Neneh Cherry - Raw Like Sushi

Cindy and Autumn, Leather Trio Productions.

Cindy: "...just the girls on the block with the nasty curves, wearin' padded bras, suckin' beer through straws..."
Autumn: Cindy has the headphones on. She's listening to Neneh Cherry. She's acting all strange. I think she likes this album a lot.
C: Did you say something, Autumn? Huh?
A: "Buffalo Stance" means attitude. It means keep your head up and don't take any shit. It means survival.
C: Ooh, this song has lotsa naughty cool words. I want Neneh Cherry to be my mom.
A: She already has two kids and they're probably not brats like you.
C: Maybe Joyce would be my mom too.
A: Joyce sent us the Neneh Cherry CD that Cindy is listening to. Joyce would know how to handle Cindy's back talk.
C: "God, you're so digital, girl. You're like one of them cabbage patch creatures." What a cool song!
A: Gimme those headphones.
C: Ooh, raw like sushi. Soundin' good in a buffalo stance.
A: Hey check this out: "my first kiss--hit and miss--he wasn't impressed cause I wouldn't get undressed." This is the best album of the 90s.
C: Gimme those headphones back. "Chocolates, bananas, donuts and salami. Ain't gonna fit cause you're full of baloney."
A: Look Cindy, your hair's all messed up. Better give those headphones to me.
C: "My body's clean, but my mind is bad."
A: "Get spooky."
C: "Get funky sex."
A: "Totally outa control."
C: You know I suppose we could just play it through the speakers.
A: More fun this way.
C: Definitely.

Album Network, June 9, 1989

Sea Hags

Autumn Meredith/Leather Trio Productions/San Francisco
One summer night in 1985, me, Cindy and Colleen all went to see the Sea Hags at the VIS club on Divisadero. Cindy was just out of high school and a major misbehaver. Colleen was only 16, and even wilder. I was a sweet and quiet girl of 18. It was Cindy and Colleen who caused all the fuss and made noise, not me. ("Stop lying, Autumn, you were a brat too!" -Cindy). Was not.

Back then the Hags were just a trio ("a leather trio!" -Cindy again), but they sounded basically the same as they do now with cool crunching guitars and wild songs. You can hear for yourself on their debut album just out on Chrysalis. My favorite song is "Doghouse" cause it just crunches. Colleen's favorite is the rockin' "Someday," a cool SVT cover. Cindy likes that riff rock stew, "Back to the Grind." And all three of us think the singer Ron is a stone fox. ("So girls of America you better beware, but since we saw 'em first we got rights." -Colleen). Got that? So everyone rush out and get the Sea Hags cool album. Hi to Tom Silver and Geina Horton at Chrysalis.

May 19, 1989, Album Network

Ramones - Pet Sematary

Autumn Meredith/Cindy Jacobson, Leather Trio Productions.

Cindy: "How does it feel to be deleted and re-entered?" That is what Yvette said to me the last time I called the Album Network headquarters. I don't know about you, but it sounded naughty bad to me.
Autumn: I think she was talking about the computer.
C: Oh.
A: Hey look, we just got the new Ramones single, "Pet Sematary," in the mail.
C: Well put it on.
(Three minutes and thirty-two seconds later.)
A: Pretty cool.
C: It's so Ramones.
A: The only thing missing is Dee Dee shouting...
C: One, two, three, four!
A:...at the beginning. Other than that...
C: It's very Ramones.
A: Right. It appears last year's Ramonesmania compilation was just the end of Ramoning chapter one. Cause here we have further proof that punk rockers don't have to grow up.
C: They just stay in a cool cartoon world. Like us.
A: "Pet Sematary" has the right guitar crunch, the cool Joey Ramone vocals and a song that is frightening.
C: Oh so scary. So everyone get yourself a copy of "Pet Sematary" right now.
A: And play it a lot.
C: "Gabba gabba we accept you one of us."
A: Oh look, it has "Cindy Is a Punk Rocker" on the b-side.
C: The song they wrote about me. So who's this Sheena person anyway? I'll bet she's never been deleted and re-entered.

