IAN MACKAYE ALICE BAG

Music and Lifestyle from the L.A. Underground
VOLUME 1. ISSUE 5
$9.99
Punk Museum
IAN MACKAYE
ALICE BAG
John Scarpati
Record reviews
PIRATE PALOOZA
Part 1
AGGRONAUTIX
A PRETTY MESS
ELECTRIC CHILDREN
TONY OFFENDER
WHITE FLAG DOWN
RAUL
RF7
RKP
LUGMAGA
ZI
NE
The final Silverlake Lounge show went off with a
.C
W
M
W
PA
O
W
.S
bang. A PRETTY MESS slaying the audience.
photo by Tom underhill
LI
VE
K
- L
EARN - KIC
AS
S
www.sparkplugmagazine.com
Friend us at “Spark Plug-Mag” on Facebook
BOOK REVIEW
Punk Rock Living in the Big City of Los Angeles,
the early years.... yup, I RELATE!
Staff columnist Mike Essington has written a book that hit right at home for me, and I’m sure for
many others as well. We were lost kids, from broken homes just trying to find our way. Punk rock
was our “fight club,” it was our “Special sauce.” The rage and angst, were communicated in the
fast blaring riffs and pissed off lyrics of our early old school heroes. Our journeys were all similar
to a point, and its good to see books being written about those times and experiences I so truly
miss. Things were easier because life was three TV channels and a hard line telephone. Yet more
complex, because there was no accessibility to almost everything. Mix tapes and word of mouth is
what kept those years going. Crazy times and funny friends made those nights and days memorable. Mike really brings that to light in LAST ONE TO DIE.
Mike really gets personal and off the cuff, taking you into the world that shaped him into the person he is now. From his childhood looking up to his hard working, hard living Father, to his roller
coaster love life with his ex. Mike lets you inside to take a gander with a big heart on his sleeve.
Strength and perseverance and the ability to tell a kick ass story, will keep your eyes locked and
loaded reading this 100+ page novel.
BOOTS ELECTRIC front man, Jesse Hughes from Eagles of Death Metal, sharing some booze with the Down and
Out crowd. photo by Tom Underhill
010
Aggronautix
features:
004
Book Review
Last One To Die
005
Letter from the
editor
COVER:
Lee Anne “Sparky” Powell
MUA: Jessica Fierro
Coordinator: Zgura Topaz
Asst: Neko Gianquinto
006
News from the
underground
photo by Billy Caldwell
007
Some Things Seen
and Overheard
011
Punk Rock Museum
Opening
014
Words by Rachel Radical
015
Feature Article:
Alice Bag
021
Pirate Palooza:
Part 1
025
Feature Article:
Ian Mackaye
The beginning of the book concentrates on his youthful years in the Valley, touching on his personal struggles growing up in a broken home and discovering the punk underground of Los Angeles. The relationships Mike experiences are the key focus of the book. From shifty friends to crazy
ex-girlfriends, Mike let the worms out of the can, and really lets you see his perspective. Seeing his
friends grow up and end up in their new life situations, and how Mike interprets those situations,
kept me intrigued and wanting to turn to the next page and keep reading.
029
The last third of the book is a collection of great interviews Mike has written over the years including Rikk Agnew of The Adolescents/Christian Death, Symbol Six lead singer Eric Leach , legendary skateboarder Jay Adams, and Frontier Records owner Lisa Fancher. All the interviews are a
great read, and really give you a good taste of Mike’s interview style.
032
I highly recommend this read, a true LA punk story of one man’s journey through this crazy place
we all love... Los Angeles.
Mz. Sparkplug #5
A History Lesson
Tour Diary
038
RIP DJ Beau Jangles
039
Mike Check
042
Interview:
John Scarpati
043
Reviews
~ Billy Caldwell
You can purchase the Book here:
http://www.amazon.com/Last-One-Die-Michael-Essington/dp/1466215461
Sean Cooper of WHITE FLAG DOWN. photo by Caldwell
letter from the editor
So pleased to have yet another Sparkplug Magazine Issue out there for
mass consumption. It’s been some
of the most trying years for me on a
personal level, and a whirlwind of adventures for the entire crew. We cant
wait to share with our fellow Sparkplugers, more amazing photos, stories,
and interviews with that LA flair we are
starting to be known for. We have all
heard the “Print is Dead” comments,
and we aren’t buying it. Print has simply become a true artform. Although
the majority of our distribution is from
our Digital download versions, the print
version is amazing to hold and look at.
I urge you all to order a copy sometime
to feel and see the difference. For all of
you mobile phone and tablet users, the
digital version doesn’t get much easier
for you to read our latest issues. All are
available for free download....just pass
the word, it’s all we ask.
In This issue we have some personal
icons IAN MACKAYE and ALICE BAG,
giving us some personal insight into
their history and future projects. We
also have part one of the PiratePalooza
event that happened last year, a whos
who gig that hosted over 20+ of Los
Angeles’s top bands. We even have a
new Mz. Sparkplug, whos actual nickname is “Sparky” and she even has a
tattoo of a sparkplug! All of us here at
Sparkplug, hope you enjoy what we
are doing, and hope to continue to do it
for years to come.
NEWS
RIP - Tony “Offender” Johnson 1957- 2012
publisher & editor billy caldwell
assistant editor michelene cherie
contributing editor patti rhodes
field marshall ellen rooney
marketing zgura topaz
contributing writers:
mike essington
patti rhodes
joe henderson
sylvia juncosa
billy caldwell
michele mcmanmon
rusty needles
justin meyers
michelene cherie
josh casper
reverend paul putrid
stackjack jones
hugh asnen
michael snider
rachel radical
andy nystrom
dave travis
GUITARIST FOR TEXAS BASED OFFENDERS
ADAM BONES. photo by Underhill
contributing photographers:
billy caldwell
joe henderson
tom underhill
sylvia juncosa
patti rhodes
josh casper
michele mcmanmon
justin meyers
ursula harris
dave travis
contributing artists
danny breeden
SPARKPLUG MAGAZINE
www.sparkplugmagazine.com
friend us at “Spark Plug-Mag” on Facebook.
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General Email:
sparkplugmagazine@yahoo.com
Submissions:
Writers, Artists and Photographers:::::
If you are interested in contributing to Sparkplug, please contact us on Facebook
or e-mail us at sparkplugmagazine@yahoo.com Please include (or send us a link
to) a sample of your work.
Bands::::::::
If you want your band reviewed, please snd us a download link in an emial to
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Advertising::::::
If you are interested in advertising with SPARKPLUG Magazine, please feel free to
contact our sales staff at sparkplugmagazine@yahoo.com.
We will send you a link to our rates and Upload form for artwork.
I’m not the right person to be writing this. I won’t
even pretend that I am. I knew him sure, but
others knew him better. I want to make damned
sure, crystal clear sure, that we have some idea
what was lost, and that I see it in print.
First off, the band, Offenders. If there was a
more crystal clear vision of 80’s hardcore then,
“We Must Rebel”, I’ve NEVER heard it. It was
everything that was happening everywhere
else, just distilled. A singer who was “this is an
80’s hardcore singer, sing like him” a rhythm
section that was light years ahead of everyone
else, and Tony, a guitarist who knew when to
step up and take the song, or sit back and let
others do it. He could do either, and knew which
songs needed what.
It is a perfect early 80’s hardcore record,better
then almost anything that was out there. It was
exactly right.
The PEACE comp could have been shaved
down to one album, easily. But some tracks
would have HAD to be on that one album,they
grabbed you by the balls that much, and they
squeezed. Offenders was one of those tracks.
How I got to know Tony...A show was put together with all the best intentions,turns out the
guy was a scammer. Sucks, it happens. So,
rather than fall down into sadness and disappointment, some good people decided, “Hey we
could mobilize for that asshole, lets turn it positive.” So they turned it in to a benefit for Detroit
Children’s Hospital. Good on em.
It was decided that a compilation CD should
accompany the benefit shows. My guitarist
Michael Rys approached me to see who I could
shake down.
I developed a simple and uncomplicated
attitude,if you were my real friend, or my
Myspace friend, you fucked up, because I was
shaking you down.
cause of that CD, it was all worthwhile.
Like everyone we all made the exodus to Facebook. And rather then business reasons I got
to talk to Tony a bit more. We both had a love
of history and research, and coffee is always
welcome.
I was so proud of him when we thought he beat
it. But I’m no less proud of him that he held out
to the end. I’m proud that Tony Offender was my
friend, my life was better for knowing him.
May the same be said for all of us.
www.myspace.com/offendersofficialbandpage
The Right Wrong Reverend Paul Putrid
Paul Lubaczewski
Hey, it was for kids, and what’s the worse that
could happen? They said no? Oh the horrors.
One of the first bands I approached was Offenders, a band I adored most of my life. Approaching somebody you look up to can be a chore,
often as not, they disappoint greatly. Not Offenders, what do you need, when do you need it,
how much do you need?
If one little kid got some extra treatment be-
FACEBOOK RANTS
Fight club stories::: the early years got pretty
intense..what is the craziest punk rock fight
you ever witnessed.. and at what show?
Spark Plug-Mag Fugazi 91. At palladium...
brawl in the hallway..two dudes bloodied and
stabbed....shit the whole venue became a pit!
Jet Trego- Black Flag, Adolescents, Bacies
Hall on Vermont
Ed Dawson I saw that one at the Palladium.
Andy Nystrom @
‎ Black Flag, Fear, Stains gig
at Devonshire Downs in Northridge in ‘82 ...
lots of group brawls at that one, plus Rudy from
the Stains jumped into the crowd to scrap with
a heckler.
Mendie Heller Fear at The Palace in Hollywood, guys head got stomped so hard you
could see a little bit o brain..yikes!
Jay Thurston Minutemen and Black Flag at
the Stardust Ballroom. Some Neo Nazi fucktards (seriusly) were punching kids and sieg
heiling. We had enough and beat the living
shit out those assholes. Never seen so much
blood.
Jimmy Alvarado watched fishbone’s bass
player get stabbed when they opened for DKs
at the olympic. that joint was always good for
watching a 50-on-one brawl, as was fenders.
do riots count?......
Andy Nystrom Someone was stabbed outside of Minor Threat’s gig at Rollerworks in
Chatsworth in ‘83. We heard it was gang-related and nothing to do with punks, but the show
was halted after about 10 MT songs.
Jimmy Alvarado -‎ fight in the pit @ a JFA/L7
show at a hollywood mexican restaurant. one
dude ended up stuck a few times. - eastside
backyard party: two skin chicks WRECKED a
dude for grabbing one’s backside. bumpered,
punched and kicked in. his ended up looking
like they busted every bone in his face.- ill repute getting thrashed by the crowd at toberman hall downtown when they played wtih
OPIV and isocracy. as i recall, someone threw
a shoe, IR’s bass player walked into the crowd,
punched the offender in the face, stepped back
onstage to continue playing, and the crowd just
swarmed the stage. total mayhem outside, with
local cats beating up people leaving the place
and shooting at the police helicopters.....
art by Danny Breeden
d
n
a
n
e
e
S
s
g
in
h
T
e
Som
Overheard
es
by Patti Rhod
The Captive Audience
I guess there is this thing called personal space that I was not aware I
was such a stickler about. I enjoy a
hug sometimes, I like to shake hands,
hold hands, touch, and I don’t always
move away when someone’s leg or
arm touches mine as they sit down
next to me, even if they are strangers. I suppose it depends on my
mood, but touching or being next to
someone makes me feel very present, as most of the time I am alone
and wrapped up in a little bit of light
armor or engrossed in a daydream.
If my body is anxious, it almost hurts
to be touched, although it eventually
comforts.
There is a phenomenon that happens while standing at the bus stop.
Someone, usually a man will walk by
me, and instead of utilizing the whole
street, he must walk right up to me
and pass me within one to two feet of
my body. I’ve also been the only person walking down the sidewalk and
someone, again, usually a male, will
walk toward me as if he were going
to walk right through me. When he
approaches me he diverts. I’ve had
this happen many times, sometimes
the man laughs after he passes. My
initial perception is that this is a form
of aggressiveness or assertion of
power, but perhaps it is an attempt to
relate or some sort of need for interaction, and false, forced closeness.
At the bus stop, there are many types
of people. Beggars, homeless, the
mentally ill, and workers that stand
quietly waiting for the bus, their various electronic devices buzzing and
blinking, plugged into their ears and
attached to their bodies to avoid all
interaction. Ladies with big carts full
of things. There are young street
kids, usually eating, or skateboarding, or sitting in a group.
Sociologically I look at the bus stop
as a meeting place, a place of congregation in a city, even a “party” of
sorts. At times, about 25% of people
at any active, crowded bus stop are
not there to take the bus. They are
there to get something, sell something, or just simply sit or stand in
a group of people. Social animals
congregate for warmth, safety, and
comfort. Solicitors and preachers
approach us and people come to
“perform” for a captive audience.
Very often, a person will walk by and
shout at the group, for no apparent
or obvious reason. The group they
shout at represents something to
them, something right on target. The
target audience is a chorus, a variety pack of society’s most common
social groups. The shouter, not unlike the chorypheus in ancient Greek
theater, is not interested in leading,
more so in scolding the audience and
opening some eyes to feast on his or
her spectacle.
I put some earplugs in, but I could
still hear his S’s and T’s, which were
the most menacing of all the sounds
coming out of his mouth, bringing to
mind snakes and flies and nails dragging down a concrete wall. “Teh, ess,
ess, whisper, ess, ess, teh,” slipped
passed my earplugs.
I imagined him usurping the bus,
“When I got off the
bus, I could still hear
the whispering. Like
that residual audio
echo that lies at the
end of the song on
old cassette tapes
that as a child I
thought was supernatural in nature”
Once I saw a man walk up to the
back of the bus bench and slam
his fist down on it directly behind a
relaxed and dozing woman in her
scrubs waiting for the bus. She was
frightened and startled. The man
kept walking, shouting profanities
and racial slurs at her. Everyone just
calmly watched. No one asked her if
she was alright. Sometimes it is best
to let the victim of this invasion of personal space have personal space after it happens. Or maybe that is how
I justified turning a blind eye.
This morning on the 222 bus to Burbank from Hollywood, a man across
the aisle of the seat in back of me,
about five feet from my left ear,
spoke constantly in a monotone, intentionally menacing, loud, gravelly
whisper. The rants were consistent
and kept an even cadence, and he
continued for the entire duration of
the twenty-five minute bus ride. Most
people ignored him, aside from when
he’d occasionally stomp his foot on
the floor. I could hear his aggressive
whisper getting louder and louder.
