Dear Friends,
This year sucks.
I’m just putting it out there to the universe right now that it’s time for some good stuff to happen. Between family and friends checking out of this realm and all the nonsense in the air because people can’t just see they are being played, I’m ready to declare that it is time for peace.
Got a text last night from my dad that my great-Aunt Peg died yesterday. She was 88 and I think had a pretty wonderful life. I’m filled with regret at the moment for not stopping in Cleveland back in June to say hello. I would have loved to have seen her again.
Aunt Peg was really lovely, and, in a way, she was the last link to that particular generation for me. My heart is breaking at the moment for all the Cleveland family and the family here, too. When I saw her last, she was just as kind and loving as you would want an aunt to be and I was just her grand-nephew who she hadn’t seen a handful of years.
I will always have fond memories of her and her late husband, Uncle Phil.
Peace to everyone who loved her. I know there are a whole slew of really wonderful folks back in Ohio hurting right now and I wish there was something I could do.
*****
I have to change the damn subject. There is nothing else I can do right now. Fuuuuuuuudge.
*****
There are few things I enjoy more during the day than geeking out on numbers with the kids for a bit. I like showing them that numbers are nothing to be afraid of because numbers are what they are until you start doing math. A four is a four until you add one and then it is a five. That five is a five until you do something else.
Life is kind of like that, too.
I am who I am until I meet you and then I am someone new. We are who are who we are until we add in a new dynamic or take something away. If we do our actions with care, we make ourselves better, or at very least, something new.
Addition, subtraction, all those actions, they facilitate the change, but numbers…they are what they are. I love that. I do my best to help kids see this every day, but they don’t always share my enthusiasm.
But I keep doing what I do. I almost wrote, “I keep trying,” but that “try” word is bullshit. Even my students know it. I do or I don’t. Just like Yoda said.
*****
Yesterday we had a pretty good jam over at Aaron’s house. The Philo Beddoe project is coming around, and we came up with our first really cool song, I think. Aaron had a few other songs that are pretty tasty, too, but this new one came together in a cool way. There was a second one, too. I hope I remember it.
*****
Writing articles has brought me into contact with some really cool people over the years. I love doing interviews that, at some point, just sort of morph into a great conversation. Almost ten years ago, I wrote a piece about Sleater-Kinney, and I got the idea to reach out to some of their peers to get some outside voices in there.
I wanted to show how important Sleater-Kinney was and is to the Riot Grrl/Post-Riot Grrl movement. I’m not sure if I pulled it off, but that’s not the point of this story. One of the things that came out of it was way cooler.
During the process of doing the article, I reached out to Allison Wolfe, and she said, “Sure, you can interview” or something like that. She couldn’t have been cooler and in the years since then, I’ve interviewed here several times and stayed in contact here and there.
Back in the 1990s, I got into Bratmobile and even got to see them at 924 Gilman in 1993 or so. They were great and I have to admit I had a little crush on Allison back then. Maybe it was the fact that she was the lead singer for a band I really liked or maybe it was just her personality on stage and in the interviews I had read.
I will probably write about Bratmobile later this year, but before I do, I want to touch on a more recent project that I got to write about for LA Weekly. Sex Stains was a band that Allison did in LA from 2014 to 2018(ish). They put out a self-titled record in 2016 that blew me away.
Sex Stains is one of those records that just oozes L.A. to me. If you are fan of more than a couple bands from L.A., even those who aren’t punk, there is a recognizable L.A. sound. Now, if you just sort of focus on the first few waves of L.A. punk, there is a certain energy and funky, smooth musicality that permeates the best of the bands.
X, for example, has this in spades and the first song on Sex Stains, “Countdown to…” exudes (see what I did there) this quality. It reminds me so much of early X. Consider that Sex Stains, the band, had multiple vocalists, they could do those cool vocal interplay things that John Doe and Exene Cervenka did so well for X.
I get a little giddy when I hear “Countdown to…” every time I listen to it. The song is one of those songs that make me wish that we could have worked it out to get Sex Stains here in Phoenix, but it never happened. They were done before we could make it happen. A show with Sex Stains and The Father Figures would have been epic.
It’s also the type of song that I wish I had played on. It seems like it would be so fun to play. I’m pretty into this whole record because the energy level is amazing.
“Land of La La” is another scorcher and, really, the first half of the record just cranks it out. “Period. Period” has this great double vocal thing going on and when Allison and Mecca Vazie Andrews, the other vocalist, got it going, it was fucking magic with a capital fuck. “Period. Period.” Is just relentless and I love it.
“Don’t Hate Me Cuz I’m Beautiful” is another rocker, too, but “Oh No (Say What?)” steals a little bit of my heart every time I hear it. Pachy Garcia’s bassline just worms its way into my soul, and I get lost in the full-on badassery of it all. Sharif Dumani is no slouch either. It’s no wonder people wanted him to play in their bands.
I can’t leave out David Orlando who played drums on Sex Stains. I remember talking with Allison about him and she just couldn’t say enough great things about him. The guy is an excellent drummer and he also added a bunch of cool noisiness to the record, too.
Sex Stains really is a cruelly underappreciated feast for the ears. There is a lot going on, but it never feels like there is too much. “Done Popped” is so damn tasty and then it gives way to another rad bassline from Garcia on “Confrontational.” It’s got a little spy vs reggae thing going on that reminds me a bit of when English Beat were firing on all cylinders.
Sex Stains is also super playful. This is a wonderful quality in a band and in a record. They must have had so much fun during the writing process. Allison shared a bit with me about how things went south for them and that’s not my story to tell, but it is a bummer when people who make such great music together can’t figure out how to keep it going. The world needs more Sex Stains.
“Who Song Love Song” is one of the really playful songs. “Spidersss” has a little bit of post-punk action going on and I could see a band like Idles, or maybe, Liars, really grooving on it. I think it kind of sounds a bit like an early Liars song.
“Sex In The Subway” has another hypnotic bassline and Allison’s vocals are the kind that make even a pretty stand up and respectful guy like myself cringe a bit and feel like I should apologize for how some guy’s act when they think they can get away with it.
“I remember what you said to me/I remember what you did to me” is such a powerful line.
Then, the sun comes out and the band does the ska and reggae-tinged “Cutie Pie.” Mood lightened and the record leaves you with a smile on your face. The last song is called “Crumbs” and it starts off with some rad guitar from Dumani over a slick rhythm section. Garcia and Orlando lay down a killer foundation for Dumani, Allison, and Mecca to do their thing.
I love this fucking record. If you haven’t heard it, you should.
*****
See you tomorrow.
Lake Erie is sad today. Thank you, AI.
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