I'm in the Band podcast, Season 3, Episode 1:  VIV ALBERTINE / THE SLITS

Viv Albertine, guitarist and lyricist for the Slits, along with her iconoclastic bandmates, came of age in the mid-late ‘70s original, London punk scene. Unconventional and irreverent in sight and sound, the band, which included singer Ari Up, bassist Tessa Pollitt, and drummer Palmolive, challenged traditional expectations of women, even within their own subculture. With almost no musical experience or role models, the Slits innovated with sound, structure and performance by “listening to the rhythms inside themselves.” They expressed themselves freely and provocatively at a time when being punk was dangerous, and their transgressions were often met with gloves-off misogyny and violence. 

Raised to be fearless by her patriarchy-hating mother, Albertine not only broke barriers in the musical arena, she has also reinvented herself many times, pursuing careers in film, art, aerobics, and writing. Living through childhood domestic violence, marriage, intensive fertility treatments, motherhood, cancer, divorce, and family loss, she has survived and thrived. Albertine details her evolution through a dynamic, creative life in her first memoir, Clothes Clothes Clothes, Music Music Music, Boys Boys Boys. In her follow-up book, To Throw Away Unopened, Albertine examines her own familial relationships and what led her to who she has become—a driven, independent, creative rebel who is unapologetically herself.

"I feel like anyone could do it," said Albertine about the do-it-yourself aspect of punk. "I had not got the talent to do any of it, and yet I've done it. That's what they brought, punks — that sort of attitude of saying it doesn't matter how technically good you are. One,  if you’ve got something to say, and two, are you passionate about it, ‘cause technique means nothing. And that is punk attitude."

In this inaugural episode of Season Three of I’m in the Band, Albertine discusses growing up working class in patriarchal, post-war London, channeling anger into creative expression, and writing (and graffitiing!) women back into punk music history.

I'm in the Band, Season 3, Episode 1:  VIV ALBERTINE / THE SLITS

Raised by an outspoken, lesbian, feminist mother who started Olympia, Washington’s first women’s health clinic, my sisters and I grew up in a busy house filled with stories of confrontations with dominant culture. With charisma and charm, my courageous and visionary mother taught us to follow our hearts, question authority, fight for the underdog, laugh loudly and basically raise hell. This is my first step in trying to document the life story of Pat Shively through recorded oral histories with her friends and family. I feel the need to pay tribute to my mother, (who passed away from ovarian cancer in 2000) whose radical life and raucous stories have allowed me to become who I am today.

My Mom, Pat Shively: Women's Health Care Pioneer

Sunday's Best Thrift Apparel owner discusses growing up in Southeast Los Angeles, the power of community, and maintaining her populist sensibilities in Echo Park. 

Denisse Rodarte: Echo Park Entrepreneur & Southeast Los Angeles Activist

OCTOBER 1, 2015

I first encountered the hilariously bratty Seth Bogart when my band, Bratmobile, reformed in 1999. We played our first reunion show with his bubblegum pop-punk band the Knock-Ups at the Stork Club in Oakland. It was his 18th birthday. He was drunk, he was ridiculous, and we loved him. Fast-forward to 2015 where punky musician-turned-visual-artist Bogart boasts a never-ending creative output that culminated in his first visual art solo show. 

"The Seth Bogart Show" ran at 356 S. Mission Road / Ooga Twooga from September 3 to October 2, 2015. I tracked him down at his clothing design label and shop Wacky Wacko, shared with designer Peggy Noland, to chat him up about plastic, products, Pee-Wee and punk. 

Why does he do it?

