100 SONG MARCH

We talked late into the night about the changes we were seeing. While having nowhere near the illustrious career of a Mecca Normal, Lucid Nation has been around long enough to see the bottom drop out of the music scene (and to bitch a blue streak about it). When we started out riot grrrl was already beginning to decline but was so huge to us it seemed to be only getting started. I was always pissed when I’d hear Kathleen or some other riot grrrl authority warn that the glory days were quickly passing. Boy howdy, were they right! Don’t get me wrong. The scene wasn’t that great. There was lots of high school politics and back stabbing, the bands were mostly shits to each other, half the clubs were run by perverts, and the clubs were usually in parts of town where police laughed at you for being there. But there were plenty of great bands and fans anyway. It’s strange that it wasn’t the Internet and the disinterest of a new generation that wrecked the scene. A rebirth of conservatism inspired fire marshals and councilmen to dig up reasons why kids couldn’t get together. The Internet arrived like the dawn of a new day. We all knew the day the Internet came to town everything before it became the distant past. Mecca Normal continues to trail blaze. DIY video received mass media certification when MTV2 accepted for broadcast Jean’s haunting video for the Mecca Normal song “Attraction.” Listen to the song: Click Here

The other show we played with Mecca Normal was at Soapbox at Koo’s new location, with Family Outing, Jody Bleyle’s band with her brother. It happened to be the night of Morrissey’s comeback tour hitting town so nobody showed up for our show. To Jean it didn’t matter how many people were there. Her message of transformation through self expression was even more powerful in such an intimate setting. Mecca Normal’s show at Spaceland was strange. They performed a brilliant set to a sparse audience that later became enamored with the emotional breakdown of a local star on stage. What must it be like to have given birth to a scene, and then on the other end of it, to be ignored by people who don’t realize who you are or what you did for them? Another sign of the disconnect afflicting the music world at the end of a cycle. Listen to the song: Click Here

For his graphics series Inspired Agitators, David Lester created a poster for the great Sioux chief Red Cloud. Now Ronnie is a Crazy Horse man. He got to talking about how Red Cloud wasn’t that great a guy. David stood up for Red Cloud. Ronnie stood up for Crazy with Courage Horse (the Sioux war chief’s real name). I was waiting for some coups to be counted. It is true that Red Cloud’s great grand niece weaved a beautiful painted quill bracelet for Ronnie while they talked one afternoon when we toured through South Dakota. But we spent the Fourth of July on Bear Butte where Crazy with Courage Horse loved to meditate. As a Cherokee, I yanked out a hunk of hair to leave as a prayer flag on one of the trees way up the butte. Lightning was playing all around over the plains. I think both chiefs were quite magnificent. And I think it’s wonderful that two white boys could get so passionate about them. Listen to the song: Click Here

Beverly Boulevard used to be the favored shortcut for those in the know from where I live in Hollywood to downtown places like The Smell, Silverlake Lounge, Spaceland, Luna Sol, MOCA, and Little Tokyo. It’s still the shortcut late at night. The streets are lined with butcher shops with Carcineria signs. Each one has its own visual flavor depending on where the proprietor came from: Guatamala, Bolivia, Mexico, El Salvador, Burbank. Some have hand painted signs, some are no more than simple black letters but many feature colorful scenes. Late at night they are a hub of activity where working people end their day and nightshifts start theirs: millions of stories to be told. I think Carcineria is Spanish for food that kills but dying never tasted so good. Listen to the song: Click Here