Penelope Houston – Fanzine Hemorrhage

When I was involved in Southern CA college radio in the late 80s, we at KCSB always kept a watchful eye on any other California stations that might be as cool as ours. KXLU in LA – no way. KALX in Berkeley – perhaps. KFJC in Los Altos Hills – absolutely. The one I was especially curious about was KDVS in Davis, just outside of Sacramento. You’d think maybe not with that one, given its location, and yet every time I’d meet a DJ from that station at a show or elsewhere, that person would know far more about underground music than I did. I’m thinking both Sharon McKenzie and Karl Ikola in particular; the former ran Hecuba Records and turned me onto Bill Direen & The Bilders; the latter would go on to run Anopheles Records, and was & is a guy who knew just about everything about everything psychedelic, raw and strange.

Ikola didn’t write for Hot Spit #1 in 1989, but Sharon McKenzie did, and so did some other heavyweight names from greater Sacramento that I’m very familiar with: Brian Faulkner (still does a fantastic show on KDVS to this day, and whom I interviewed in my own Radio Dies Screaming #1 last year); Jed Brewer (he’s in mesmerizing psych shamans San Kazakgascar); and wow, Ted Verani, whom I used to work with at two different corporate jobs over 20 years ago. The zine was edited by Bill Smith, and while his opening editorial lacks a fair bit of depth (“That’s kind of the way it is with alternative music. It has always been a little different. Hot Spit brings you that something different”), the overall package is just fine – even with the subtitle for the fanzine being “The sizzle of alternative sounds”, and the cover looking like what might result if you handed off art direction for your fanzine to the one college art major sophomore you happened to know. Alas, Smith died quite young, as I’ve just discovered.

There’s an Anthony Braxton interview by Damon Cleckler, which takes place in Braxton’s office at Mills College moments after he’s just finished teaching a class there. He really gets him talking! They cover AACM, Stockhausen, Braxton’s writings and, most importantly, whether or not he’ll be getting tenure at Mills and be able to stay on in Oakland. I checked Wikipedia and it’s looking like he didn’t, which is probably why Braxton and I never went out for beers during those years or saw a Thinking Fellers show together.

Also a good Penelope Houston interview; she’s actually a bit bemused that there’s still a cult of The Avengers out there; she also does a nice call out for Mary O’Neil of the Wannabe Texans, a pal and hero of ours here at FH and a woman who’d later go on to form Virginia Dare. Our man Verani interviews Rudi Protrudi of The Fuzztones. Verani says “A lot of the bands that were playing with you – The Morlocks, Telltale Hearts, the Chesterfield Kings – have all disappeared, and Protrudi humbly responds “They’re all dead and gone. We buried them”. Gross! And it wouldn’t be a good Davis-area mag without a Thin White Rope piece; along with True West and Game Theory, they were the patron saints of greater Sacramento’s alterna-whatever throughout the 80s and into the 90s. McKenzie writes a puff piece on Mudhoney, Brewer tries to wave a flag for Voivod, and many marginal independent releases of ‘89–’90 are given the once-over. Hot Spit #1, folks!

This March 1978 issue of Seattle’s Twisted is almost certainly one of the twenty titles I’d bravely save from a fire, were I to only save twenty. The three issues of Twisted ran from June 1977 until this one, and someday, inshallah, I’ll find a way to procure the other two. While it has neither the writing chops of Slash nor the NY Rocker at this time, Twisted #3 is omnivorously devoted to uncovering the excitement of global punk wherever it leads them, no matter how far underground it takes them, and no matter how many miles they need to drive to, say, San Francisco for the Sex Pistols/Avengers/Nuns show to get the story.

There are over a dozen contributors, both writers and photographers. It starts off with a revelatory bang by a writer taken by friends while in NY to an early Cramps show at CBGB – mind totally blown. This is followed by a little local coverage of The Mentors, I’m afraid to say, who are called “the disembowelment of rock ‘n roll”. Early songs like “Secretary Hump” were already nice and worked out even here in early ‘78, and we’re blessed with lyrics for this and other fine songs like “Macho Package” and “Can’t Get It Up”. The disgusting picture of El Duce is thankfully followed up with one of lovely Jennifer from The Nuns, along with an interview w/ Richie Dietrick from her band, a total NYC born-and-bred, attitude-drenched goombah who was already an out gay man by this time. Pretty bold move in ‘78, and I’ve gone my whole punk-lovin’ life not knowing that.

As the eyes of the world zeroed in on punk rock, Twisted #3 was getting nervous. There’s a punk vs. “New Wave” semantics essay, and in the mag’s gossip column it is reported that “MISCARRIAGE in Boston reports that the city is being inflicted with a strange illness, ‘new wave virus’, which all the punks have….”. Meanwhile, there’s much love for The Avengers and Penelope, who’d recently moved from Seattle to SF to go to art school and then formed her band there. “Record contract rumors are flying like crazy – Sire being the head of the list”. Is this sorta like when Penelope was scouted to replace Grace Slick in Jefferson Starship?

I wasn’t particularly into the mean article about Nico and her show at the Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco. The photograph you see here was from that December 8th, 1977 performance, and it’s one of my all-time favorite rock photos. And jeez, the ads in this thing. There are ads for Screamers and Dils tours which will bring them to the Northwest, and there’s a great one for Slash magazine itself. Twisted #3 are very excited about the debut Black Randy and the Metrosquad 45 “Trouble at the Cup”, and give the man a two-page celebratory spread just to rejoice about it.

As we discussed a bit when I reviewed Chatterbox #4, the local Seattle punk scene really got roaring quite a bit earlier than I’d previously comprehended. I mean this was Seattle – now a metropolis, but then with less than 500,000 people (and post-Boeing, falling) and in the corner of nowhere. Or so I thought. There’s a centerfold-esque photo of the early Lewd; an interview with The Snots and some Midwest transplants called The Invaders whom I’ve never heard of. In addition to a Portland scene report (with three other bands I’ve never heard of). Lydia Lunch of Teenage Jesus and the Jerks gets to be nihilistic; there some blather about The Clash; and a Generation X interview, a band that for me proved the maxim that any punk residing in the upper 20% of physical good looks will always gain disproportionate attention irrespective of talent. Until they don’t.