Interview, script & photos by Allison Wolfe 
Produced by Allison Wolfe and Jonathan Shifflett
Edited by Kelby Vera

The Wacky World of Seth Bogart

[Aired 4/2/19 on 89.3 FM KPCC: https://www.scpr.org/programs/the-frame/2019/04/02/19582/]
Clementine Creevy, 22, sings, plays guitar, and writes all the songs in indie rock band Cherry Glazerr. An only child, she was raised by a creative, single mother who moved around a lot before settling in Los Angeles. Creevy started writing songs at just five years old, picked up the guitar at 11, and released her first solo work at 15. After uploading some songs on the internet, she caught the attention of Southern California hipster label Burger Records, who then released her early work, "Papa Cremp," on cassette. Around these songs, Creevy formed a band with her high school friends and named it Cherry Glazerr, after the KCRW radio host. In addition to creating music, she also started modeling (Saint Laurent) and acting (Transparent)-- all while still in high school. With a revolving lineup steered by Creevy, Cherry Glazerr has released four albums: Papa Cremp, Haxel Princess, Apocalipstick, and most recently, Stuffed & Ready, which dropped February 1, 2019. In this story, Creevy discusses growing up playing music, embracing her vulnerability and alone time, and taking control of her life as a young, feminist musician.
pitchperfectpr.com/cherry-glazerr/

Clem Creevy of Cherry Glazerr for KPCC's The Frame, April 2, 2019

Aired 2/7/2020 on the Frame, 89.3 KPCC: https://www.scpr.org/programs/the-frame/

Los Angeles post-punk band French Vanilla makes dance music with a message. With its sophomore album, How Am I Not Myself?, the band explores queer identity and gender bias to a pulsing, no-wave beat. Bandmates Sally Spitz, Daniel Trautfield, Ali Day and Greg Shilton share a sharp sense of humor and have a lot of fun together. 
(Photo: Lizzie Klein)

French Vanilla for The Frame, KPCC 89.3 FM  (February 7, 2020)

In the shadow of the White House and the Capitol, the D.C. punk scene movers and shakers have employed do-it-yourself methods to reject mainstream values and create the community in which they want to participate. Of course, socialization follows us wherever we go, and U.S. punk scenes often haven’t been as diverse as the nation as a whole. The early D.C. punk scene of the 1980s and into the ’90s mostly revolved around men in bands… or so I thought when I first burst upon the scene as a riot grrrl in a band in the early ’90s.
     Yet not everyone who contributes to a music scene is on stage in a band. In addition to musicians, many women—from photographers, fanzine writers, DJs, show bookers, and record label workers to people dancing and hanging out at shows—co-create the fabric of their scene and help move it forward. Without them, there is no scene.
     When the Smithsonian Folklife Festival invited me to engage women in the D.C. punk music community and create audio stories from those conversations, I thought of the women DJs I knew when I lived there in the early 2000s. Through collective organizing, these DJs created vibrant, truly diverse, and do-it-yourself events that exemplified how cultural activism often emerges organically from friendship and community.
     I first got to know some of these women while helping organize Ladyfest DC in 2001 and 2002. Ladyfest, an idea I came up with in 1999, was a series of nonprofit, alternative music festivals by, for, and about women. The character of each festival reflected the people and resources specific to its community, and the lasting connections and activities that each Ladyfest generated inspired me.
     Within the organization of Ladyfest D.C., some young DJs hosted after-hours festivities that reached beyond the confines of punk. They continued to be active after Ladyfest and formed a socially conscious DJ collective called First Ladies. The First Ladies DJ Collective strove to create nights of inclusion, encouragement, and solidarity with a dance beat.
     In the first episode of I’m in the Band’s special two-part series, co-founders Kristina Gray, Maegan Wood, and partner Les Talusan of the First Ladies DJ Collective each discuss the upbringing and experiences that informed their creative visions and how their collective activities made waves in the D.C. music scene.

