Feminist Music Geek

Well, yesterday was a special day for many people. And by many people, I mean me. Because yesterday was the day that it was announced that The State is FINALLY coming out on DVD. If any of you watched the beloved mid-90s MTV sketch comedy show or anything the troupe have done since then (Viva Variety!, Stella, Reno 911!, Wainy Days, Drop Dead Gorgeous, Wet Hot American Summer, The Baxter, The Ten, Role Models, etc.), you know that this is a big fucking deal. Getting this collection together has taken about a decade to complete, but now you commodity fetishists don’t have to foam over fuzzy YouTube clips or iTune files or handle your worn copy of the Skits and Stickers tape. You can cradle, lick, and antiseptic your own DVD collection, effective July 14th (and, if you really love me, you’ll remember that I turn 26 less than two weeks after its release).

It can’t be overstated how excited I am that this is hitting the market. I caught The State at my friend Kyle’s house when we were in the 7th grade and it blew my mind. So funny and weird and not funny and cool. That these people got together while students at NYU was enough motivation for me to leave my little rural southeast Texas suburb after high school. And that I may have been the only person in my hometown to watch their disastrous CBS Halloween special (with musical guest Sonic Youth, circa Washing Machine) was all I needed to know just how limiting my hometown really was. Plus, there was always the prospect of having Michael Ian Black for a boyfriend.

But the person who really rattled me good was Kerri Kenney (now Kenney-Silver), the lone female in the group. She was so hilarious, versatile, without vanity, and completely sexy, but in a very awkward, off-center, elastic-face, Amazon-woman kind of way (if you recall, Jenny McCarthy was MTV’s go-to hottie in the mid-90s which, you know, I have no beef with her but her look is not at all relatable to me). You may know her know as Trudy Weigel on Reno 911! or as Dame Delilah but twelve-year-old me may very well have gotten all snide and third wave self-reflexive and critical because of her presence and involvement on the show.

And, of course, it can’t be overlooked that Kerri was the bassist and lead singer of Cake Like, an all-female, post-riot grrrl rock band she formed at NYU with Nina Hellman and Jodi Seifert. Their songs were really dark and creepy, usually focusing on adolescent female sexuality, parental relationships, and girl germs and shot through with coiled verses and corrosive choruses (remember the Pixies and how they influenced everybody in the 90s with quietLOUDquiet song structures?).

Anyway, Kenney-Silver is rad, and I’m glad that the early comedic work she and her dudes did is finally getting the preservation and attention it deserves.