Osa moved to New Orleans and formed a new band called Deny It! She’s been doing Shotgun Seamstress, a zine for and by black punks, for several years. Osa puts on awesome girl and queer punk shows in New Orleans as No More Fiction, so get in touch with her about playing house shows!
Cassia and Adee just played a show at In Other Words bookstore in Portland under the name Nature with Christina Files. Nature just recorded a 7″ and I can’t wait to hear it.
The Third Sex reunion show was surreal for a bazillion reasons, most of which I will not mention here. I went with a gaggle of friends, and we turned out to be 10 out of 20 people who were actually excited to be there. They played a bunch of my favorites and were really amazing performers, but I left feeling kind of weird about reunion shows.
First, I was surprised at the small turnout for the show. After seeing the Team Dresch reunion at the same venue only a few months earlier, I expected a full house. Second, those who actually made it to the show were totally boring. I guess I felt that way because I’m not from Portland? Either people weren’t that into Third Sex when they were around, or people just care way more about hip-hop dance parties than seeing bands. After noticing all the bored faces behind me I was almost embarrassed to be as into it as I was! It was like I morphed into the crowd’s embarrassing dad who wanted to dance with them. Sorry dudes.
I couldn’t find a video of the most recent Team Dresch reunion at Rotture in Portland, but I found this really great video of their reunion at Estrojam music festival in Chicago (now called Decibelle). I happened to be living in Chicago at the time for some weird reason and was lucky enough to see this show. This is the best show I’ve ever been to – and it was totally a reunion tour. There were people who traveled days to be there, and everyone was so genuinely thrilled. I always feel like the crowd can make or break a show experience for me, and this crowd did not disappoint.
Here’s a video from another Team Dresch reunion, this time at Siren Nation festival here in Portland. Something about this show rubbed me the wrong way, but it could be because it didn’t have the same energy as the Estrojam show. It was a combination of the crowd, the venue, and the fact that one of the bands opening up for them played for too long, making it so that Team Dresch could only play for a few minutes. The high price tag on the show probably kept a lot of people who wanted to be there from being able to get in, and the crowd was also full of extremely drunk underage dykes who were jumping off the stage and grabbing me inappropriately. Not only do I not ever want to punch another dyke in the face, but I definitely don’t want to go to jail for it because she’s underage and I’m almost 30.
The Haggard played Sunday’s show, too. I can’t find a video from the show, but here’s one from their last reunion show at the Rachel Carns benefit at Liberty Hall. I heard they were awesome on Sunday – I missed their set.
You can totally have a reunion with yourself, apparently. Kaia also played the Third Sex reunion show on sunday, and while this video isn’t from it, it does show that she busts out her old jams and has yet to completely break up with herself. Kaia’s set was kind of a highlight for me because I, too, was once 16 and I listened to that song with my first girlfriend as we zipped past Jersey mini-malls eating “vegetarian stuff” from Taco Bell in her Chrysler in 1996.
The Raincoats also had a reunion tour recently, and I missed their Portland show because I couldn’t afford to buy a ticket before it sold out. The worst part was that I learned, after the show, that I could have bought a ticket at the door despite the sold-out status. You live, you learn. From what I hear, their show at Holocene was the best thing ever.
I had a conversation with a few friends recently about what reunion shows we’d like to see next, and we figured out that most bands that we wanted to see reunited would draw a really shitty crowd these days – huge and full of straight hipster guys and manarchists. Bands that got big during (or after) their heyday would have to play huge shitty venues and be really separate from the crowd which is totally awkward! If bands that got big decided to play a reunion show in Portland, I think it would have to be secret-gay-word-of-mouth-show to be as fun as an old show.
Last.FM is a website that allows one to find bands “similar” to ones you already enjoy in hopes of expanding your musical horizons. You can also install local software that will allow Last.FM to continuously catalog the music you play through the music player of your choice, and keep long-running tallies of the amount you listen to every artist and song. It’s totally creepy and voyeuristic and addicting.
Features of Last.FM:
Last.FM will forever remind you that you listened to New Order’s “Leave Me Alone” 75 times during your last break-up.