Music:
Bratmobile – “I’m in the Band”
The Third Wave – “Niki”
4 Hour Quartet (covering The Cure) – “Close to Me”
Coup Sauvage & the Snips – “Sneaks” (+ Maegan Sauvage Remix)
Cibo Matto – “Moon Child (D’s Funky Space Reincarnation)”
Coup Sauvage & the Snips – “Don’t Touch My Hair” (+ JD Samson Remix)
Monster Women – “Forget Me Not”

Acknowledgments:
The DJs: Les Talusan, Kristina Gray, Maegan Wood, Ebony Dumas, Kristy LaRat, Darby Hickey. Smithsonian Folklife: Elisa Hough, Sojin Kim, Nichole Procopenko, Dave Walker. Jason Hammacher & Lost Origins Gallery. Live sound engineer: Carlos Beaumont, Vibe Solutions. Radio CPR, Selina Musuta, Dina Passman, She Rex, Booty Rex, Girls Rock! DC, Antonia Tricarico, Juliette Siegfried (DJ Zelda/Metatrack), Booty Rex, Erik Denno, Julie Yoder, John Seager, Erin Smith, Jonathan Shifflett

I’m in the Band ✕ DC: The Social Power of Music, Episode 1: First Ladies DJ Collective

I’m in the Band is a podcast hosted & co-produced by Bratmobile & riot grrrl co-founder Allison Wolfe. Each episode explores an artist’s journey through personal history, coming to consciousness, creative process & cultural activism. In conjunction with the DC: The Social Power of Music program presented by the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, I’m in the Band presents a special two-part podcast series highlighting the contributions of two women’s DJ collectives based in Washington DC.

In the first episode of the series, we heard about the First Ladies DJ Collective and its ground-breaking activities within the Washington DC music scene of the aughts. We now crossfade to a women’s DJ collective that built upon the intersectional feminist work of its predecessors to carry the torch further. Anthology of Booty emerged around 2010 with the express purpose of creating safe, liberating social spaces for self-expression and human connection.  

With DJing as its medium, Anthology of Booty put on jam-packed, uplifting dance nights that brought together traditionally marginalized groups of people to celebrate and build community. The do-it-yourself collective members aimed to blur the line between the DJ and the dance floor and create something bigger than one night or their individual selves. 

When I lived in the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood of Washington DC, I got to know several of these movers and shakers through our mutual participation in Radio CPR, a radical, low-power community radio station. I also rode my old cruiser bike to some of the crazy house parties described in this episode, and I wiggled my way through the buoyant crowd at several of the party nights these DJs put on around town. What struck me most was the pure joy and love shared amongst this close-knit group of friends and how their camaraderie translated so seamlessly into cultural activism. There most definitely was dancing at their revolution.

While Anthology of Booty no longer throws regular party nights, the collective energy continues to course through the veins of its busy members’ lives and activities. For ten years running, Anthology of Booty DJs have joined forces with the seminal lesbian DJ crew She Rex and former members of First Ladies to put on Booty Rex, an annual bash for Capital Pride week. Many of these DJs have volunteered at Girls Rock! DC, a rock camp for building self-esteem in young girls. The inspiring collective members have also pursued careers in community-based education, urban planning, human rights advocacy and other forms of cultural work. 

In this final episode of I’m in the Band’s special series, Anthology of Booty DJs Ebony Dumas (DJ Natty Boom), Kristy Chavez-Fernandez (Kristy la rAt), and Darby Hickey (DJ Bent) discuss the experiences that shaped their lives and brought them together to create spaces of cultural expression within the broader do-it-yourself DC music community. 

MUSIC
Bratmobile—“I’m in the Band”
El Remolon, featuring Lido Pimienta—“Atras”  
Deans Chapel Baptist Church Choir—“Leaning on the Everlasting Arms”
Le Tigre—“Hot Topic”  
Ioannis Johnny Mantzoros—“7-11” 
Monorchid—“X Marks the Spot: Something Dull Happened Here”  
Noisy Pig—“Hulla Hulla”  
Dead Kennedys—“Stars & Stripes of Corruption” 
AIU Band, featuring Khaled Khaled—“Santa” 
Magic Witch Cookbox, featuring K. Joseph Karam—“What’s Wrong with That?” 
DJ European DJ—“Be My Baby”
Coup Sauvage & the Snips—“Requiem” (+ Dub Mix)
Pintura Roja, featuring Princesita Mily (DJ Luigi Remix)—“Te Olvidaste de Mi”
Lido Pimienta y Atropolis—“Reza Por Mi”