April 28, 1989, Album Network

Cindy on the Late Seventies Denver/Boulder Music Scene

I didn't live there, I never went there, and I was just a spunky pre-teen sprog at the time. But I still feel nostalgic about the late seventies Denver/Boulder underground music scene probably because of its connections to San Francisco where I grew up. Well I guess I should start by mentioning Jello Biafra, who is originally from Boulder. But the real bridge and the only reason I know anything at all about this scene comes from the Varve, who are one of San Francisco's own. But not really. They have Boulder roots. Denver too. Another young sprog in the late 1970s, Dalton Rasmussen, and another San Francisco transplant, Joseph Pope, have compiled a vinyl/CD/booklet release called Rocky Mountain Low that documents this period of the Colorado music underground. Included are the Varve's roots, and some cool bands like the Jonny III and the Front. And oh yeah, Jello.

For me Denver's Guys and Boulder's Profalactics rule the Rocky Mountain Low compilation. The Guys were the Shangri-Las mated with the Ramones minus the Queens accents. All crazy energy and fun. I wish I had been there. The Profalactics are hard to describe. Kinda scratchy. In late 1979 both groups exploded and a Varve was formed. Jo Ann from the Guys and Sue and Carolyn from the Profalactics grabbed LA transplant and super cool blond Kelli Kozak (my true sister), and proceeded to quirk up Boulder. And then they moved to San Francisco. I was way underage, but I was able to sneak into two Varve shows in the early eighties. I remember sweating. I remember squawks of color.


It was Jo Ann Varve, with her cool pink cowboy boots, who told me about the Denver/Boulder scene. She kept talking about this band called the Jonny III. She was president of their fan club. Aleta from the Guys wrote "God of Rock and Roll" about the band's singer and guitarist, Kenny Vaughan. The Jonny III never made a record, but they have two songs on the Rocky Mountain Low compilation, the punky "Cardboard Bachs" (oh such clever spelling) and the poppy "Hey Baby." But these tracks barely hint at the band's legend. Jo Ann played me stuff, showed me pictures, described the endless late night dance parties in Denver and Littleton. It was the energy of Eddie Cochran and the Ramones combined. Plus they had a string of classic songs written by Kenny Vaughan and the band's drummer, Leroy X. And stinging guitar work from Kenny, who now lives in Nashville where he's a highly regarded studio and live musician. I want to be there.


Beyond the Jonny III and roots of the Varve, I'm really liking two other bands on Rocky Mountain Low, Boulder's Transistors and Denver's Front. The Transistors had groovy Asian goddess Karen Nakai (called Karen Sony here) on bass, who Autumn just adores. ("She's my long lost Japanese sister. I have their single." -Autumn). Later Karen would sing in Boulder's China Breaks and then she moved to Southern California where she helped place music in movies.


I'd never heard of the Front before, but their one track here, a Stooges cover, has the right spirit, all punk tension and teen nerves. More of this please. Lead singer Steve Knutson now works for Rough Trade, who used to have a store here in North Beach that later moved to Haight Street. But, like the kind of music on this compilation, it's gone now.

Get yourself a copy of Rocky Mountain Low. Get it now. You'll wish you had been there.

Photographs by Joe Beine
top to bottom:
Jo Ann Gogue (Varve), Mercury Cafe, Denver, 1982
Leroy X Smith (in a post-Jonny III band with Kenny), Mercury Cafe, Denver, 1982
Kenny Vaughan and Kristine Arnold (Sweethearts of the Rodeo), Auraria Campus, Denver, 1987
Karen Nakai (China Breaks), Blue Note, Boulder, 1981

Dedicated to Karen Nakai Sephton, 1958-2014. We lost a beautiful voice.

Autumn's Guide to Cool Girl Drummers: Witch Baby

"'Witch Baby, come out and play drums for me,' Cherokee said. 'You are the most slinkster-jamming drummer girl and I want to dance.'"