Last.FM will keep you up-to-date on the emotional mindset of your exes. You’ll be able to tell, in real-time, when they 1) are listening to your old bands, or 2) listening to the sappy songs you used to listen to together.
Last.FM will proudly announce to the world each and every time you listen to something embarrassing, like The Doughnuts or “Don’t Disturb This Groove” by The System. This feature is especially useful when you listen to the aforementioned music on repeat.
Last.FM will bring out the dregs of society (read: Juggalos) who will fall in love with you because “ur taste in music is real obscure and most girlz don’t have that!” (quoted from a real message I received)
Last.FM will chronicle those days you forget to turn off iTunes and make the world think you like bands like The Muffs more than you actually do.
Last.FM is almost definitely a dick-measuring contest. I can’t really speak to this for sure, but it seems like a really futuristic way to show off your record collection, even though most songs that live on peoples’ computers are obtained illegally from Soulseek or torrents.
Last.FM will tell you how musically compatible you are with friends and/or partners. For example, I have “super” musical compatibility with Jess despite her Alt-Country problem.
Most people seem to use Last.FM for its “find similar artists” feature, which kind of makes me grouchy. It’s just me being old and bitter, remembering how many times I sent $3 to various tiny labels to receive 7″s I had to wait 3 weeks to receive that I ultimately didn’t like anyway. Now I can go to Last.FM, type in the name of any girl band I like, and learn about newer bands like Brilliant Colors and Liechtenstein, who I had never heard before until recently. It’s a guilty pleasure for sure, but it’s one that pays off because there’s really nothing in the world that compares to finding out about a bunch of new bands all at once when you’re feeling hopeless about new music.
I went through this phase recently where I was thoroughly convinced that all new music sucked and that I’d be perpetually stuck in the 90s forever. This was remedied by a calculated combination of Last.FM’s suggestions (based on what I was already listening to) and Jess making me listen to all of these midwestern all-girl pop punk bands. But all the new bands I like are total 90s throwback, so I’m not sure if that counts.
Are you on Last.FM? Are you as conflicted as I am?
I just found out that my friend Louis does a video fanzine featuring punk bands from the Pacific Northwest. Check out some live performances of some awesome girl and queer bands (and some other bands, too), most notably Purple Rhinestone Eagle (at 3:07) and Magic Johnson (11:22) – two of my favorite live bands here in Portland. Unfortunately, the Magic Johnson video was shot during a time when Ana was having some wrist problems, so you won’t get to experience the awesomeness that is Ana on the drums. There’s also a band called Tiny Knives (8:59) who I’ve never seen, but according to their MySpace page they are influenced by Team Dresch. I’m okay with that.
I’m hardcore-digging this band. I think they are doomed to falling into the “bands that really like Black Tamourine” category, but they actually remind me of album-era Mo-Dettes. I’m going to share with you a Mo-Dettes 7″ instead, which is harder to find.
November 1 2008 @ Hot Boat. Most fun and ridiculous night ever. Three bands formed for one performance and played your favorite Riot Grrrl jams while other people sang them.
The bands were Tube Top (members of Magic Johnson and SF’s Thunder Thighs), The Buts (members of Magic Johson, Annie and the Dreamboats and New Orleans’ Ovary Action) and Hot Titties (members of New Bloods, Annie and The Dreamboats, and the Ovary Action).
It was halloween, basically, so most of us were wearing costumes.
I was Courtney Love, but I didn’t sing any Hole songs. I did play drums on them, though.
Osa was a mombie.
It was a tiny basement packed with about 70 people sweaty, crying, screaming and dancing.
The lyrics were projected onto the wall by Derek but nobody really needed them cuz everyone was intense. I feel like it’s really important to still rock the hell out to bands you loved as a teenager when you’re 30.
(photos by Dana Rae, except for Courtney Love, which was taken by Sarah Swingset)
kristin hersh playing hardcore music is a dream. i can’t believe she played a circuit of house shows in portland a year or two ago and (mando, more importantly than i, since he turned me on to her/throwing muses/belly/tanya donelly) didn’t know about this.
nikki
derekc
Jess
