Teenage Love keeps the punk clock ticking

Teenage Love 13 is, from left, Rus Harper, John Sewell, Jeff Cregger and Rodney Cash.

KNOXVILLE — Knoxville punk quartet Teenage Love (also called Teenage Love 13) are no teenagers. The band, now approaching its 30th anniversary in 2014, is older than many of its newer fans, and as such, has seen the climate of the local scene change over the decades. While the audience and even some of the group's roster have changed over the years, one thing that has remained constant is the band's coarse, grimy sound.

Teenage Love maintains two of its original members from its 1984 onset in vocalist Rus Harper and bassist and principal songwriter John Sewell. The band has burned through several guitarists, but Jeff Cregger, the last to hold the position before the 1991 dissolution, presently holds the distinction, and the newest member, drummer Rodney Cash (also of Lost Holiday), has enlisted only in recent years.

Unsure of its status upon early reunion gigs, Teenage Love has put out a full-length and an EP of old and new material (in CD format for the first time, and still available at Disc Exchange) and is looking at another recording this winter, cementing its place as an ongoing, if sporadic, act playing Knoxville perhaps twice a year.

"We got together for the reunion thing, and, well, things just got out of hand, as is usual in this kind of thing," recalls Harper. "We're doing a few shows a year and that could continue for a bit. Who knows? Rodney is in a new rock band called Lost Holiday and I'm in a band called Melungeons. They'll be playing together soon.

"Teenage Love is my first rock experience. That it's still a rock machine is an amazing thing that should be. Almost everything we've ever done is up for the set. On the last EP, Street Zombie, we brought back a song we rarely did at the beginning. I forgot how good it was. We base the set on what we're having fun playing."

Priding itself as one of Knoxville's original punk bands, Harper tells that the spanning decades have had less of an effect on the group's gritty style than the advancement of its equipment. Once producing cassettes with four-track recorders, Teenage Love's latest releases have employed updated tech.

As with most punk bands, excessive polish is specifically avoided, but the process is simplified, and the product is digital.

"The main difference is production technique and technology," Harper says. "Our first decent recordings were made in Joey McPeak's bedroom at the Hippie House. Roger Jones did them using a mixing board hooked up to a four-track. It worked OK for a cassette-only release, but now we have Seva bringing some crazy ProTools machine to record us where we rehearse – that, and the whole proficiency thing. We play better than we did then and know better what to expect in a recording situation.

"We're a lot tighter as a band. I generally don't wear panties on stage any more. I think we've gained cohesion. The direction has pretty much been constant. It's loud aggressive rock music that's not ashamed of what it is."

They play better when they've had a few: Drunk Uncles open for The Kentucky Headhunters Saturday at The Shed (Smoky Mountain Harley Davidson) in Maryville. The all-ages show starts at 8 p.m.

Familia reunion: Madre joins Sons of the Southside for a gig at Preservation Pub Saturday night. This show is slated for 10 p.m.

© 2011, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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