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Ebony Dumas, Kristy Chavez-Fernandez, Darby Hickey, Les Talusan, Kristina Gray, Maegan Wood; Smithsonian Folklife: Elisa Hough, Sojin Kim, Nichole Procopenko, Dave Walker; Jason Hammacher & Lost Origins Gallery; Live Sound Engineer: Carlos Beaumont, Vibe Solutions; Lido Pimienta, Radio CPR, Selina Musuta, Antonia Tricarico, Coup Sauvage & the Snips, Sergio Gonzales Tovar, Harper Carter

I’m in the Band ✕ D.C.: The Social Power of Music, Episode 2: Anthology of Booty

JANUARY 28, 2016
Written and produced by Allison Wolfe
Photo by Greg Velásquez

Penelope Spheeris’ 1981 cult classic Decline of Western Civilization, the go-to documentary of the early LA punk scene, provided me with my first glimpse into the powerhouse that is Alice Bag. Trying to find my own place in a subcultural environment, I was drawn to this fierce woman writhing and screaming on stage. This image, and those of other semi-rare, punk female pioneers paved the way for girls like me to pick up the mic and start our own bands.

Violence has woven its way in and out of Alice Bag’s life. It’s not good; it’s not bad. It just is. She knows what it means. She knows how to deal with it.

Violence and its relationship to power—or lack thereof—has been a lifelong exploration and negotiation for Alice, who persevered through an abusive childhood and its manifestations of aggression in her punk rock coming-of-age.

“I grew up thinking, ‘I don’t ever want to be like my mother. I don’t want to be victimized, and I don’t want to let a man have control of my life.’ In the end, I figured out a way to not divide people up into victims and abusers, but to see it as something much more complex. You don’t have to choose one role. You don’t have to dominate somebody to feel powerful. You just have to have power over yourself and have control of your life.”

Working Girl: Alice Bag

By ALLISON WOLFE, APRIL 20, 2016

A few years ago, I lucked into half of a cheap, barely-legal back house tucked away on a steep hill off Sunset in Echo Park. My packrat ways have left me bursting at the seams and spilling out onto my little patio much of the time, a lifestyle made possible by the Los Angeles climate fairies. When I’m not hanging out on my rickety, outdoor telephone chair, a scrawny, multi-colored neighborhood cat keeps the ripped-up seat warm. Allergies and a mild distaste for animal hair and smell in my house keep me at an observant distance from this calico feline who loves to roll in dirt and jump in the bed of anyone who leaves their door open.

There’s a certain sense of entitlement that emanates from this wayward cat who’s truthfully not so cuddly and not much to look at. She’s everywhere and nowhere at the same time. She creeps up and down Quintero Street, demanding attention yet turning away the minute you give it up. As I got to know my neighbors, I was struck by their peculiar fascination with and emotional attachment to this particular cat. Each of these humans has a different name and different story for the cat onto whom they project their own curious personalities. Whether you call her Princess, Janet, Monkey-time, S’mores, or some other name, the heart-felt stories reveal more about the humans on Quintero Street than they do about this wandering cat who defies ownership.