He wanted us to hear his profanities,
fuck, cunt, asshole, and bitch. He
mentioned something about someone stabbing him in the back. “Can
you believe that?” He said.
holding us hostage and dramatically
whispering us all to death. I could
feel his eyes on me as he noticed
me aware of him via my peripheral
vision. This person was very aware
of his presence and enjoyed the
sound of his own terror producing
voice and the uncomfortable space
he created. My occasional obvious
disdain would show, and the woman
next to me could tell I was agitated,
yet she stared forward. He would
stomp again and again. He wanted
to be looked at. It made me wonder
what makes the ego desire this. Is it
narcissism or uncontrollable urges?
I am curious to know if there is guilt
involved afterwards? Not that there
should be. Who am I to make up rigid
social rules? And if a person is out
of their mind, do they not still make
the choice to infiltrate this inhabited
setting and assert themselves into
everyone else’s world? Or do they
not have a choice?
He kept at it, looking at me when
I would look back to find another
available seat. I refused to give up
my warm seat at this point because
of this guy. After ten minutes of the
whispered profanities, he began to
sound like nails on a chalkboard.
It also made me think ridiculous
things such as, if there were a god,
why would “he/it/she” allow someone
to be in such turmoil like this? Like
the lady who shouts profanities on
the Hollywood 181 bus. She lives in
a constant state of anger and fear
on the bus. Off of the bus I would
imagine she invades other people’s
personal space. Is it my ego that
coins the street and the bus as MY
personal space, when it is clearly not
mine? What exactly do I give up in
public? What privileges do I gain?
Am I just as entitled as these people to assert my aggression on the
street, although I just simply choose
not to? I cannot expect everyone to
behave exactly how I want them to.
I’d like to control them at times perhaps, but I cannot. They are entitled
to their freedom.
When I got off the bus, I could still
hear the whispering. Like that residual audio echo that lies at the end of
the song on old cassette tapes that
as I child I thought was supernatural
in nature. I heard him for two blocks
in my mind’s ear, and as I neared the
last block to work, a different man
started walking close behind me. I
could hear him through my earplugs
and see his shadow via that peripheral vision. He kept walking closer
and closer, his shoes on the concrete
pounded in my head. It annoyed me,
being burned out from the whispering man from the bus that I stepped
aside and let him pass me. Some
days I allow the elements to manipulate my space. Perhaps some mornings I don’t have the energy to claim
it as my own.
Once I touched a woman on the arm
who was crying at the bus stop because she was lost due to a detour
we both experienced. It seemed to
calm her, but for a moment I was
worried she would think that was odd
of me to do so. We called her friend
to translate, as she could only speak
Armenian. She apologized for crying.
I told her I would get on the next bus
with her and show her where to go. It
was too hard to explain to her so after
we exited the detoured bus, I asked
for directions via phone from her
friend and I walked her home. She
was probably aged 65 plus, overheated from the Southern California
sun, and walking slowly in tight sandals. We kept pointing and signing
to each other to communicate. She
soon brightened at the sight of Hollywood Boulevard and Wilton. Her
sigh and laughter was very much a
relief to me. I let her go on her own at
the cross walk and I gave her a hug.
During the hug she kissed the area
between my cheek and my neck, sort
of on my jaw as she was quite small
and barely could reach my face. It
was a perfect thank you, not that I
wanted or needed a thank you, but
she was sincerely grateful for such a
simple thing. I think I just wanted to
be touched. This is the type of personal space violation I enjoy. The
kiss of gratitude from a stranger is a
true anomaly.
Patti Rhodes is a filmmaker, photographer, and writer living in Los
Angeles. Contact Patti at faultlinefilms@hotmail.com
See a companion photo blog of
Some Things Seen and Overheard
at www.pattirhodes.tumblr.com
AGGRONAUTIX
I first saw one of your amazing Throbblehead figures at a friends house who had the
GG Allin in all its glory. The use of old school
punk heroes put a huge smile on my face,
and i instantly wanted to know more about
Aggronautix and the things you all create
over there. What was the original inspiration
to start your punk Throbblehead collection?
I am a huge fan or Rock N Roll collectibles, and
more specifically Punk Rock collectibles. Medicom (Japan) made a series of Danzig and Misfits vinyl toys about 5 years ago that were amazing. They sold out fast and started going for a lot
of money on eBay. It occurred on me that there
must be alot of people out there like me (punk
rock collectors), so I decided to create a line of
Punk Rock figures.
Was it a business from the start, or did you
make these for yourself and grow the business from there?
It was designed to be a business from the start.
I had distributionin place, I just needed to reach
punk fans directly.
How many figures do you sell now? What
are you most favorite in the collection?
To date, there have been 16 limited edition
Thobbleheads created and released. Of those,
4 have completely sold out, and a few are on
the verge of selling out. I can name a favorite,
but I’m pretty proud of the new J Mascis Throbblehead with real doll hair... It’s a true triumph of
the punk rock doll industry.
The Throbblehead figures look really amazing and very collectable, what’s your process in creating these?
The process is pretty long actually. First, we
conceive the look (for ex: what era / look we
want to portray). Then, Craig Holloway draws
up a turnaround illustration (he’s amazing).
Next, I have the sculptor create a mold based
on the illustration and hi-res photos of the facial
features. Then, the clay mold is painted and
proofed. Finally, Marco from No Front Teeth in
London creates the box. Keep in mind that each
of these steps is proofed with the artist.
The big question, how do the subjects (aka
rock stars) of your designs react when they
see their image on a 7 inch Throbblehead?
Have you had any bad reactions from people?
Most people love it. They feel honored. It’s basically like erecting 1000 mini-statues of someone. There’s never really any bad reactions to
them from the artist. People on message boards
love to hate on ‘em at times though.
Whats in the works for Aggronautix for
2012? Any new Throbblehead’s coming this
fall?
I have three new ones in production right now
that should be available by mid to late summer, and possible one more before Christmas
- which would be a big one.
Where can people get in touch and get their
own Throbblehead’s?
Get em at aggronautix.com !
Story and Photos by Billy Caldwell
RF7, punk as fuck.... killing the
steel strings of core.
photo by caldwell
PUNK ROCK
MUSEUM
Punk Smithsonian
by Billy Caldwell
photo: CALDWELL
In the great city of Los Angeles,
where else will you find the most well
known names in punk rock history?
….. THE PUNK ROCK MUSEUM of
course!
Taquila Mockingbird (writer/singer/
artist), that beautiful soul that has
been there since the infancy of LA
punk, has opened the doors to the
best collection of Punk Art in Los
Angeles history. From the incredible
images of Ed Colver to the video
catalog of Video Louis, Taquila knew
who to feature in this old-brick space
on the outskirts of Chinatown in Los
angeles, otherwise known as KGB
STUDIOS. The Collages that lined
the entrance to the main space were
a mixture of photography, paint and
collage by Brian Tucker. Absolutely
loved the pieces. Vendors like Artpunk Magazine, Marjanes, Posers, Hollywood Book and Poster
and Goldenvoice were selling punk
goods and bands like RF7 and THE
GEARS blasting sonics from the
Stage.
Funny moments included Nicky Beat
of THE WEIRDOS threatening anyone that dare say his name with a
punch to the face. All while wearing
a full length fur coat. Steve Roscoe
was one of the receivers of an attack
by Nicky. A little birdy told me Eric
Leach from SYMBOL SIX, egged on
Steve to ask Nicky his name, knowing what would happen, but thats
what makes us all punk, always looking for a little mischief!
There were a reunion of Flipside
staffers, Hudley Flipside and her
husband, Dancing John, were in attendance, as well as, photographer
extrodinaire Joe Henderson, Ed
Dawson, and the infamous CAKE.
There were even some never before
seen images by a photographer by
the name of Tomasonic. I highly encourage all reading this to attend any
of the upcoming events Taquila has
planned over at the Museum, you will
not be disappointed.
In true punk style, the night ended
with a raid by the coppers! Yes, a
crowd of 40+ yr old people flooded
into the streets as the cops shut it
down for the evening. Black Flag
would have been proud. Good night
sweet Taquila, you have done an excellent job.
Punk Rock Museum
1646 Spring St., Downtown.
www.punkmuseums.com
WORDS
WALTER LURE of Johnny
Thunders fame, gracing the
Redwood Bar stage with a
bands of top notch sit in players
photo by Billy Caldwell
Embers burn from the joint, crashing down
to the ground as the smoke rolls out from
your lips. Heavy footed, the clocks keeps
ticking with every moment passing you by.
Everything seems so simple; all you got to
do, after all, is this and that…the answers
trail off like some housecat that lost his way
home! Clarity shines down from thoughts
that seem to come from nowhere. Now is the
time to jump! Do you want to catch the train?
The early AM hours always hold some truth:
dark landscapes, and shadows lurking down
dark streets… for another fix. The night air
is cold like a switchblade - straight to the
point! The only friend that you hear in the
early morning is from a hot diesel engine,
the ones in the big steal Freight trains you
see coming through the city. Graffiti covering the train cars is like a message from a
friend –a “Hello,” a “Hey I was here, & I will
see you soon.” The train, leaving some far
off town, where maybe the grass is greener
and heading to somewhere fun! The sounds
of the train horn are comforting at night.
They are the only thing that you can count
on! You get used to it every night; you start
to look forward to them. It’s a something you
take in like a deep breath of fresh air. As the
hours pass you by!
Art by Danny Breeden
You’re too heavy, you got to drop your load
– the extra weight will slow you down. You
only have moments in time to make a decision that affects everything down the road.
Let go and jump or keep the stuff that might
to seem to be holding you down and kick
rocks! As you give some thought, that’s
when the train passes you by. Better luck
next time! But are you going to be ready? Do
you have the stuff you need? Well let’s burn
another one, and float in the haze! The Train
is passing us by; and they lie – the answers
aren’t there just for the picking! Where are
they? You got me; I got to grab my shoes
and keep moving! You? Sometimes the answers get caught up in the complexity of life;
sometimes they seem to be nowhere but,
perhaps, dead, lost or stolen! Maybe they
will be in your pocket like my lighter!
Hey, glad to see you back! Come sit down!
I got something for us! Did you ever find
your answers? Like clockwork the big
hand passes by all the small things. Clarity
dances & gets drunk with Complexity, and
Time just stares you down! I just wished it
was just that easy, but my friend, the Train
waits for no one! I wish it was just as easy
as you have dreamed. Where everything
makes sense, and has its own place to be,
where you can take everything with you.
Where you can leave everything behind,
and plant your seeds of hope, life & charm.
So the time has come again, and it’s time to
jump with what you have. The little bruises,
and scuffed up shoes will only be a memory
floating around some city or town that you
just drifted through. As I go, I will give you
one more thought: Never stop – you must
keep moving, and thriving. Complexity is a
bitch, and she will get over it. Keep going
– Never give up! And one more thing “Oh I
want my lighter back!”
***************************************
Rachel Radical
www.twitter.com/RachelRadical84
Pink Death Zine
POB 161763 Sacto, Ca 95816
Supporting EIY, Music, Art n Expression!
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ALICE
BAG
story by
Michelene Cherie
Photos by
Tom Underhill
Alice Bag, punk singer and instrumentalist for numerous legendary
Los Angeles bands including The
Bags and Castration Squad has
written her first book. Her memoirs, Violence Girl: East L.A. Rage
to Hollywood Stage - A Chicana
Punk Story hit the shelves in Fall
2011. She has been touring in support of her book for the past few
months, doing readings at record
stores, bookshops and other offbeat venues. On January 15, 2012,
Alice did a reading at retail store
Moonlight Graham in the City of
Orange, hosted by Exene Cervenka. That night, she graciously
agreed to meet with me the next
day to discuss her new book, her
time as a punk pioneer and her career as an educator. We met up at
a quaint coffee shop in downtown
Covina, ordered a couple cups of
black coffee, some sugary confections and settled in for a chat.
MC: First of all, I love your book.
I have read it twice now and I’ve
purchased copies for other people. I love your voice and I find
your writing to be very moving.
AB: Thank you. I really appreciate
that.
MC: Let’s start with your childhood, growing up in East L.A. You
mention Elton John and David
Bowie as early influences, any
other childhood heroes? Did you
have any female role models?
AB: Yeah, I liked Suzie Quattro a lot
and Patti Smith. When I was growing up
I listened to a lot of soul music, so
I loved Aretha Franklin and The Supremes. I also loved Grace Slick.
MC: Grace Slick was cool, she was
so witchy. I liked her too. So, delving right in… Some of the most intense stories in your book involve
your relationship with your father
and his abuse toward your mother.
Your father simultaneously built
you up and gave you confidence,
but then did things to erode your
trust. So, when you were a kid,
what did you draw on for strength
to get yourself through that situation?
AB: I don’t know…I think I just stuffed
it all inside. I felt helpless, there was
a lot of rage and a lot of wanting to
be powerful. I talk about watching
Batman and reading comic books
and fantasizing that I could be a superhero and avenge my mother. The
funny thing is that doing this book actually stemmed from going to Comic
Con when I lived in San Diego. I lived
there for a few months. I was talking
to Jane Wiedlin, who had put out a
comic book and I said “Aw man that
is so cool. I would love to have a
comic book.” I started thinking about
my story in terms of a comic book or
a graphic novel. There were times
that I stood up for my mother or I
stood up for other people and I really
felt like a superhero. I realized that
it’s not about the tights or the logo
or the super powers because we all
have the super powers. We all have
a superhero inside of us, if we can
figure out how to access it. So, that
was the initial spark for writing the
book and then it was dormant in me
for a while. Around the same time, a
friend of mine said “You should write
a book.”
MC: So, it seems that the rage you
developed as a youngster never
got released or went anywhere.
Luckily, you were able to channel
some of that into being in a band,
but you leave the stage and it’s
still there, it’s in your personal
relationships. Your story about
striking your boyfriend Nicky Beat
with a belt was intense. You realized that you were becoming like
your father…full of rage…with the
capacity for brutality. How did you
deal with that part of yourself?
How did you sort that out and turn
it around?
AB: I didn’t know how to sort it out
at first. I went into a real dark place
where I felt like I was disconnected.
In the book, I talk about where I started cutting myself…a lot, to try and
feel something because I felt like I
was out of control.
MC: Yes and I thought that was
very brave of you to talk about.
Most people wouldn’t go there
and admit to such an ugly thing,
but you did.
AB: When you’re a kid, you feel like
you’re going along with what your
parents say, then when you’re an adolescent you feel like “I’m in chargeI’m steering my life.” Then you realize “Well, maybe I’m not steering my
life.”
