100 SONG MARCH

This was Ronnie’s recording swansong with Cat Cult. The something struggling to be born he’s howling about is probably Lucid Nation! Man he finds a weird groove in here, it’s unlike anything I’ve ever heard, and I’m happy to say it owes a lot to my brooding bass line. Riot grrrl found us on the rebound from Columbia, and every word in every zine could not have made more sense. Ronnie and I were about to become very different people as riot grrrl forced us to see ourselves and the world for real. Listen to the song: Click Here

Conrad Santa Vicca was best known as Divine’s dresser. When he was diagnosed with AIDS he decided to fulfill his dream of becoming a painter. His work was extraordinary, as the art world quickly recognized. Ronnie and I met Conrad at a Holly Woodlawn party in a Silverlake backyard. The three of us talked about life and death under a huge old pepper tree. The stars were bright and the summer night was warm. We knew Conrad was dying. His healthy looking tan was the result of drugs they were giving him. When he lit up a joint and offered to pass it to us I didn’t hesitate. My older brother was gay and I knew you couldn’t get AIDS from a passed cigarette. I also knew what it would mean to Conrad at that point in his life to have a smart ass white girl share a smoke with him without a flinch. Ronnie threw me a horrified look but, slump shouldered and secretly pissed off, he took a puff, too. Conrad appreciated what we had done and the conversation we had then about his race with time to create all the art pouring into his mind was a life changer for us. Conrad worked as many hours as he could every day to bring as many paintings to life as he could while there was still time. That was a guru moment for us. Parts of that conversation are in the lyrics of this song. When faced with the descent into a painful death Conrad took his own life. When we heard it Ronnie wrote this. A Powa is a Tibetan meditation or prayer that’s supposed to reacquaint the confused soul of the recently disentangled with the infinite consciousness and compassion that is our true home. “He walks into the bright Collision of every candy bar Kisses and favorite TV shows Sunshine on electric signs Everything he wants to know.” Some of the other lyrics reappeared in the Lucid Nation song L.A. River. Listen to the song: Click Here

Ronnie recorded the sound of the ice cream truck right outside the apartment window to suggest the loss of innocence when you move away from home. He was thinking of a Catholic girl we knew, who because her family would not accept her, had to leave home and church and fend for herself in a world she wasn’t prepared for. Again check out the raw and bizarre, trance inducing mix. More EQ and reverb magic, another tribute to the genius of Lee Perry. I like the old school vibe of this song, but Ronnie said it was corny and declared he’d never write a song on keyboards again. So far he hasn’t but I he’s been playing more keyboards lately so you never know! Listen to the song: Click Here

Debbie said she’s probably crazy Because all she can think about Are the identical refrigerators In every claustrophobic house.” I guess in a way you could say those are Debbie’s first lyrics for Lucid Nation, since Ronnie is repeating something she told him when we all were first becoming friends, just before she began drumming and zine writing. What sounds like an anvil being smacked with a hammer is actually finger cymbals Ronnie used effects on. Lyrics from this song wound up in the Lucid Nation songs Them (American Stonehenge, Public Domain) and Bleed (DNA, Public Domain). Listen to the song: Click Here

Ronnie painstakingly memorized this bit of Celtic open tuned picking that makes up the intro of the earliest version of the Lucid Nation song Trip. As the lyrics in this version make obvious, Andy Wood of Mother Love Bone had recently died. We liked Mother Love Bone. The lead playing in this song shows how quickly Ronnie’s skills developed when he was encouraged by interest from Columbia. But my favorite thing about it is the way he mixed using reverbs and EQs to create a unique mood; again, a benefit perhaps of his being a Lee Scratch Perry fan. Listen to the song: Click Here

