its 25th anniversary show at Pilot Light. Senryu will open the show at 10 p.m. Admission is $10.

n A NEW RECORD SET: Medford's Black Record Collection plays its first set of the year at Preservation Pub Saturday night. The show starts at 10 p.m. and costs $3-5.

n JUKEBOX HEROISM: The Longbranch Saloon hosts Your Favorite Hero, Our New Nation and This Black Box Thursday. The show costs $5 and begins at 8 p.m.

© 2010 Knoxville.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.