MC: Steering it right into a ditch,
right? (we laugh)
AB: Right, exactly, because you don’t
realize that there are other forces at
work. There are other things working to subvert some of the things
you think you are doing. So, I went
through this period where I was just
feeling disconnected and I don’t
know how I finally came around. I
don’t know how I pulled myself out
of it. I did the cutting, I had friends
around me who were concerned
and I felt shame around it. My guitarist, Craig, was bringing it up, a guy I
started going out with was telling me
“Don’t do that, I love you. Why are
you doing that?” Around that time, I
was moving back home and I didn’t
want my family to see what I was
doing, so it was mostly because of
shame that I stopped. I think moving away from Hollywood and having some peace helped me find my
way. I’m someone who needs a lot of
solitude and I need introspective time
and that was something that I wasn’t
getting in Hollywood. I got some
things that I needed there, the feeling
of community that I never had, being
supported by a group. When I did
move back home, I was able to think
about things that I was doing and that
was good for me. I think a lot of it just
had to do with moving away from that
chaotic environment, finding time for
solitude and introspection, throwing myself into philosophy and a
comforting romantic relationship, all
those things helped me.
MC: So, is it still a work on progress?
AB: The healing?
MC: Yeah…
AB: Well, yeah, I think it is. When I
was writing the book, I thought I was
just going to think of this stuff and just
tell it, but it was really like reliving it
again.
MC: I would imagine.
AB: I realized that it’s not all good, the
pain is still there and I’d like to think
that because I’m aware of it, I have a
little more control of it, but I don’t really know. I feel like I can summon up
that rage inside of me. I know what it
feels like to feel like I’m ten feet tall
and invincible, it’s still there. There
are times when I’ve been at home
and I hear noises around the house
and my teenage daughter is scared
and I say “Don’t worry, if anyone is
out there, they should be afraid.”
MC: I completely relate to that.
You just gotta put it to use with
the right people. So, on another
note, how did you become more
interested in politics and social
issues?
AB: I think part of my becoming interested in politics was because some
members of the punk community
were interested in what was going
on in Central America and would
speak of it in passing. My trips to San
Francisco also helped to raise my
curiosity about what was going on in
government. SF punks just seemed
more politically aware. Shortly after
moving away from the Canterbury,
I went back to college where debate
about political and social issues was
a natural part of the college experience.
MC: What would you consider the
most pivotal moment in your life
that directly lead you to where you
sit today? Anything that stands
out like a turn you took or friends
you made?
AB: There are so many little things. I
think part of it was taking Philosophy
classes-really analyzing things, ana-
lyzing my beliefs and my actions. Figuring out whether my actions were in
accordance with my beliefs or if I was
just being lazy sometimes and doing
things because they were convenient
or because they were what I had
been accustomed to doing.
MC: So, you started to look more
inward?
AB: Yes, and then when I went to
Nicaragua, I realized that I also was
part of a bigger picture and that I
could make a difference in another
country. I think we don’t realize, when
we’re young adults, most of us anyway, that the world is ours and we
can make it whatever we want. Having that little taste of it, going there
and being involved in teaching, working with people who were involved
with their revolution and who were
living it everyday and everything they
did was a way to support the revolution. Whether they did without something in their daily life or if they made
time to go out and do some work for
the revolution. It was inspiring to see
that even the person who felt like
they had nothing felt that they were
empowered in contributing to this
bigger picture. I think we as Americans, are sometimes so comfortable
in our lives that we feel like “Oh just
let someone else run things, they’re
doing a good enough job. I have a
roof over my head, I have clothes on
my back”, so we don’t feel discomfort enough to do something about
it. When I was in Nicaragua, people
had it so hard that they were really
invested in making it work. So, that
was very inspiring for me.
MC: So, tell me about being a
teacher. It must take an immense
amount of patience to be a teacher and work with kids. You mentioned last night at your reading,
that it was partly the kids that
taught you to have patience.
AB: Yeah, I think my students were
the perfect thing for me because…
well, you just can’t be angry at a kid.
You can be disappointed, you can
feel frustrated that you’re not reaching them, but you really can’t be
angry because…they’re kids. Even
when they are challenging you, well
that’s what kids are supposed to do,
so I have to dig really deep and figure
it out. OK, if they’re not getting the
lesson, it’s my fault. I have to throw
myself down and get creative and
think of a different way to approach
it. Whenever I’ve had a problem to
solve with a student, it was always
on me. I had to solve it and this has
really helped me with adult relationships too because I felt like I had to
own it and figure out what am I going
to contribute to this?
MC: What made you decide to become a teacher and what keeps
you doing it?
AB: I always liked working with kids. I
liked playing with little kids. As
I was getting older, my brothers and
sisters were having children and I
would entertain them. I preferred
to hang out with the kids instead of
the adults. I still find myself going to
family functions and relating to the
younger kids. It’s just something in
me and I connect with them. When
I finished college, I had a BA in Philosophy. I wanted to go to law school
and I don’t know what happened to
me, but somewhere in there, while I
was thinking about law school, I got
a part-time job as a teacher’s aid and
once I had a taste of working with
kids, I just knew it was my calling and
that I wanted to do that all the time.
I would go home and I’d be thinking
about the kids and I was excited.
Now I had a job that I was actually
thinking “I can’t wait to get there tomorrow.”
MC: So, what are the biggest challenges of being a teacher?
AB: The biggest challenges for me
are when people make policies that
I disagree with. Figuring out how I
can keep my job, meet my student’s
needs, while figuring out a way to respect their culture, respect their language. Finding ways to make each
child feel like the world is theirs, to
empower them. Letting them know
they can challenge authority, they
can question the policies of our generation.
MC: Last night during your Q & A
at Moonlight Graham, someone
asked you if your students know
about your punk rock past and
you said they did not; that you
keep that under wraps. I was surprised by your answer and I am
curious about that too. So, how
do you go about living life as Alicia Velasquez by day and then as
Alice Bag, punk originator, who
has a new book and going out on
tour? Do you compartmentalize
your life?
AB: For me, well, it’s a matter of your
comfort level and I don’t know if this
is the right thing to do or not. I had
a friend who was a teacher a couple
of doors down from me and she
dressed like she was going out to a
club, you know, she was who she
was all the time. She said “Kids need
to know that teachers come in all
shapes and sizes.” I just wanted the
parents to trust me and not judge me
by my appearance. So, for me it was
important to step into a different character and not be Alice Bag because
that’s a different part of me. So, yeah,
I guess it is compartmentalized, but
it works for me because Alice Bag
is a different part of my brain that I
don’t use in the classroom, but I feel
the same way about engaging my
audience as I feel about engaging
my students. Like, when I’m teaching, I’m looking at kid’s faces to see
who is connected to me. If I see a
glazed over look, I’ll walk over and
say “What do you think of this? Look
at this picture, do you understand
this?” I look at my audience the same
way… if they are looking at me and
connecting with me.
MC: So, I imagine with this compartmentalization of your life,
there are several different wardrobes involved? (laughs)
AB: Yeah, it’s kinda like putting on
your uniform for work or putting a
bag on your head before you go onstage. It’s the transition, getting into
another personality. When I’m gonna
go onstage, I have to feel a transition. There are people who are on
tour, riding in a van in their jeans and
whatever and then they just step onstage wearing the same thing. I can’t
do that. I have to feel that transition
into a stage personality. Apart from
your everyday experience, there’s
another side of you that can go to
places that the everyday person
can’t go.
MC: I like a little more glam with
my rock.
AB: Yeah, me too. I like a little entertainment. It’s funny because I can
feel the transitions throughout my
recent performances. Going from
being a little kid, singing the rancheras with my dad. It’s a different feeling in your body the way rancheras
are sung, how it’s right here in your
loins, because a lot of those songs
are so much about passion. So, singing that starts the process. I just felt
that the Elton John song (Love Lies
Bleeding) I do takes me back to the
craziness of being an Elton stalker, a
fanatical fan, like I wanted to be him
and I wanted to be connected to the
music, but also felt like it was out of
reach for me. I can’t play the song
like Elton’s band plays it because this
is a punk band, but just taking something that is out of my reach and simplifying it and doing it my own way is
fulfilling to me.
MC: You brought one of your
daughters last night. How many
kids do you have and what are
their genders and ages?
AB: I have three daughters, two are
my stepdaughters and one is my
own, but I met my stepdaughters
when they were very little, so I think
of them as my own. One is twentythree, one just turned twenty-two
yesterday and the other is seventeen.
MC: What do your daughters think
of your past as a punk originator
and what do they think of your
book?
AB: Well, my stepdaughters have
been really supportive. They have
come to a few readings and they
brought their friends. They seem
like proud daughters. My youngest
daughter still thinks I’m kind of… not
that cool.
MC: What? You’re kidding!
AB: No, I think she’s really cool, so
you know, “No Soy Monedita De
Oro.” I’m their mom, but hopefully,
somewhere down the line they’ll
think “OK, mom was kinda cool” and
that’s OK if they don’t. All I have to do
is be supportive of them, that is my
main role.
MC: So, have they ever seen your
footage from the Decline of Western Civilization?
AB: I don’t know. They haven’t seen it
from me. I have not shown it to them.
A few years ago, we went to see
Desperate Teenage Lovedolls and
The Decline on a double bill at the
Egyptian. I went with Tracy Lea, who
was in Castration Squad with me and
she was also in the Lovedolls movie.
We said “Let’s go sit in the back and
watch ourselves.”
MC: What did you think? Did you
just die watching yourself?
a computer up for you.
AB: Yeah, because I had not seen
that movie since it came out. I went
to the opening and never watched it
again because I was so freaked out
by seeing myself that way. So, Tracy
talked me into going, she said “We’ll
laugh at ourselves, it’ll be fun.” So,
we went and Penelope Spheeris was
there. We didn’t realize they were
actually going to be speaking to the
people in the film and she asked me
to come up and do a Q & A with her.
AB: Yes, and I would always have
him edit stuff for me. I would run it
by him, have him read it, ask him “Is
it clear, does this make sense?” So,
that teacher part of me comes in,
basically everything I do with my students, I did with him, like proofread it,
give it back, fix it and so on. I’d give
him another draft, it would be better
and we went through the whole thing
and he was great because he always
found time to do this for me. At one
point my daughter and I had to move
back to Arizona and my husband had
not been able to get a job in Arizona, so we were apart and that kept
us connected. Blogging everyday, I
felt like I was sending him little bits
of my life. He would read it and he
made a point of taking a break and
calling me. He would say “This made
me feel this way or this part doesn’t
belong in the story, let’s keep it as
a deleted scene and post it on your
regular blog.” So, he was really good
in that way. I had felt so insecure
about my writing at first, so I needed
that, but halfway through the book, I
started to say to him “Just correct the
spelling errors.” He really helped to
empower me. He gave me my little
training wheels and then started lifting them and finally took them off and
I eventually did my own thing.
MC: Oh wow, and you weren’t prepared for that…so much for sitting
in the back and having a laugh.
AB: I wasn’t prepared for that, no.
But, I do remember that Penelope
said it was gonna be out on DVD and
this was about seven or eight years
ago now.
MC: There must be some kind of
legal or licensing issue holding
up the DVD release. We’ll see…
You also mentioned last night that
your husband was instrumental in
your writing this book. Can you
tell me more about that?
AB: My husband always challenges
me to do things that I really don’t
want to do, but he thinks would be
good for me. Which is a blessing
and a curse, because sometimes
it’s annoying. He is very supportive,
so I have to thank him because this
would not have gotten off the ground.
He gave me that extra push that I
needed.
MC: Right, and you had said he
actually set up a writing area and
MC: So, were there stories that
he had never heard? Things that
came to light that he never knew
about you or had he heard all of
your stories?
AB: No, he didn’t know all of my stories. I remember him calling me and
saying “I’m at work and now you’ve
got me in tears.” By the same token,
I’d call him and say “I’m a mess, I
can’t write this.” Like I said, a lot of
the time I was reliving this stuff as I
wrote it and even though I only wrote
a few hours a day, I’d spend a lot
of time just going through boxes of
photographs, memorabilia, letters
and receipts. My mother had every
bill that she ever paid for the house,
every stub and I just found that really interesting. I found this poem that
my father had written for me and he’d
submitted it to the local paper, so it
was all yellowed and old. My mom
was almost a hoarder, she wasn’t
quite out of control, but she saved
everything.
MC: Did you shop your book
around or did folks come to you?
Did you have a relationship with
anyone at Feral House?
AB: When I finished writing the blog,
I had followers who had been giving
me feedback and at the end I just
wrote “Thanks for going on this journey with me. What should I do with
this now?” People started writing in
suggestions and a friend of mine,
who had also written a book, suggested Feral House. He thought they
would be a great publisher for me
so, I sent them three or four pages.
It was sort of a cold call thing and I
don’t think a week went by when
Adam Parfrey, who is the publisher,
called me. He was just so friendly
and so warm. He called me and he
said “Alice Bag, I know who you are.”
He said we had met back in 1977 outside the Whiskey and he had a very
positive memory of me, so I think that
helped. Even though I was “Violence
Girl”, I think I was still pretty nice and
approachable. I did not have an attitude with people and I was so glad
that I was nice to this person many
years ago. I had put this person in a
frame of mind where they wanted to
know my story and they wanted to be
helpful.
MC; A lot of the people you write
about in your book are now deceased, did that have any bearing
on whether or not you told your
story and how you told it?
AB: I had to be careful with some of
the things I said about people because I didn’t know how much their
families knew. I didn’t want somebody to find out something they didn’t
already know, but I didn’t set out write
about people because they were
dead or alive. This is just my story,
this is a memory that came to me
and I think that when someone does
pass away, you remember how you
used to do certain things with them or
whatever. Where as with people that
are still around, we’ll…it’s sad that
we don’t always appreciate those
around us.
said it was the best book about the
L.A. punk scene.
MC: That’s true. I wasn’t going
to ask you anything about Darby
Crash because I think that subject
has been played, however, there
was a thought that I had when you
were describing the end of your
relationship with him. Well…that
it ended badly, basically you had
an argument with him on a flight of
stairs, you punched him and you
never spoke to him again right?
MC: Hey, that’s cool.
AB: Right
MC: So, do you keep in touch with
many of the folks from your punk
days?
MC: You’ve probably
about that day…a lot.
thought
AB: Yes, it’s things like that where
you feel like you have unfinished
business, that really gnaw at you.
I’ve had friends that had family members they were fighting with and I’ve
encouraged them to make peace
with them because you never know
what’s going to happen and when
something does, it’s really hard to
come to terms with. I didn’t see Shannon (Wilhelm) before she passed
away, so I never had a chance to
say goodbye to her and that really
eats away at me. With my father, my
concern with writing about him was
that my nieces and nephews hadn’t
ever seen that side of him because
by that time he was sick and on dialysis. He was not the same man
that I had grown up with and I was
concerned about how they would react when they read that about him.
When my mother was still alive, my
niece watched a program on PBS
called “Chicanas in Tune”, that was
about me and Teresa Covvarubias.