Hollywood Boulevard was one of the songs Columbia picked out so Ronnie revamped it into this new song with a completely different loose and funky feel. Check out The Doors-y keyboard part he threw in. I like the lines: “We tore down the jungle to put a street up keep making it wider and longer so we can drive and never stop chicken hawks and stone faced cops tail lights streaming red pizza after midnight see where Caesar bled. “Some walk through like angels Untouched and unafraid Past shopping cart apartments And pavement beds like graves Everybody’s got a mission, a scam or a crusade Some it seems never leave like ghosts that slowly fade I wrote the lines: “stuck on a fault in here under fire out there” and later used them for the Lucid Nation song Landmark (The Stillness of Over, Public Domain). Listen to the song: Click Here

Ronnie took to multi-track recording like a duck to water. I fell in love with playing bass. The results were a startling leap forward from the hand held cassette demos Columbia liked that you’ll hear later this episode. Ronnie was goth once and you can hear the influence of bands like Bauhaus, Sisters of Mercy and Angels in Aspic in this moody song. The lyrics sound like they were written about today, huh? Insect breath, the sweet smell of soil. That’s actually true! Listen to the song: Click Here

FUBAR is U.S. Army circa WW2 slang for Fucked Up Beyond All Repair. “The more things you treat like it the more your life turns to shit.” When Jody heard those lines she wanted to chant them with me. I have to admit it felt surreal to stand there recording with her. We’d played gigs together, Lucid Nation’s second gig was opening for Team Dresch at an art gallery in downtown L.A., but she and Donna, like Kathleen, and Adrienne from Spitboy, were heroes to me. Team Dresch is on top of the list of the best bands I’ve seen live (in a tie with a Sonic Youth sound check I saw at the Hollywood Palladium). I’m stoked that Jody played on FUBAR. FUBAR was recorded on an ancient Soundcraft Series 3 sixteen track mixing board big as a boat. Supposedly it had belonged long ago to Heart, and more recently to Soundgarden. This song and Mung Jung Bushi were the only recordings I got out of the huge thing before it broke down completely. Only one repair guy in all southern California could work on it and he was in demand. So bye bye board. I think I should have done more recording with this line up. I don’t know why I didn’t try to make that happen. Denise was busy with her Venice California metal band Form of, and Jody was playing with Family Outing, but we still could have gotten together once in awhile. Maybe we still will. Listen to the song: Click Here

Late into the night we talked about the future. The audience hasn’t yet learned that the great art of the future will be DIY and hard to find, not corporate and handed to passive consumers everywhere on a silver platter. Remember, average people didn’t know who Beethoven or Van Gogh were during their lifetimes. Here in Hollywood the movie, TV and music corporations, most of which are divisible into five giant octopus corporations, are scared shitless by the changes technology is bringing. What happens when there’s no more forced programming? Instead of having to wait till 8 PM to see the show you want to see (and if you don’t have Tivo and you miss it well you’re screwed) someday soon you’ll search for the show on a search engine just like you search for music files. Instead of a few commercial stations and a couple hundred cable stations we’ll have millions of directories and blogs, and huge databases just waiting to be enjoyed by explorers in pajamas. Make no mistake, great artists of the future will use the most direct means for their self expression. With a good DV cam and Pro-tools and a website as their outlet they will reach millions. Maybe someday some of them will even make millions, too! EPISODE 7 THE END NEXT (mini) EPISODE Public Domain: The Best of Lucid Nation Listen to the song: Click Here

On the subject of malfunctioning vintage gear that makes people go misty eyed, Ronnie drove Mecca Normal to their gig at Spaceland in a broken down silvertop 1966 Pontiac GTO coupe. Because the trunk was rust eaten it filled with exhaust which spilled into the backseat till the passengers were dizzy. But the beautiful heap hauled ass on the freeway when Ronnie demonstrated what it could do. It had the California license plate Artcore. Eight cylinder guilt, it haunts me, that thrill I get from the rev and torque of a big block engine. I love a car that jumps up when you shift it into second. I am an American, damn it, and I like that. I’m so ashamed, but Delorean was inspired when he designed this biosphere killing machine. Listen to the song: Click Here