A CAT UNTAMED: PRINCESS JANET MONKEYTIME S’MORES

"I Was a Teenage Duranimal" by Allison Wolfe
Duran Duran Parking Lot Vox Pop:
Fanimals reminisce about their younger years with the band
(at the Hollywood Bowl, October 3, 2015)

Photo by Allison Wolfe

VoxPop: Duranimals reminisce on their younger years with the band

"I Was a Teenage Duranimal" by Allison Wolfe
Duran Duran Parking Lot:
Super-fans lay claim to their favorite band members
(at the Hollywood Bowl, October 3, 2015)

Photo by Allison Wolfe

VoxPop: Duran Duran super-fans lay claim to their favorite band members

“Why do folks have to go outside of Southeast LA to access music, to access self-confidence, to be in an environment that’s so positive? That’s what really inspired me to bring it home,” said the do-it-yourself entrepreneur, who goes simply by the name Marin, in a recent interview. Marin came up in South Gate and earned her punk rock chops drumming in an all women of color band called Bruise Violet. She credits her participation in the punk scene with teaching her how to make things happen with whatever resources are available.

After five years of sound engineering for the downtown Los Angeles rock camp, Marin kick-started her own camp, Chicas Rockeras SELA in 2015 with some like-minded Southeast Angelenos. Marin and her fellow camp organizers came of age in the punk rock house party scene of South Central and Southeast LA, and they apply this DIY approach to Chicas Rockeras in Huntington Park.

For both the campers and the volunteers, the idea behind rock camp has never been about professionalism in music. With a goal of encouraging self-esteem and self-empowerment in young girls through a medium of music, the first non-profit girl rock camp sprouted in Portland, Oregon, in 2001. At 55 and counting, these day camps have spread all over the world, connected by the Girls Rock Camp Alliance. In just one week, girls aged 8-17 learn an instrument, form a band, write an original song and perform it at a concert in front of their families, friends and rock camp community. Most adult musicians don’t work this quickly. Campers also learn life skills and community-building through workshops, skits, and guest speakers and performers.

“Girls are often made to feel small, to not be loud, to not take up space,” said Marin of the transformative nature of rock camp, “so imagine being ten, coming into camp, and being told ‘Yes you can’ over and over again, being celebrated for your mistakes, given a high-five, or even being encouraged to yell into a mic. Some girls, they have a breakdown, but they also have a breakthrough.”

The infectious energy of rock camp also has the power to change the lives of the adult volunteers, many of whom confess to learning a lot about themselves in the process. More often than not, they say they wish they’d had something encouraging and validating like rock camp growing up.

“If I had someone showing me or explaining to me what it is to be a person of color, what it is to be gender queer,” recalls Marin of her teen years, “I would’ve been more comfortable in my skin. Instead, it took me so long to come out, because I didn’t have these conversations with anybody.”

People want and need to see positive images of themselves mirrored back in order to imagine and activate their own potential. Chicas Rockeras works hard to actualize this in Southeast Los Angeles. Every aspect of this camp is tailored to both confronting and embracing the realities of girls growing up in Southeast LA. From the bilingual theme song and instruction to the separation of the campers into age-divided groups called the “Bidi Bidis” and the “Bom Boms,” this rock camp provides an accessible, affordable (100% sliding scale), safe space for girls to explore and express their identities.

“What does our neighborhood look like? Are we embarrassed of where we live? If so, why?” were questions Marin posed during a workshop she led in the first year of camp, to which some campers offered up, “I pick cans with my grandpa” or “I sell tamales with my mom.” “And so did I,” asserted Marin, “Having that conversation, by the end, they were crying, and they were just like, ‘I love where I’m from.’”

The beauty is that these young girls can take the energy and pride generated from camp home to their own lives and communities. As Chicas Rockeras SELA gears up for their second year, cofounder Marin declares her ultimate goal:

“We’re trying to take over the world one rock camp at a time!”

By ALLISON WOLFE, APRIL 26, 2016
Photo: Melissa Ramirez

CHICAS ROCKERAS: EMPOWERING GIRLS IN SOUTHEAST LOS ANGELES

Bratmobile, riot grrrl, I’m in the Band podcast, Girl Germs, Cold Cold Hearts, Partyline, Ladyfest, Cool Moms, Sex Stains, Ex Stains, Cliquey Bitches, Scorpio Scorpio, Deep Lust, DJ Babydonut

Allison Wolfe

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