We were in a group called Goddess
13 together. I was performing a song
called “The Happy Accident”, which
is about a woman who kills her abusive husband. I told the interviewer
that this song was inspired by my
father because I used to fantasize
about killing him and my niece didn’t
know that side of my father and she
called my mom, who was also watching the show. She was in tears and
said “How can my aunt Alice get up
there and say this stuff about my
grandfather?” My mother said “Well,
it was true.” My niece’s feeling was
that it wasn’t true and that I was making it all up. How could I say these
things about her loving grandfather?
She had only seen this wonderful
man that was very loving toward her.
MC: Now what about other people
that are living? What if any, has
their response been to the book?
AB: Everybody has been really positive, really supportive. Jane Wieidlin
AB: That made me really happy. I’ve
had really positive feedback and I’m
hoping everybody is OK with it. I
never set out to make anyone look
bad, so I’m hoping that nobody feels
offended. If anyone feels that they
have been slighted, I welcome their
response, because everybody has
their own perspective.
AB: Only online, because I live in Sedona now, so I’m really out of touch
with people. When 45 Grave was on
tour in Arizona, they stayed at my
house and I was able to hang out
with Mary and Rick for a while.
MC: X is playing at the end of the
month at MOCA with the Avengers and The Dead Kennedys for
an art exhibit called “Under the
Big Black Sun”, which includes
some punk rock art and music.
There have been numerous books
about the L.A. punk scene over
the past few years. It seems like
a lot of people are finally getting
some recognition and things have
come full circle. Any thoughts on
that scene and how it has become
part of music history and also Los
Angeles’ history?
AB: I think it’s wonderful and I am
very pleased that we haven’t been
forgotten. That we haven’t just faded
away.
MC: Have you ever had thoughts
like “Well, it’s about time?”
AB: Well, not me personally and I
didn’t document my stuff like I should
have. I dropped the ball and had I
known then…well, that’s what I tell
young kids now that are creating
art, “Document everything.” I have
a lot of pictures, but not a lot of recordings. I wish I had put out more
records. I wish I had recorded more
stuff.
MC: Yeah, someone asked you
about that last night. What recordings of The Bags are available
and you said that there aren’t very
many.
AB: No, there are not very many.
When I go out to do a reading and I
see the cell phones go up and I know
this is gonna end up on You Tube,
there’s a part of me that thinks it’s
scary, but there’s a part of me that
feels so happy that it’s being documented and that somebody cares
enough to put it on You Tube.
MC: Your book tour is fantastic,
by the way. It seems like a very
organic, DIY venture. How did you
put that together?
AB: Yes, my publisher sent me a letter saying that they are publishing
the book and they will do what they
can, but since they are a small publisher, they don’t have money to do a
book tour. So, I started following Jack
Grisham, who also wrote a book, and
I looked to see where he was reading
and noticed that he was doing some
music at his readings and I thought
that I should integrate some music as
well. I just started looking places up.
At first I researched feminist bookstores, that didn’t really work for me
so I went back to Jack Grisham and
thought more about record stores.
MC: I think the venues have been
great, from what I’ve seen on
Facebook and last night’s venue
was fantastic. Moonlight Graham
was perfect.
AB: It was really fun and they are
very cool people.
MC: Is it all you booking the tour
and doing everything?
AB: No, it’s not all me. I have friends
that have asked me if I want to come
to their city and they will set up something for me and they actually do set
it up for me. I have a lot of really good
friends who are doing this for me. It’s
not just one person; I have a friend
in New York, another in Philadelphia
and a person in Seattle and someone in San Francisco helping. The
way my East Coast tour has worked
out is through Ladyfest. I had done
Ladyfest in Irvine and they called me
to do it in Boston and I told them that
I can’t afford to come out to just do
one show so, they started setting up
shows for me and ended up doing
the whole tour for me.
MC: So, are you taking time off
from being a teacher?
AB: I decided to take the whole year
off because I didn’t want to leave my
students with substitutes all the time.
It’s really hard, even when you leave
one day and you come back and
you don’t know what your kids did…I
have control issues. So, I have taken
the year off and it’s been good, thinking of myself as an author and it has
been really challenging stepping into
that role. As I have said numerous
times, I don’t think of myself as an
author. I’m getting used to calling myself an author and I’m getting used
to reading in front of adults, which is
tricky. I’m getting better, in the beginning, I would trip over my words or
lose my place. I was really nervous
and being a performer, I really want
to look at the audience, look at their
faces.
MC: And your band…who’s in
your band?
AB: It’s a different band wherever I
go and I have been really fortunate.
Sometimes, I think that I’m gonna
have to go out there by myself with
my acoustic guitar, but I have been
fortunate that somebody usually
raises their hand and says “I’ll play
with you”, so I appreciate that. Doing
a DIY book tour, I can’t always take
my band so, I played with El Vez in
Seattle and for the Ladyfest East
Coast tour, each city I am playing
with somebody different and that’s
exciting for me. I’m going to D.C and
Kid Congo offered to play with me.
He said “I want to play with you”, so I
said “Yeah!” (laughs)
MC: Oh wow! How cool.
AB: Here in L.A., I have a lot of
friends and Lysa Flores (guitar) was
the first person to raise her hand and
offer to play. My friend Angie, who I
was in a different band with has been
doing the Orange County, Inland
shows. Angie Skull is the bass player
and Tracy Skull plays guitar, they’re
a married couple and Rikki Styxx is
my drummer. Tracy was in a punk
band called The Undertakers from
East L.A.
MC: So, will there be more Alice
Bag adventures? Seems like you
have more subjects that could be
expounded upon. Are you considering writing more books?
AB: As I was coming to the end of
the book, I thought maybe I would do
that. It was such a huge investment
of time and I was thinking “Am I willing to put that kind commitment into
something again?” Now that I’ve had
the space, from the time that I wrote
it…til the time that it came out…it
has been a couple of years so, I’m
starting to feel like I want to write
something else. I don’t know if it’s
going to be a part two or something
completely different. I was talking to
Lysa (Flores) and she said a couple
of people were interested in the stuff
that I had done in Nicaragua. I said
I have my whole diary from Nicaragua and she said that I should put
the whole diary out on Book Baby.
I’m not getting away from the idea of
doing a graphic novel. I do see Violence Girl coming to life as a graphic
novel, maybe not the whole story, but
parts of it.
MC: OK, now there was something
that you kind of glossed over toward the end of your book…passing up a dinner with Oprah. I just
gotta ask, what was that about?
AB: I put it out there because I
thought it would pique people’s interest (laughs) So, when I was playing
with EL Vez, he was on a show that
was all about Elvis impersonators.
We had to fly out to Chicago; me and
the others got to the airport on time,
checked our luggage, got our boarding passes and EL Vez is nowhere to
be seen. We’re thinking were going
to miss our flight. He finally shows
up and we missed our flight and our
luggage is on that flight. When we
got to Chicago, our luggage hadn’t
been taken off the plane so, it ended
up at the next stop. We were all in
ripped jeans and grungy wear. Robert had his clothes because he put
them on the flight we were on. We
didn’t know we were gonna have dinner with Oprah, but they called after
we checked in at the hotel and said
Oprah was inviting us to have dinner
with her. We really wanted to go, but
they said it was a very nice restaurant and we didn’t have any of our
luggage or anything!
MC: Oh geez. When I read that you
didn’t go to the dinner with her, I
thought it was because were saying “No, Oprah, I don’t want to go
to dinner with you.” So, yes it did
pique my curiosity.
AB: No, it wasn’t like that at all. It
was just a crazy thing. The nice thing
was that she sent us our own dinner
vouchers for something like seventy
dollars per person, so we got a big
dinner and a nice bottle of wine and
sat there in our ripped jeans. So,
that’s the story, it’s not as dramatic
as it seemed.
MC: That was very decent of her.
So, as well as your East Coast
tour, you have another thing coming up. There’s an exhibit called
American Sabor: Latinos in US
Popular Music. How did you get
involved with that and what will
we being seeing from you at that
exhibit?
AB: That has been going on for a
while. It’s touring, it started out at the
EMP in Seattle, it went to the MIM,
which is the Musical Instrument Museum, near my house in Arizona. It
was at the Smithsonian and it’s just
so exciting to be involved with an exhibit that has been at the Smithsonian.
MC: And what’s in it?
AB: All kinds of Latin music that has
influenced popular music. Tejano,
the Miami sound, Salsa, there’s a
kind of music called “Boogaloo”… all
the way to punk.
MC: Is this something that just
happened and you didn’t know
you were in it or did they come to
you and ask you to be involved?
AB: It was something I didn’t realize I was in and I’m just mentioned.
There’s a photograph of The Bags, a
record and a clip. So, they have a really broad range of Latinos in music.
MC: That exhibit hits L.A. in May
2013.
At this point, we realize that we
have been talking for two hours
and Alice has a performance that
evening, so she must leave to get
ready. I am so thankful to her for
being incredibly generous with her
time and for her candor. I found
her to be so forthcoming and engaging. I had a great time talking
with Alice and we got to share a
few stories and a few laughs.
Alice will be back in L.A. in the
coming months for readings. So,
stay tuned for that. In the meantime, you can catch up with Alice
on her web site, various blogs,
Twitter and Facebook.
www.alicebag.com
www.twitter.com/alicebag
www.alicebag.blogspot.com
PIRATEPALOOZA
“Sunset Junction was cancelled!”
Sunset Junction was shut down. After a long 10+ year run, the infamous community festival, was put on the fritz. LA
County officials were owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in past bills that the promoter never paid. Sparkplug
Magazine was going to be having a 2 stage party happening at the entrance of this well known event at Garage Pizza, but because of the festivals shut down, we had to find another venue to host the 20+ bands we had scheduled.
to play. Bob Cantu came to the rescue and offered us that sat afternoon to squeeze all the acts in at the Redwood
Bar downtown. We barely got through all the bands, but the crowd was huge and the response was bar none. The
best acts in the LA area hit the stage for 20 min short sets, and blew away the fans. If you were there you know what
a good time it was, and if you weren’t you missed out! Here is part one of the collection of interviews from the bands
that played that weekend.
You ladies just rocked the Goldenvoice 30 yr
anniversary at the Santa Monica Civic.. How
was it opening for Bad Religion, TSOL and the
like?
Yes we did, it was an amazing experience! Gary
Tovar first had seen us at a Feline Production
gig when we played with T.S.O.L, and a second
time when we played with Angry Samoans. He
then introduced him self said he really, really
liked us, and we kept in touch. So when he
said he wanted us on The GV30 show as the
ONLY band to not have ever played for Goldenvoice it was pretty surreal, the actual day of
the show it just sunk in, “holy shit we’re playing
this show!” I grew up listening to these bands,
cranked them on my radio, blasted them in my
car stereo and to play with them was such an
honor. Playing in that kind of venue with legendary bands just validated that all that hard work
and dedication really pays off. It was great looking out to a sea of people knowing that A Pretty
Mess was starting off the show to what is now
a piece of punk rock history!
I’ve seen a few lineup changes for APM over
the years, who is the current lineup?
Unfortunately yes, ever since Nancy (who
was one of the original members) left its been
kind of tough to get someone to replace her.
When I was trying to start up a band again, I
asked her to play guitar for me and she said
she was done playing music, I convinced her
to jam with me and we immediately connected.
We started the band but over time she just
got burnt out from playing music in general.
We kinda never did “replace” her because the
door was always open for her to come back.
Meghan grew up with Shawn Gatlin, and suggested we get him to play with us, so he did
and he fucking rocked!!! He played with us for
a bit, but wanted to focus on his art so that was
that. This is the core of our band Megan (Bass),
Mel(Drums) and I, Dee Skusting (Vox/Guitar).
We have decided that we’re gonna basically
have Jordan Dau play for us locally and we are
gonna get a touring musician when needed. Its
just easier that way if we want to keep moving ahead. Having to audition guitarist is soooo
time consuming and it delays us on moving
forward, and the ones who we do think have a
chance, just haven’t been cut out for us.
Although there are a lot more all girl projects
out there, i really like the no BS attitude that
APM brings to the table. Solid songs, and one
helluva front woman. Do you feel any guff from
other bands being an all girl project?
Thank you!! No, not really,its actually the opposite. We get a lot of people telling us we inspire
them, and its because of us that they started
to play again. I get personal emails from other
girls in bands (and not in bands) that thank
us just for keeping the “female fronted” scene
going strong. Its great to hear that, and it validates to me that we’re making an impact and
leaving our mark behind. Being in a band is no
sunny day at times, its a lifestyle that you have
to adapt to and sacrifice certain things in your
life to keep your music alive. There are some
shady bands out there though, they just want
to latch on to what you have, I just weed them
out and don’t even associate myself with them,
cause if it did come down to it i wont hesitate to
speak my mind and put someone in their place
and let them know i’m NOT fucking around.
Do you have any new releases? Where can
people get in touch?
Also we will have a limited edition 7” inch colored vinyl only 500 copies will be pressed, it will
be out on Jailhouse Records in the spring of
2012. This was produced by Ben 9k from The
Scarred. It will have unreleased songs and
we’re pretty stoked to finally have some vinyl
available for you guys!!!
please visit us here,we would love you to!
www.aprettymess.com
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-PrettyMess/154296944666
Twitter
https://twitter.com/#!/APrettyMessBand
Reverb Nation
https://www.reverbnation.com/aprettymess
part 1
Jason, the new lineup is sounding better than ever, really gives a full
sound to the great songs you have penned. When did the 5 piece project
come about? I remember first seeing you all as a three piece.
Well I was getting tired of singing and getting stuck on the mic. My voice was
thrashed after every show especially if the pa sucks which it usually does. I
started looking at us from the outside and putting ego aside and thinking it
would be better for us and funner for me to get a singer, a good singer, and a
very cool person and that’s when it made sense to ask coworker Kel Pritchard
to sing. At the time she told me I’m gonna try out for a ramones cover band and
I said no your not your gonna sing for Threeway! Mona brought Keith Lubow
onboard on second guitar who is awesome in every way. This completed the
circle and it started to feel like a real band again where there was chemistry
and it was funner than ever. The weight was lifted from my shoulders finally I
could rock out again. Before everything was such a task.
Celebrity Skin, was a fav of mine back in the days, so great to see you
out and about with Threeway, Do you all ever throw in a Skin cover into
the set?
I try not to live in the past. That was then this is now. Too many new songs to
play!
You have definitely been around the LA music scene for some time, what
have been some of your fondest memories of gigs over the years?
Opening for Iggy at palladium, the Damned at celebrity theater, Janes Addiction at John Anson Ford, La Guns at universal ampitheater, Redd Kross
several shows, oops im living in the past but there have been so many fun
ones. Im just glad to be playing out as I live for it. I want to thank people like
Jimmy James for keeping the rock scene alive and booking me and lots of
great bands locally.
I have been loving the new songs i have been hearing, do you all have
a release planned in 2012? if so, where can people get in touch and get
a copy?
I guess ive been waiting for someone to see us and offer to record us and release something. If that doesnt happen soon we will do it ourselves. We have
recordings but they are pre Kel and dont represent us now.
Let’s just get this out of the way. Baddest head tattoo ever, who did it, when did you get it?
Thanks man, the Alex Delarge was done by DANIEL CHASHOUDIAN at the shop I own KATHOUSE INC TATTOO.
The guy is amazing.
WFD, a powerhouse punk act from the streets of LA, Did you guys form here or somewhere else? What are your
favorite venues to play in town?
All of us are from somewhere else, except Ian Down my bassist. He’s from Long Beach. I’m from Arizona, Kid the
drummer is from Colorado and our new guitarist Chris is from Australia, but we started in Hollywood 4 years ago
as a polka band disco fusion band. hahahaha! Butch realized this gets easier women. We love playing anywhere
that will have us. We really liked 3 of Clubs and still really like The Redwood. We got ta play The Troubadour once,
great sound. I can tell ya where I don’t like ta play...hahahahaaa, but i won’t.
Your bass player Ian, also helps run the Rebel Music TV radio show, which you guys have played some acoustic
stuff (and sounded great), is it strange interpeting the punk songs into workable acoustic tunes?
Rebel what? I’m just kiddin, great show, great guys. Ian and Tony do that. Its fun, if ya haven’t given it a listen. The
acoustic thing was a challenge for me. I don’t sit still well..at all...ever! Watch the video on Youtube, you’ll see what
I mean. I am, and we are, a very high energy band. We play on stage the way bands I grew up used to play. That’s
the only way it should be! So, for me it was hard to calm down. The guys did great!
Do you guys have any upcoming releases? Where can people say hi?
We do, we have a demo. You can go steal it on download (please). We made it 3 years ago, and we are wrapping
up our first full length. It sounds great! As for saying hi.. we love bars! You will see us out getting a pint somewhere.
and on the web (by the way, we love Youporn..man its the best thing to happen. could you imagine havin that as a
kid?) anyway back to work, youll find us on Facebook and Punkrockers.com. Drop us a line.
PIRATEPALOOZA
The Band with a thousand faces (seems like a
new lineup everytime i see them), and a killer
sound for days, part grunge, part underground
sonic ear massage. Ramblin Eddie Lopez ringleads this sonic band of gypsies , and gives up
the “ummph” to the masses..
Great tunes, and smooth sonics..... Eddie
you’ve been recording some new tunes for an
upcoming album in between the stack of gigs
you have played in the last year. Let us know
the 411?
After our 4th tour of the states we started tracking our rock opera titled “Fantasy Lan” two lost
reels of tape, 48 songs, and thousands of dollars later we put that album on hold and started
recording two more albums “Reptilian Royalty”
and “Robots Rebel.”
I’ve seen the EC with multiple lineups, and
sometimes different lineups within days of
gigs, you must have a huge stable of musicians to call on when you are ready to light up
the stage. Share some of the people that have
joined you on stage?
At the moment there is about 48 members of
Electric Children spread out across the U.S.
and overseas. Some of my favorite members
include my fiancée Cynthia who plays bass,
lead guitar player Matt Lake from the Atomic
Sherpas and although he did not join us onstage Zander Schloss from the Circle Jerks
did teach me how to play guitar and helped arrange our first single a few years back .....
Where and When did the EC begin is journey
into rock n roll? What was the first gig like?
Electric Children started out in Echo Park and
played its first official show at the Prospector
in Long Beach. We had three guitar players, a
cello player and two back up singers amongst
the many players on stage, I wanted to bring
the Fantasy Land album to life onstage. It
worked and just like that I stripped the lineup
down to a three piece.
How can people get in touch? And what is in
the works for 2012?
People can contact us or the rest of Electric
Children by going to :
www.myspace.com/electricchildren
Or
www.abovetopsecret.com
In 2012, we will be releasing an album or two,
some singles, a film, an EP and a 7” inch box
set. Since I have a backing band in different
states Cynthia and I will be traveling and meeting up with the rest of brotherhood to promote
each release.
art by Danny Breeden
part 1
Strong song structures and psychadelic sonic
freakouts, RAUL, has a great presence on
stage, and for a three piece you guys really
bring the goods. How did it all start?
Well RAUL started in 1999 when myself (BRIAN GITTINGS) decided to start a group with
old school buddy Dennis Stahl. We started to
write songs and look for other musicians to
form the band. That’s how we came to meet
CHARLES MAXEY (via the want ads in the recycler) to play drums.
I know your drummer Charles has played with
some other great projects, and that your bass
player has some deep LA music roots, clue us
into the history of the players of RAUL?
Over time the band line up has changed, but
since the exit of RAUL’s other founding member, I have become the main songwriter and
leader of the group.The current line up is made
up of the original drummer Charles Maxey and
the latest player Russell Quintana on bass guitar. Russell’s uncle Rudy Medina and cousin
Sydney Medina played in L A punk band THE
BRAT. I had another project with a friend Paul
Woodward of Dublin Ireland.Due to our geographic barrier we didnt have many opportuni-
Last year the Sunset Junction Festival (and
by default Pizzapalooza) were killed by mismanagement, politics, and greed. That seems
to be the theme for last year in Los Angeles
and throughout the country. However a small
group of good people banded together to
make something cool out of nothing and we
had the Piratepalooza instead. If you looked at
that scene as its own microcosm of American
Society, does it give ya hope that greed and
politics aren’t as far reaching as you might
think sometimes?
Yeah, greed and politics will always be issues
to deal with but I think society is only willing to
put up with it for so long. In the case of Pizzapalooza getting shutdown all we wanted
to do was put on a show and rock out and of
course that’s definitely not worth giving up on
and just saying “oh well” so everyone still made
Piratepalooza happen cause it wasn’t about
greed or politics it was about having a good
time and it was great!
We’ve talked before and I believe you said you
grew up in Torrance. There is a long list of influential people in all types rock music that have
come out of the South Bay from the Doors and
The Beach Boys to the Minutemen and Pennywise. And even today it seems like every week
I’m running into some band or musician that’s
ties to perform, however in 2008 we did make
a chance for us to perform and Charles played
drums and Russell played keys. Later Charles
and Russell would both play in the group the
french semester. when that group disbanded Charles and Russell called me and
they wanted to keep on playing. So RAUL,
which had been out of the scene was resurrected again.
When you guys are writing songs, is it more of
a jammed creation process or does someone
bring in the songs for the band to learn?
I pretty much write the songs and bring them in.
We do however jam quite a bit, and on a moments notice we can extend an arrangement to
include a risky section that we use to express
and explore as a band.
Where can people get in touch? and what do
you have planned for 2012?
WE can be reached at raultheband@gmail.
com as well as popular music music sites as
raultheband typically. As far as 2012 goes we
hope to grow our audience and play outside of
the Los Angeles area.
from the South Bay. In your opinion what is it
about the South Bay that influences so many
people to become rockers?
I grew up in Torrance, I’m not really sure what
influences people from the South Bay to pursue music, but maybe it’s the lure of LA and
Hollywood being only a 30 min trip on the 110,
maybe it’s because there’s not really a lot to
do in the South Bay? The music scene there is
pretty non existent so you kinda gotta do it right
if ya wanna get out of there. However I look at
Torrance as a kinda safe haven from the big
city, I find it easier to do your own thing down in
the SB and not get as overly stimulated as you
might by living in LA city.
So what’s Sassafras up to and where can people hear and see the latest stuff?
We just recently got a new drummer, his name
is Anthony Sonetti and If you haven’t seen us
in a while I’m sure we look and sound different than the last time you saw us. We’re writing new songs for an EP we’re puttin’ out soon.
Meanwhile we’re posting the demos online on
our Soundcloud page. As a matter of fact I’m
gonna put up one now.
encouragement.’ I think in our case,
our parents felt that our hearts were
more important than our billfolds. I
would say they had a pretty profound
impact on me in terms of really pursuing music the way I have, or thinking, ‘This is what I wanted to do.’
I actually think life is a wide-open
field.
(He likens society to an imaginary
grid, like on a football field)
if you’re within it, you feel compelled
to play by the rules. My parents at
least got us to understand that there
was a grid and we could choose to
be in the grid or not-- it’s up to us.
(With Dischord) How does it feel
30-plus years later to have gone
beyond those first couple releases and to have made such a huge
impact on the alternative-music
landscape?
I don’t think, ‘Wow, I’ve really accomplished so much’ or, ‘Wow, I’ve really
affected culture’ (laughs). I just can’t
think like that, because my work is
always in front of me.
I think at the time, all we were doing was putting out those singles,
because that’s what was in front of
us. And now I’m trying to finish this
record with Amy and work on the archives stuff. It’s what’s in front of me.
I just do the work, that’s all I’ve ever
done.
“I feel like right now while we’re talking,
there’s some kids, if they’re not already playing it, they’re cookin’ it up-- it’s comin’, can’t
be stopped. And if it can be stopped, then we
wouldn’t be talking, because I wouldn’t have
been able to do it back then. It’s never over.”
-- Ian MacKaye
IAN
Mac
Kaye
By Andy Nystrom
Photo by Joe Henderson
Ian MacKaye is never at a loss for
words -- he’s about as outspoken
and insightful as they come on music
(above quote), life, politics and whatever else comes down the pike.
The Washington, DC native, who
turned 50 in April, has certainly been
around the block when it comes to
hollering (and softly singing) into a
microphone and strapping on a guitar and bass for the last 33 years. He
forged his way onto the music scene
by playing with valiant hardcore,
post-HC bands Teen Idles, Minor
Threat, Embrace and Fugazi, and
for the last decade, he’s pulled up a
stool and toned down the tunes in the
indie-rock duo The Evens.
We spoke by phone Jan. 20, about
an hour before he rehearsed with
drummer Amy Farina, his bandmate
in The Evens, at Dischord House:
How’s that all going, you guys
writing new stuff, new material
coming out?
We put a single out in November and
we’re working on trying to finish writing an album. These last few years
have been pretty quiet for us-- actually, our lives have been busy, but in
terms of the band, we haven’t gotten
to do a lot of work. It’s taken us a
while: We’ve (Ian and Amy) got a kid
who’s 3 years old now, and that and
along with a lot of other stuff that’s
been going on with our families and
also with Dischord. Dischord had to
change distribution three times in
the last three years, so it’s been an
enormous amount of work, but things
have settled down and I think we’re
finally at a time where we can finally
get back to work and make it back on
the road, which would be nice.
Speaking of parenthood, how’s
that going there for you?
Great... it all makes sense to me.
As far as parents, what kind of an
influence did they have on you to
go through life and do what you’ve
done over the last 30 years; any
words of wisdom from them to
keep you going?
I think my parents, with all their kids
-- I have three sisters and a brother -there was no pressure to make money or no pressure to sort of be successful in anything other than what
we wanted to do; they didn’t push us
in any direction. For some people,
that could be, many people could
feel, ‘Oh well, I didn’t get enough
As far as Dischord goes, there’s
a lot of releases over the years, is
there maybe one or two you feel
have really stood the test of time
for you?
I have to say most of the records on
the label stand the test of time for me;
there’s some where the production
value, the way some of it is recorded,
like the technique of the recording,
maybe the style, the way the effects
were put on it, maybe that is kind of
a give-away, that might be a little dated. But in terms of the actual songs
and the band, none of those things
feel dated to me-- they’re actually
great, I just love them.
There are some bands, for instance,
that I was really, really connected
to-- my brother’s band The Faith is a
band that was very important to me;
and a band like Lungfish, extremely
important to me.
Having said that, every once in a
while, when I’m working I’ll pull out
some Dischord record and I’m really just blown away how good these
songs are; these people are writing
these great, great songs -- I love ‘em.
(He finds it sad and frustrating that
Dischord often gets pigeonholed
as a strictly hardcore, straightedge label, when in fact, they’re
just putting out great music-- pe-
riod. The label features a variety of
music, from Minor Threat to Shudder to Think to Slant 6 to Beefeater
and beyond. He calls Dischord’s
catalogue a folk-music collection:
musicians speaking about politics
and their community and world.)
At some point, I hope people would
recognize that what Dischord is is
a documentation, a way of showing
what was happening with an underground music scene in Washington,
DC: a vibrant, thriving underground
music scene that went on for a solid
20-25 almost 30 years, and maybe
longer depending on whatever the
hell happens next.
I hope that people at some point will
kind of go back in and revisit these
records, and without the kind of notion that it’s, ‘Oh, more straight edge,
drill-sergeant stuff’ ...that just drives
me crazy. It’s first of all inaccurate,
and second off, it’d be like getting a
really delicious steamed vegetable,
but then dousing it with some A1
sauce or something-- you can’t taste
the vegetable, and I think people’s
perception of the label ... I think they
don’t actually get to the actual taste,
which was what the point was in the
first place.
I can attest that listening to Dischord records from Day 1 ‘til now,
it always made us think what it
was like to be there in DC, and
especially when the photo books
came out, it kind of gave us the
full picture, and I appreciate it the
whole way through (most of the
bands, and definitely the DIY ideals).
I would say that you and people like
you are precisely the reason we continue to keep going, that’s why we
make records, because somebody
out there was getting it.
If nobody is interested, I don’t want a
record label-- this wasn’t my idea in
the first place, I just wanted a way to
get the music out. The actual recordindustry aspect of it is horrible for
me, I don’t give a damn about it; I’ve
never been to a music conference; I
don’t have a lawyer, I’m just not involved with any of that stuff. I’m just
putting out records.
I always try to look for the most
current news on a certain band,
and I was just watching this thing
on VH1 Classic the other night,
this ‘Metal Evolution’ series they
have, and they have this thrashmetal episode, and they had some
Minor Threat at the beginning of it,
as far as maybe being a bit of an
impetus for that scene-- did you
see that?
No, but I’m not surprised.
I think Minor Threat, we had a re-
fined sound, and also we’d seen the
Bad Brains and the Circle Jerks, we
were aware of those bands. Minor
Threat... those guys were super players, three of them: Brian and Jeff and
Lyle. I think especially Lyle Preslar,
the guitar player, I mean he’s one of
the most unsung guitar players. He’s
playing full, six-string-position barre
chords at that speed-- that’s just insane. His accuracy and his rhythms
are so incredible.
When I was in the band, we were just
caught up in the moment, and obviously being kids, teenagers, we were
spending a lot of time screaming at
each other, it was such a crazy time.
It wasn’t until years later that I actually, when I was working on putting
together the DVD of some of the videos, that I had kind of a perspective
to look at the band and think about
their musicality -- and I was stunned,
really, to think that Lyle was 17-18
years old and playing that way is just
phenomenal.
Jeff was a great drummer... I’m not
taking anything away from my work
or whatever, I had a really clear vision
about the music. A lot of the songs I
wrote... I think that that music was
something that really resonated and
continues to resonate with people.
And I understand how like the thrash
thing, Minor Threat would have been
one of the bands that would have led
to that scene, because it was fast,
aggressive and that really connected
with a lot of people.
See, I wasn’t coming from a metal
place, I didn’t grow up on metal. Hendrix was a huge influence, continues
to be a huge influence to me, so was
Janis Joplin and the Beatles.
I think for a lot of kids in the ‘80s
era, they were into Ratt and bands
like that, more metalish kind of hair
bands, so that collusion of the speed
of Minor Threat and punk rock joined
with the sort of squealing kind of guitar of metal, I can see how that could
come out. It’s actually something I really love -- I love the way all the various tributaries run together to form
creeks.
(In a bit of a rambling statement,
I note that I’m on the fence about
old hardcore bands reforming for
nostalgia’s sake, adding that a
retro-type band like OFF!, while
sounding great, doesn’t move forward musically. It’s here where the
conversation veered, and then he
touched upon the initial subject.)
Yeah, I think it’s like the blues or
something. You think of a form, and
I think OFF!, for instance, not only
their pedigree, but they’re also good
at what they do. Obviously, Keith and
Steve are serious veterans, and they
were sort of the architects of that form
with Red Cross and Circle Jerks, and
the other guys are clearly -- Dmitri
and Mario -- they’re just great players. I think in terms of the form, I think
they present it really, really well.
A friend of mine once called them reannactors, but it can still be really effective. I also believe that Keith, he’s
the real deal-- he’s just not a bullshitter. And they’ve gone out and done
the work-- they go and throw down
pretty hard.
(He stressed that OFF! is unlike
punk bands from the past that
have returned to the stage to make
some cash by playing big punk
fests. That’s fine, he says, but it
doesn’t interest him.)
Obviously, I’ve pondered this a lot.
Black Flag, for instance, they just did
this thing with the Goldenvoice 30th
anniversary, and Chuck and Keith
and Bill Stevenson and Stephen, so
those guys did that thing and, on the
one hand...
I mean, Black Flag for me, that’s just
one of the most important bands of
all time.
(He spoke about getting Flag’s
‘Nervous Breakdown’ EP and calling Dukowski on the phone after
seeing the band’s number listed
in an ad in Slash or Flipside. He
wanted to know more about Flag
and ‘I couldn’t stop listening to
that record.’ He became friends
with the band through more
phone conversations, and when
they came to the East Coast for
the first time, Ian and his friends
went to New York to see them; and
when they hit DC, they stayed at
his mom’s house when he was living there.)
That band was just so deeply, deeply
important, that music was so important to me. So, on the one hand,
by hearing those songs performed
by Keith and Chuck (today), there’s
something very heavy about it. And,
on the other hand, it’s so out of context, I find that it’s hard to take for me,
to see it in this setting, like kind of a
100-percent professional production,
like if you look at the staging and the
security. But even the people-- it’s almost like a snow globe, a bunch of
people standing outside of the snow
globe.
For me, part of the visceralness of
punk, what was so important about
it was that it was a joint effort, the
band and the audience, they fused
together to make something that was
transcendent. So that music, I think
of it a lot like gospel music in a way,
because when it was live, it took on
a spirit of its own and was largely fueled by the audience. So now it’s sort
of like a weird, slightly different thing,
because the audience has a different
relationship with this music.
So, it’s a puzzler for me, but ultimately, it’s fine: I’m sure people were
psyched to see it, a lot of people
were not even born at that time. I’m
not somebody who thinks, ‘Well, too
bad, you weren’t there.’ It’s fine.
For me, it is a puzzler, it’s just a different way of thinking about life and the
way time works, and how people perceive things. Having been there, and
having been there in my own brain,
right? because everybody was there
in their own brain, they have their
own takes on it. My relationship with
that music ... it can’t be replicated
just because the same people get up
on stage with instruments-- because
things smell different now.
--You know from our blog entries
that we’ve been going to shows
for a long time. It’s weird how
time goes on and you’ve got your
own memories of things. And it is
weird to see that happen with the
Black Flag thing.
But the thing is, you were there and
you got to see some of that stuff, and
there were plenty of people who never did-- to actually see Dukowski play
live, that’s kind of exciting.
I’ve been to jazz fests in New Orleans, I saw some jazz stuff, and
I was like, ‘Oh my god, I’m actually
seeing this person play.’ And even
though I know it’s a far sight from
where this person has made their
bones or whatever, just to see them
in flesh and blood and actually play,
cuz that’s the thing, Dukowski is the
real deal, he’s not a bullshitter, and
when he plays he’s not kidding.
When you see it, it’s pretty mind
blowing. I think especially now, it’s
important for people to actually experience things in the flesh and blood.
Just to be there, it’s pretty good.
I’m stoked for those folks that are
able to see it, kind of pass the baton in a way, ‘This is your turn to
check it out.’
The way I kind of try to counterbalance it is I’m always looking for the
band or the musicians or the scene
that is doing that thing now. And also
understanding that it’s gonna be a different music: they may look different,
they may act different. Somewhere,
something real is always happening.
So I’m always interested in that. For
me, the greatest moments have almost always been in rooms with like
50 to 100 people. So I just keep looking. Not only is it time-specific, but
it’s also geographically-specific. So
had you come to Washington, DC, in
1979 or ‘78, it would be like, ‘OK, well
there’s nothing going on here.’ But if
you came two years later, it would be
like, ‘Wow, what the fuck? There’s so
much going on here.’ So I think that
you just have to wait.
As far as the Fugazi live series,
how’s that all going?
It’s an enormous amount of work. A
lot more work than I even thought.
We probably spent two years putting
it together, but just getting it started
and up and running has been challenging. There’s so many submissions, just trying to figure out the way
to get all the stuff in and up and then,
we have another 700 some shows to
master and edit-- it’s pretty daunting.
Is it successful?
You know it’s interesting, we have
sold quite a few, people downloaded
a lot of stuff, it’s good. I’m a little startled-- I don’t really check the numbers very often, but about a week
and half ago, I did an interview with
somebody from Italy, and they asked
me about the numbers, so I asked
one of the guys who looks after that
stuff to do a report. So we looked at
it together and I was really stunned
to see that -- there are some that
have been downloaded a lot -- but
the number of shows, we have (180)
up now, and a significant number of
those, there’s been one download.
One. And I was shocked by that.
(The cost of a download runs on a
sliding scale from $1 to $5, and he
said that a lot of people are contributing just $1. It’s a vast archive
-- almost too big -- he said, but he
assumed that since Fugazi played
to hundreds and thousands of
people in each venue worldwide,
there’d be at least five or 10 downloads apiece. The project was
just 2 months old at the time of
this interview, so there’s time for
growth.)
I was always curious about, actually one of my favorite bands
that you were involved in, was
Embrace. That gets a lot of praise
nowadays, people are digging
back into that record or maybe for
a lot of people, it never left...
It was a band that was almost forced
in a way by the four of us. The other
three-- Chris, Mike and Ivor-- had already been in the Faith together with
my brother singing and had already
had a pretty nasty breakup, and
through a series of almost comedic
moves, they ended up being in a
band together again.
(A backstory leading up to Embrace’s formation:
MacKaye noted that after the
breakups of Minor Threat, the
Faith and Insurrection, people
from those bands aimed to get
new groups together in October
1984: Rites of Spring played one
show around that time, but after a
band member left town, they took
a break.
Everything finally came together
for Embrace and Rites of Spring in
the summer of ‘85 -- dubbed Revolution Summer: ‘The idea was that
it was just a mark, it was a target
for us all to get busy.’
Early versions of what eventually became Embrace featured, in
three separate lineups: MacKaye
first on bass, then guitar and finally, vocals; Mike Hampton on
guitar; Mark Sullivan (from MacKaye’s first band, the Slinkees, and
later Kingface) on vocals; Chris
Bald on bass; Jeff Nelson on
drums; and then Ivor Hanson on
drums.
The MacKaye (vocals), Bald,
Hampton and Nelson lineup wrote
songs and practiced -- a tape of
that lineup exists somewhere.
As in Minor Threat and Teen Idles,
MacKaye and Nelson disagreed
on band direction, and Nelson
soon left. Hanson returned from
college and the band asked him
to join.)
The problem was that they already
had a breakup, the three of them, so
the band almost from the beginning
was doomed, and we only played 14
shows and we did two recordings.
Then, that’s the record-- I do think
there’s some great songs on there.
The production value is a little tricky
on that one for me, but that’s an example of a really specific era of recording; but that has to do with the
gear and the effects that were used.
The songs were (great), Mike was
such a great guitar player, they all
were great at what they did-- I was
really happy with those lyrics.
It was good to hear you back in a
band again.
It was also a super-confrontational
time, there was a lot of problems with
skinheads in this town. And that music was really not only a response,
but also like a clarion call to arms,
‘OK, we’re gonna do our thing.’ So,
a lot of Embrace shows were huge
confrontations with skinheads, like
gangs of skinheads: They did not
like the music, but that’s alright, we
did not like their violence. So we just
stuck to it.
With this Fugazi live series, is
there anything down the road happening there (playing live again)?
The thing about us that’s just a little
bit odd: the four of us, we never
broke up; our lives just required us
to not tour and make records. So I
think in our mind, we’re still in a band
together. Whether we play together
publically again or not-- don’t know.
There’s a lot of logistical problems
(bassist Joe Lally is living in Rome,
for instance), but I think that we’re
forever connected, and I think we
always will just do whatever we do.
And some people thought, ‘Oh, does
this mean you guys are playing?’ No.
It means that we have this archive
that we want to share with everybody.
~Andy Nystrom
There’s Something Hard in There
http://theressomethinghardinthere.blogspot.com/
Chuck Taylor
bad ass kitty
photo by
Tom Underhill
Mz. SPARKPLUG
It’s Lightnin’ Woodcock,
Goddammit!
a History lesson
A History Lesson travels east .... Story and photos by Dave Travis
HAPPY IN HUDSON
My movie A History Lesson part 1: Punk Rock
in Los Angeles in 1984 did well enough on the
West Coast that I thought I would try doing a
movie tour on the East Coast. I had been off the
road since the last millennium.
Mz. Sparkplug -Lea Anne Powell
Tell us the story behind your ‘sparkplug’ tattoo?
It represents my personality. Super spunky,
outgoing... I never stop. Its sort of my philosophy in life. No matter what happens...
I still run!
What made you want to leave Georgia and
come to LA?
Everything automotive for the most part is
out here. There is so MUCH more opportunity out here! PLUS, where else can you go
snowboarding and surfing all in the same
day!?
What are your favorite things to do in LA?
Honestly, despite being small... I’d have to
say eating. There is so much cultural differences out here with food its amazing. There
is EVERYTHING. Culinary diversity is OFF.
THE. CHARTS!
Favorite all time Punk band?
Bad Religion I think.... for new Punk... The
Offspring.
How did you get so involved with cars?
I grew up around cars. My mom used to race
powder puff derby... and my dad had the
family owned shop. At 5, I was handing him
tools! Its just something you cant get away
from! Oil runs through my veins!
The first show was at the Basilica in Hudson,
New York on Wednesday, July 6, 2011. I have
been to New York City half a dozen times on
various tours but from there always headed towards Boston or DC, which is all pretty urban or
suburban. I had never gone north of Yonkers
until now. Two hours north is surprisingly rural.
Its mainly mountains and farms and towns that
are 300 years old but have less than 10, 000
people.
I traveled to Hudson by train. It is a two-hour
ride north of New York City along the Hudson
River. The Hudson was surprisingly wide and
could be navigated by ocean going boats. The
train passed through Sleepy Hollow and by
Hyde Park where FDR is from.
I got to Hudson and got off the train and was met
by the promoter Nora Edison. We went across
the street to Strongtree Coffee the coffee house
that she and her husband Chris own. They were
closed for the day so they could deal with the
screening but people kept knocking on their
door trying to buy coffee.
We drove a few blocks to the Basilica where
Dez Cadena’s Broke Down Bitches were sound
checking. The Basilica is a huge old brick building that was formerly a factory that made railroad train wheels in a previous century. It is kind
of like the old Edison Building in the Brewery in
Lincoln Heights. After the train wheel business
hit bottom in America, the building fell into disuse. It has since been turned into an art complex, and has been getting fixed up by owners
Melissa Auf Du Maur and Tommy Stinson.
After sound check Dez and I were interviewed
for WGXC 90.7 FM. WGXC is a community
station kind of like a cross between KPFK and
KXLU. It is not affiliated with a college or a network; a collective of artists and activists runs it.
Shannekia McIntosh did the interview and talked
with us about the movie, and Dez’s projects and
the older days of punk in L.A. Dez Cadena is
one of punk’s great guitarists playing for Black
Flag, Redd Kross, Twisted Roots, DC3, Bulimia
Banquet, Vida, Carnage Asada, and for the last
decade the Misfits. The first time I saw Dez play
guitar he was with Redd Kross at the Vex with
the McDonald brothers and Janet Housden on
drums. He was one of my best friends in the
80’s and 90’s but we kind of lost touch after he
moved to the East Coast and I got immersed in
teaching school. It was great reconnecting with
an old friend. Through all the time I knew him
besides being in a couple bands he would be
working doing construction or painting. Finally
with the Misfits he earns a living playing guitar. I
am so happy for him and the other people from
our scene like Mike Watt, Pat Smear or Nels
Cline that have pulled off success in music after
decades of struggle. I screened the movie and
it was great to see young and old sitting on a
variety of cast off and portable chairs listening
and learning.
Dez Cadena’s Broke Down Bitches played next
and had the kids from 6 to 60 doing anarchy
dance moves. The Broke Down Bitches are
Dez and his nephew Kyle Cadena on guitars,
Oscar Hernandez on Bass and Danny Cashen
or drums. They played mainly punk oldies like
Jezebel by the Controllers and Born to Lose by
Johnny Thunders along with some Dez songs
like Vida and some Black Flack and Misfits
covers. It was a good size crowd about a third
old punks and hippies, a third local teens, and
a third people who just came down because it
was one of the only things going on in the county
that night. I loved how in a small town you could
see all these factions have a good time together
while they would be spread into factions in a bigger city. The movie and concert were streamed
by WGXC to their FM and Internet audience.
The Basilica is a great place and if a band is
touring it could be a great place to stop, just
about two hours north of New York City.
BAD APPLE
I took the train down to New York Friday and
stayed with my uncle Mike’s place in Brooklyn.
I had reserved a car to rent with Enterprise and
they closed at noon on Saturday, the day of my
Brooklyn show. I needed a vehicle so I could
pick up and transport the equipment to screen
the movie in New York and New Jersey.
Saturday morning I left my uncle’s at 10:45,
walked to the subway and found out that the
subway going across Brooklyn was out of service and that I would have to take a subway to
Manhattan, then another to Queens and then
another to the station by the car rental place.
I finally got to the station at 11:50 and ran two
blocks to Enterprise. I made it through the door
with two minutes to spare, and was inside, in
line, thinking things were ok. When it was my
turn we started doing the paper work and then
said they would not rent me a vehicle with a
debit card and out of state drivers license. I
asked what should I do and they sent me to
Uhaul where they would not rent to me with a
California drivers license at all. Realizing that I
could not rent a car in New York I took a couple
trains to Newark Airport where Budget rented
me a car right away with no hassle. They gave
me a Crown Victoria. I picked up my merch at
Kyle Cadena’s house in Madison, NJ and then
headed back to Brooklyn. It was 5 and I was
on my way, but then got stuck for almost an
hour at the Holland Tunnel. The Holland Tunnel goes from New Jersey under the Hudson
River to Manhattan. It is like if they made the
a History lesson
A History Lesson travels east.
back. I drove sound down the Jersey Shore to
Long Branch, New Jersey.
405 between West L.A. and the Valley into a
2 land tunnel. In New York besides for police
cars, they also use Crown Victoria for unmarked
cabs, so people kept flagging me down trying to
get a ride I finally got through and cut through
Manhattan and Brooklyn to DJ PA rentals in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Finally a rental business in
New York that was competent and helpful. I got
the DVD player; video projector, screen, and two
powered monitor wedges for sound and headed
down for Duff’s Brooklyn. Of the twenty screenings I have done, Duff’s was the only one I did
not book. I got it through the publicist of my distributor MVD. MVD puts out a lot of metal and
hard rock material so this is where they hooked
me up for New York City. When I got there the
people that worked there did not even know
there was a screening. I set up the projection
system and P.A. and got a drink. The best way
to describe Duff’s was that it was like the Rainbow with a New York attitude. It was the wrong
place to show a movie about punk rock in Los
Angeles in 1984 because the people don’t like
punk rock or Los Angeles. After some people
come in I showed the movie but people were
not interested. They would walk into the room
see D Boon dancing around and head back to
the bar to hear more Twisted Sister or Dio. I
screened the movie all the way through getting
into a volume war with the bar, packed up and
bailed. Out of 19 shows this was definitely the
most burnt.
A Better Day at the Brighton
The next day I ate lunch with my Aunt Kathy
and her husband Paul and then headed down
to the Brighton Bar in Long Branch, New Jersey. Instead of being stuck on the turnpike, I
headed out on the scenic route. I drove over
Staten Island and then east along the south side
of Raritan Bay in New Jersey. When I got as far
east as I could go I headed north up to Sandy
Hook. Along the East Coast from Florida to New
Jersey lies a chain of barrier Islands. They are
narrow islands close to the east of the shore
made of sand. The farthest north is a spit called
Sandy Hook that reaches out into the lower bay
of New York. I had time so I turned north and
headed to the top. I went about 9 miles until
the road ended. There were the remains of an
old coast guard installation that protected New
York Harbor against the Germans. It was like
Sunken City in San Pedro only giant sized and
more intact. I hiked the last mile until lands end,
looked out over the water at Staten Island and
Brooklyn, stuck my feet in the water and headed
The Brighton Bar is 2 blocks from the beach,
an old school bar where the night before Commander Cody had played. I set up the projection
system and p.a. It was another show with Dez
Cadena. The bar was decently attended with
people tending to wear what they had. In New
York people were wearing jackets in the 90-degree swelter but in Long Branch lots of shorts
and flip-flops. If Duff’s was New York’s Rainbow, the Brighton was New Jersey’s Al’s Bar.
When A History Lesson screened everybody
in the house watched and listened attentively.
People talked to me and asked questions about
the film. The anti-node that was the day before
had ended and now things were back to their
usual positive. Then played local band Senium.
They were a solid band that seemed to be
based on the Bleach album by Nirvana. Then
Dez played. The crowd treated him like a real
star, like if Johnny Winter had just walked into
the room. The final band was Long Branch’s
Lousy Break. They were survivors of the hardcore scene from the previous millennium. They
reminded me of old Stalag 13 or DOA it was
great to see History being kept alive.
…And it was great to be able to transmit it in an
informative and entertaining way.
Guitar chantuese
THE FABULOUS
MISS WENDY
stopped by the
Sparkplug Mag
headquaters for a
video interview and
performance, stay
tuned to see the final
piece.
photo by Caldwell
PA
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you’re FIRED! lead
singer, , getting up
close and personal in
Long Beach
photo by Underhill
Bad ass in the barrio,
BARRIO TIGER growl
their rock and roll
roar
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RIP
sal photo
April 14th, 2012 a tragic car accident in Las
Vegas took the life of my girlfriends teenage
son Beau Braiden Bergman. He was a Dubstep DJ getting his start playing local parties and get togethers. A huge fan of Skrillex
and the like, we looked forward to having
him in Los Angeles with us, and to see him
prosper here in Southern California. He was
only 17 years old, with an amazing future
in front of him and many possiblities in his
path. Below are some quotes from family
and friends. We will miss you always Beau,
and you will forever be in our hearts!
~Billy Caldwell
“Beau was naturally cool,
never forced, from the way he
dressed, to the way he looked
into the camera with that
piercing gaze.”
“You are my heart, my love and my best
friend. I will miss you everyday.”
~ Your Fiance’ Toni
“When someone you love becomes a memory, that memory becomes a treasure. Beau
was always there for me, as a brother and
as a friend. To the boy with the heart of gold,
you will always be loved.”
~ Your sister Danielle
“For my god brother Beau, you will always be such an important part of my life.
I love you o much. Kisses to heaven,rest in
peace.”
~ Love K-Bugz
“Just over three months ago I lost the moimportant person in my life. My best friend, my
supporter, my cousin. We planned to stick
together forever. He is my gaurdian angel,
always has been, always will be. Rest in
paradise.”
~ Sierra Dawn
“Beau you are so missed, you touchd are
hearts in so many ways. It seems like only
yesterday. You are my god son, and I love
you so much , my angel boy.”
~ Susie Q
“I lost my best friend and I will miss him forever. Holding on to all the good times.”
~ Matt Greene
L.A. is Art, it’s all
around us
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photo by Underhill
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“Rest in paradise.”
~ Your friends Michael Empey & Jory Hanzelic
“Beau was taken away in an accident one
day. Up to heaven, with the angels and his
Nana to stay. We love him and miss him so
much. But we know that he is watching over
us.”
~ Grandma Anna
“To one of the coolest cats I know, we”ll
miss you. Rest in peace brother.”
~ Rob
“Beau respectful and polite, with a fun loving, easy going style. He was a loyal and
trusted friend, and he had the greatest
smile. He was in love and was loved. His
was a devoted big brother.”
~ Lisa Greene
ing on, and like Dean, sadly, Beau left us to
soon. In are hearts, minds and souls, Beau
will be forever young and forever beautiful.
And to me he will be the coolest kid I never
met.”
~ Uncool Steve
“Beau was naturally cool, never forced, from
the way he dressed, to the way he looked
into the camera with that piercing gaze.
Those Eyes, those cheek bones. Ironically,
he had some of that James dean thing go-
“You made me proud and you added so
much joy to my life. I will celebrate you and
your life everyday. I miss you so much and
love you more than you know. You are forever tattooed on my heart.”
~ xoxoxo Joni
MIKE
CHECK
photo by Tom Underhill
Mike Check
By: Mike E.
I have always loved living in L.A., the
good, the bad and the smog; I’ll, probably,
always live here. Whether it’s running out
of gas in the middle of Compton or asking
a Black guy for a jump-start on the day
of the Rodney King verdicts, L.A. has always had an interesting adventure for me.
Throughout high school I would venture
further and further into L.A for no other
reason than to see what’s out there.
My father used to work in City Hall, and
back when I was a kid he took me downtown to the jewelry district. We found
an alley to park in, and as we’re leaving
the car I hear a real loud ruckus down
another alley, as we walk by I see an old
Black guy screaming by a dumpster and
throwing trash, screaming “And don’t
come around here again motherfucker!”
I looked up and down the alley . . . there
was no one there, I look up at my dad,
and he says, “Walk in front of me and
keep moving.” I was in shock, I saw a
man having a very intense fight with . .
. no one, and my dad was unfazed. As
the weeks and months went by, the more
fascinated I became with the incident.
Anyone living in L.A. now is probably unmoved by the incident, with the homeless
situation now, this probably happened in your
backyard this morning, but in the early to mid
‘70’s this was wild stuff.
Fast-forward twenty years to 1995; I was
working the late shift at Kinko’s in their computer department. This guy Todd, is bored
and calls me at work and says “I want to go
somewhere tonight, if you’re up for it I’ll pick
you up from work, can you sneak out before
midnight?” I tell him I’ll get somebody to
punch out for me, be here at 10:00 or 10:30
pm. Todd picks me up, and as he starts to
pull onto Ventura Boulevard, he says, “So,
where do we go?” I thought he had a plan,
so I say, let’s go to Hollywood, and go to a
coffee shop or one of the weird little shops
on Melrose. Todd looks a little spooked,
and says “It’s late and isn’t there too many
weirdo’s out there?” Too funny! I tell him
I’d hold his hand, and protect him; little did I
know he’d hold me to that.
We get to Hollywood Blvd, and I say let’s go
to the International Bookstand. It’s a great
newsstand off of Hollywood and Argyle. Todd
circles the block once or twice, and finds a
place to park. We start walking west towards
Argyle, when a guy who looks like Charles
Manson, if Manson smoked crack and took
steroids, steps in front of me and says “Listen
brother, we need to talk about Jesus.” I
politely, as I can muster at the hour, tell him,
no thanks, and maybe another time. Manson
grabs me by the arm, and says, “No brother,
we’ll talk about Jesus now!” My instant reaction to being grabbed was to throw my arm
out, which knocked his arm off of me, and
knocked him back and a foot. Manson gives
me this glazed look and puts two fingers
in his mouth and whistles. Instantly 8 or 9
guys who look identical to Manson surround
me. All these guys are holding literature
geared towards junkies finding Christ, and
now they’re circling me, then Manson says,
“This fucker doesn’t like Jesus.” They keep
closing in, and then coming from a block or
two a way I hear “Leave my friend alone.”
My “friend” Todd was running down the block,
but as he was running, became concerned
with my well-being and decided to yell at my
assailants.
I knew that if need be I could whip a couple
of these guys, a few years earlier I fought
super-middleweight around L.A. on the
amateur circuit, but I was now surrounded by
ten ex-junkie, Jesus loving, Manson freaks.
Then I hatched a plan, I started pacing and I
remembered a story this Persian girl I once
dated told me. She said one time back in
Iran she took a cab, and mistakenly sat up
front, the cab driver took it as a come on,
so he started driving her out of the city, and
when she asked where he was taking her,
he said to “Rape” her. She didn’t know what
to do, so she started shaking, he asked her
if she was scared, she said, “No, she was
excited.” This turned him off, and he stopped
the cab, and threw her out.
So, as I paced, I decided to start ranting like I
was into this, I started throwing random jabs
like I was warming up for a fight, then I said,
“Come on, let’s do this,” the crowd came in
even closer, then I said “Let’s fight, who’s
going go first?” Just like that the crowd of ten
starting hemming and hawing, and saying
stuff like “Look at the time, I’m supposed to
be back at church at 11:30.” Everybody left.
I spent about thirty minutes looking for Todd,
I found him inside the newsstand reading. I
looked at him, wanting to stomp him, and
I growled, “What happened to you back
there?” He casually looks up and says, “I
didn’t want to get in the way, you seemed to
have everything under control.” “Under control, there were ten of them!” “Yeah, you’re a
good fighter, let’s go eat.”
Todd and I never returned to Hollywood
together again.
ART|
JOHN SCARPATI by Billy Caldwell
Sunset Srtip in the eighties was the epicenter of all things punk, rock, glam, you
name it. Your imagery from those years is
iconic and those pictures have been viewed
by many eyes around the planet. How did a
boy from San Diego get to the Sunset Strip
taking pictures?
Well, I got there in a 1958 Buick Century. Big
fins, lots of chrome, black of course.
I was in San Diego going to college for a business degree…stock trend analysis. Photography had been a hobby from the time I was a
kid and music had grown into a passion. I was
always at shows in the clubs in San Diego. I
thought I’d try playing guitar, but ended up not
having the patience to learn. Then I tried my
hand at learning to be a recording engineer by
taking summer courses. That didn’t work out so
well either. It finally clicked in my head that I
could take my hobby, which I’d been doing forever and was actually pretty good at, and turn
it into a job working in the music industry. Right
after graduation, I made the move to L.A. and
headed to Art Center. I started meeting people
and making connections. From there, it just
snowballed.
Hot as a knife! Fire
dancing in LA
photo by Tom Underhill
In your new book, “Cramp Slash and Burn”,
you take us on that journey from your early
years to height of the decadence of the
Los Angeles music scene of the 80’s. Was
there a main inspiration to document those
times? How did the book come about?
In all honesty, I didn’t start out planning to document that period of my career. Starting about
five years ago, I got a series of random phone
calls and emails looking for images from one
band or another for this project or that project.
I had always thought of my archives as being
at least somewhat organized…until I had to
actually locate something in them. There were
no fewer than three different filing systems…
alphabetical, chronological, and “hey! There’s
still room in this box!” So it started as a simple
organizational project. But during the process, I
kept turning up these great little gems that had
been buried in boxes for decades. That kept me
digging for more. I started wondering “who the
hell chose all the pictures we used back then?
They missed all the good ones!” So I started
going through everything I had piece by piece.
Then I figured if I was digging that far into the
archival abyss, I’d better sucker some friends
into helping me get through the piles and piles
of film. Some of the stuff we turned up was really cool, and I thought before it was filed away
and disappeared into the ether, I wanted to do
something with it. Next thing I knew, I was making a book.
It’s quite a melting pot of genres you were
snapping pics of during those times. Jane’s
Addiction and Fishbone to Poison and Warrant, Texacala Jones to Circle Jerks, was it
strange to switch gears between the types
of bands you shot?
Strange, yes, at times, but a good strange. It
kept me on my toes, kept the creative wheels
spinning. Who wants to show up, punch a time
card, and do the same thing day in and day
out?
Who were some of your favorite photo sessions back then?
There’s really no simple way to answer that
question, and it’s one I get asked a lot. Some
shoots qualified as “favorites” because of the
visuals involved, the sets we got to build, or
a location that kicked ass. Sometimes it was
working with a band I genuinely liked. I’ve always been lucky enough to be a little discriminating with who I worked with. That cut down
on the number of shoots I walked away from
thinking “well that sucked”.
Your new work is just as amazing. I still see
you shoot bands, as well as, some really
incredible commercial style photography.
How has the ever changing world of photography affected you through the years,
changing from analog to digital?
I started doing all my post-production digitally
back in 1990 and it just sort of progressed from
there as the technology evolved. Digital forces you, as a photographer, to become more
rounded and wear more hats. It takes out a
lot of the “middle man” work…no more getting
film to the lab for processing, etc. In the grand
scheme of things though, I still have and use
the same Hasselblad camera that I used back
then. Except now I throw a 40 mega pixel digital back on it instead of a film back.
Nashville is your new home base. A lot different than the glamorous streets of Los
Angeles or New York. When did the move
happen, and what prompted that move to
Nashville?
The move happened in 1994. I have two kids.
My son Rafe is 20, and my daughter, Cyan,
who passed away three years ago at age 16.
Cyan was born with a pretty complicated heart
condition. At the time, the best pediatric cardiology unit in the country was at Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville. When you have kids, they
become the most important thing in your world.
So we moved where we needed to be for Cyan.
It’s great to see La Luz de Jesus Gallery
hosting your book signing and art exhibit.
Do you have any other tour stops for your
book coming up?
La Luz was at the top of my list of places it
would be fun to have a show. So really, when
you start at the top, where do you go from
there? But I’ve been having some fun with it,
so who knows…I’ve been looking for a good
excuse to go to Melbourne or Rio.
Where else can our readers get a hold of the
book?
The books are custom-printed, one at a time,
through blurb.com
www.blurb.com/user/scarpati
From your wide range of experiences, what
advice could you share with budding rock
photog’s out there?
Do it for passion. Do it because you have too.
Life will never be boring, you’ll never wonder
what if…
Any job these days will be cut throat and very
few professions can actually provide real security anymore. So why not enjoy what you do,
and let the rest work itself out in the wash.
Where can people get in touch?
https://www.facebook.com/john.scarpati
https://www.facebook.com/crampslashandburn
Final words?
\m/ (> < ) \m/
V
REVIEWS
right there, the band can play.
You know your tea, if you like this
flavor you’ll like this.
The Right Wrong Reverend Paul
Putrid
I found out about this band about six
months back. I received an email
asking if I wanted their demo. And
since I am always on a quest to find
the best music around I, of course,
said, “Send it!”
This music is hard, fast, and aggressive, not for the faint of heart. Brandon pushes the vocals as far as he
can without going the “Cookie Monster” route.
In a nutshell this is old-school American Oi.
THE CHUCK DUKOWSKI SEXTET
Haunted
SCREAM
Complete Control Session
Pete Stahl, lead singer, sent me
a vinyl copy of the latest release,
and I knew from the show we had
played together, this was gonna
be a solid piece of recording.
Sure enough each track blasted
out of the speaker with true form
SCREAM style. STOPWATCH and
GET FREE have grit and bottom
end grinding through the lyrical
onslaught from Mr. Stahl. Sparkplug has a special attachment to
their MTV video of ELEVATE. It was
shot during the Sparkplug show at
the Redwood Bar a few years back.
Dave Grohl and Pat Smear were in
attendance and you can see the
amazing video shot here:
http://www.screamdc.com/videos
W
.S
P
KP
AR
LUGMAGA
ZI
NE
.C
O
W
M
W
This EP is highly recommended,
and since its been 14 years since
their last release , I urge you to buy
this album. I believe in this band,
they should have been huge, and
many, many bands look to them as
originators. SCREAM are legends
to me, and should be known forever as that to everyone.
LI
VE
K
- L
EARN - KIC
AS
S
This is a good time to explain a key
point of reviewing for me. I do not
care what you did before, you didn’t
GIVE me what you did 10 years
ago to review. The main purpose of
press releases and bio’s as far as
I’m concerned, is, mulch. Of course
Chuck didn’t exactly make it easy for
me with the name of the band, now
did he?
But I soldier on.
I feel kind of bad actually, there is
obviously a lot of effort an artistry
that went into this, and I’m going
to spend maybe four, max five
sentences actually reviewing it (Im
aware of the school of thought that
can lead to a 4 hour treatise on the
merits of the Beach Boys “Barbara
Ann,” those people are wrong and
evil. If I’m ever dictator, those people
will be strung up by their gonads
until they scream, “ITS A CUTE
SONG, WITH A DECENT RIFF AND
GREAT HARMONIES, AND THAT’S
IT!” And then maybe MAYBE, we cut
em down.)
In a nut.
Acid rock. Groove heavy, blues influenced acid rock. Lots of echo, sultry
female vocals. Dark sounding. For
some reason I can’t put my finger
on, it reminds me of the flip side of
the Whipping Boy “Crow” single “Cat
O Nine Tails”. This is definitely the
type of music you can imagine yourself hearing at a city band shell on
a sultry summer day. This is DEFINITELY not, Black Flag, not even the
arty things where Gregg snuck into
the studio, pressed record, goofed
around on the guitar for an hour and
called it an album. These are cohesive songs, just in a very acid rock
vein. It should definitly have a light
show for clubs.The artistic merits are
on), what you see is what you get.
None of this Drowning Pool, 1 crushing track, and an album that sounds
nothing like that track.They kick off
the brakes from the start, and with
the exception of one late track, have
no interest in putting them back on.
If you like mid 90’s “nu-metal”, this is
probably not only your cup of tea, it’s
probably also your crumpets as well.
-The Right Wrong Reverend Paul
Putrid
If you get the chance, give it a listen.
Rating: ** * two out of three stars
Million Kids
LA Is Gonna Make You Breathe
Released April 15, 2009
Producer Josh Casper
If you haven’t given Million Kids a
listen yet, check out their Facebook
or Reverb Nation pages for a load of
good music. And in a business full
of egomaniacs, it’s refreshing to go
to a show and hang out with a band
as cool as Million Kids. Great bunch
of people.
Idleminds
”Brand New Day” ep
Kevlar Bikini
Explodisiac
K, how do you feel about “nu-metal”?
If you get the chance, give it a listen.
Not later Metallica, Korn, and Tool,
the five tons of bands that came out
in the mid-90’s, your Disturbed’s,
your Godsmack’s, your Slipknot’s?
Rating: *** three out of three stars
It’s kind of vital.
-Mike E.
Its not my favourite genre to be honest, but also to be honest, I own
Godsmack, Disturbed, and Papa
Roach’s debuts, I own a Limp Bizkit record, and Static X “Wisconsin
Death Trip,” so I obviously don’t hate
it either.
Fighting 84
Class Rage
Released: 2011
The most obvious screaming comparison here, is Godsmack. The vocalist is a dead ringer. The music is
a bit more rocking and bass heavy.
There is a definite plus here, unlike
many of the bands in this genre,
Kevlar Bikini doesn’t seem particularly interested in being dark moody
artistes. So when you finally see
their video on MTV731 (or whatever
channel they actually play music
Grim Dylan
Holy Shit It’s . . .
Released: March 2011
Produced by: Guy Elderfield
This is a band I just found out about
within the last six months. Grim
Dylan is a three-piece all-female
band from Derbyshire, England.
They’ve been around for just about
two years, and their three-song
demo is great.
-Mike E.
After years of listening hundreds of
albums, and writing hundreds of reviews of bands trying to out-scream
each other, it is very refreshing to
come across a band that is playing
honest to god punk rock. No Cookie
Monster vocals, and no fingernails
on a chalkboard guitar solos. Just
honest music.
DVD Review:
FREAKS IN LOVE
By: Josh Casper
These are the reviews I hate.I like
this ep, but I am positive that an
honest assement of what and why I
like about it, is going to piss someone off. Oh well, STRENGTH Putrid,
humanity is counting on your humorous yet honest description of new
releases.
Its pop punk. The snarlier version
thereof, but pop punk nonetheless.
Good lyrics, well played, just the
right amount of snarl. Think NOFX,
actually. Maybe some earlier Long
Beach stuff. Tight poppy, just a bit of
growl, and sing along lyrics.
Like I said though I like it, I tend to
jam to stuff like this when I’m cleaning or something, nice and peppy for
energy, not so aggressive I snap the
broom in half and set the divan on
fire in a huff.
I’m sure you know this style of music, so you know if you like it, if you
do, you’d do well by yourself adding
this in.
The Reverend Paul Putrid
The 8th Beatle
Track one, You’re Not has a very
haunting vocal, immediately I
thought of Siouxie Sioux. Track two,
I’d Like A Moat Too, Please (Cuts) is
my favorite song on this EP, (but all
three songs are good.) And lastly,
Escape, another great cut with a vintage rock feel to it. If you can order
this, if you can’t find it, head over to
their Reverb Nation page and give
them a listen.
It’s equal parts old-school punk and
nineties grunge. A real cool punk
vibe without crossing over into the
monotonous hardcore riffs.
If you get the chance to get a copy
of this, get it.
Rating: ** * two out of three stars
Mike E.
The other day I got a copy of
the film FREAKS IN LOVE by
David Koslowski and Skizz
Cyzyk. A documentary film
about the 25 year history of
Punk/Alternative band Alice
Donut.
It’s easy to get cynical. I tend
to have a slight prejudice and
expect so called punk bands
to sound like most other so
called punk bands that stick
to a formula. But Alice Donut
was no ordinary punk band
whatever that is. If you’re a
fan of the avante-garde, the tongue in cheek, or just bands that mixed
it up for god’s sake! Then Alice Donut is more your flavor.
I enjoyed watching this film, it wasn’t a stroke fest like some documentaries where they get high profile artist and journalist to sit and
say generic things like ”they changed the musical landscape” or “if it
wasn’t for this band there would be no Pearl Jam” or “they invented
shake and bake”. Most of the interviews are with the current and past
band members who all seemed really happy and had no problem discussing the bands trials and tribulations openly. The guest interviewees seemed to have an equal passion about the band and its art. The
interviews address the significant moments, the albums, the shows,
the lineup changes, and so on, the stuff you want to know about.
The footage is good, there are good live shots, music videos, and
pictures providing visual aid. The pace is good and the edits are
perfect placed. There’s no horrible sounding live performance shot of
a 5 minute long version of a song that only the person making the film
likes. You can see those videos on youtube dude, these filmmakers
made a movie.
Now I have heard the name Alice Donut over the years but I never got
the chance to check them out. After seeing the documentary I’m really
regretting that and I look forward to getting some of their records. I
guess I could’ve saved the reader 5 minutes by saying that because
in the end isn’t the intention of a good documentary about a good
band, to get someone interested?
Album Reviews
REVIEWS
DVD Review
!!
E
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S
S
SI
I
H
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D by::
T
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FREE Wbut full length
the de
The Mau Maus
Scorched Earth Policy:Then
And Now
Well this explains what Geza
meant when he said he was
busy with something awhile
back. Hard review to write.
I should be able to just say,
“What did you god damned expect?” and leave it at that. But
I’d probably get in trouble.
First off, if you’ve never heard
of the Mau Maus/Berlin Brats, turn in your LA Punker card to this
magazine for shredding, you dont deserve it. The Mau Maus were
the king gods of snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory. Always
finding a way to mess it up. Impossible to get in to the studio, pissing people off, in short Punk as Fuck. They managed to get booted
from Decline And Fall Of Western Civilization for the love of god.
One of the anti-hero’s, one of the upper echelon of woulda, coulda,
shoulda. Until now.
The classic 81 lineup somehow was corraled in to the studio, to
actually attempt the completion of an actual album, with Geza X
controlling the knobs, and probably locking the door to keep em
the hell in there until they were done. And what an album it is. A
combination of tracks from the 83 sessions with Robbie Krieger
(you might have heard about him from a Val Kilmer flick) and stuff
recorded, now. This is, well, “What did you god damned expect?”
If you have any affinity and love for Masque era punk, this is the
album that’s been floating through your best nightmares for years
now. There are no hiccups and lacks in intensity between the 83
tracks and the new tracks, if somebody didnt tell you which were
which, you’d have no clue they werent recorded all at once.
This is late 70’s LA punk. I’m not going to compare it to anyone.
What’s the point? You dont compare the influence to the influenced. If you dont know what this sounds like, your loss buddy-o.
Because youre only getting what you should expect.
-The Right Wrong Reverend Paul Putrid
Volbeat
Beyond Hell/Above Heaven
Released: November 4, 2010
Producer Jacob Hansen
Rebel Monster Records
Strong Intention-”Razorblade
Express”
(featuring Mike IX Williams of
EYEHATEGOD)
PATAC Records
These guys from Denmark are hard
to classify, death metal, rockabilly,
and street punk all on the same album, all together you have a kickass album.
Man, this one twisted away from me
in a fucking hurry.
In case you haven’t heard of Volbeat, they are a band from Copenhagen, Denmark, described as James
Hetfield’s favorite band. They are
a combination of punk, rockabilly,
death metal, and a pinch or Johnny
Cash. Confused? Shouldn’t be. This
is a great energetic mix of music.
First track, slow bits, with full steam
ahead noise core.
In a nutshell, the best way to describe this album is to say, this is the
album Social Distortion should have
made.
Thanks to Steve Karas for getting
me a copy of this album.
If you get the chance, give it a listen.
Rating: *** three out of three stars
- Mike E.
First off, very dark, very professionallooking album cover. Uh oh
Uh oh again, sorry anything faster
then AOD early DRI is noise to me.
And then,.....
There was the rest of the record.
Which is an amazingly tight and solid later era hard-core record. Slight
metal tinge, but not wanky, powerful
fast and tuneful, a screamer who
understands flux and notes while
still screaming his fool head off.
Everything you’d expect from
an 85/86 Seattle/Portland/NYC
hardcore, balls, blasts and bombast
with a little smidgen of some of
the faster Nausea/World Burns
To Death stuff for seasoning with
scalding hot peppers.
PATAC records is running a hot 2
fer 2 run with me so far. If you like
old AF/World Burns To Death/Nausea/Poison Idea etc, this should be
in your collection.
Love me some pleasant surprises
(my version of pleasant is different
then yours, and your just going to
have to learn to live with that)
The Right Wrong Reverend Paul
Putrid
(slamming skank in to your mosh
since 1982)
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RIP - Steve T. Pratt
1968**2012
photo by Billy Caldwell
www.sparkplugmagazine.com
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