I first discovered Witch Baby in Francesca Lia Block's Weetzie Bat books in the nineties. She was a bit like a wilder version of me. The dark haired tomboy. Always hiding and snail-curling. Covering herself in protective mud. I never played the drums, but I could have. Maybe. Witch Baby teaches herself, playing with her hands. Later she joins the Goat Guys, her step sister Cherokee's band, and finds a rhythmic partner in her childhood crush, Angel Juan, who plays bass. He calls her Niña Bruja and they forge an alliance that's never severed even when Angel Juan goes away.

"She imagined that her drums were planets and the music was all the voices of growth and light and life joined together and traveling into the universe."

Witch Baby has two books of her own, Witch Baby and Missing Angel Juan, but you should read all five of the original Weetzie Bat books (collected in Dangerous Angels). And the sixth one, Necklace of Kisses, where Weetzie has a crisis and Witch Baby shaves her head and goes to college in Berkeley. Witch Baby is the best girl drummer cause she lives inside her rhythms, expressing all her inner turmoil and desire. She's the mud-caked, cool-jamming, purple-eyed girl who fends off clutch pigs, photographs dreams and talks to ghosts.

This is part two in the series, Autumn's Guide to Cool Girl Drummers

Golden Gate Park and the San Francisco Scene

by Cindy Jacobson/Leather Trio Productions

I'm I-Beamin'. I'm Sidewalkin'. I'm Sugarcubin'. I'm just a-Ikky Boppin' on down Haight street. I go across Stanyan street and what do I see in Golden Gate Park? Hippies and punks. What a strange culture clash. They're playing Hendrix-like acid rock out of tiny battery powered amps. They're playing saxophones and singing songs. The hippies are clumped in a group. The punks are clumped in another group. They're kinda looking at each other, checking each other out. Like, are we the same thing a generation apart? Hmm... I continue walking through the park past the children's playground and get lost somewhere, just watching people, thinking about stuff.

I'm thinking about the odd mix of rock music this city has coughed up. From the Haight-Ashbury sounds of the Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead to the quirky Varve and the mighty Metallica. What a strange culture clash. Of course there's a load of bad mainstream bands here, but if you came to San Francisco right now you'd probably think the underground scene was pretty dead. So look closer. The metal scene still thrives and there's this weird urban folk movement going on right now with people like Barbara Manning and Penelope Houston making records and playing acoustic gigs.

It's Penelope Houston's place in all this that has me really intrigued right now. Twelve years ago she was all punk rock and short blond hair, shouting teen rebel lyrics over a high speed din of churning guitars in San Francisco's coolest punk band, the Avengers. The Avengers lasted through the brief gasp of punk's first wave, opened for the Sex Pistols at Winterland and never released an album. Which is the kind of stuff real rock and roll legends are made of. In 1983, four years after the band's demise, CD Presents issued an Avengers album consisting of their one single plus assorted demos and stuff. So you can hear what they sounded like. You can also read the interview with Penelope in the latest Flipside for more insight.

A couple of months ago, Subterranean, the label that gave us Flipper, put out Penelope's first album, Birdboys. And it's a quiet delight, a silent joy. Like a steady breeze blowing through Golden Gate Park. It has loads of pretty songs with razor sharp emotions and evocative melodies. So what happened to the nineteen year old girl who used to shout "fuck you!" over crashing guitars in 1977? Well, she's grown up. And she doesn't shout. She sings. She even has a real nice voice. Penelope may not be a rebellious punk rocker anymore, but she's got the same spirit. The same "I don't care what you think I'm going to express myself any way I want" attitude that punk rock, no, that rock and roll is really all about. So everyone go check out Penelope's sweet folk album on Subterranean. Me, I'm just sitting here in Golden Gate Park, thinking about stuff. I'm wondering why listening to the Avengers and then Penelope's new music isn't such a strange culture clash. And I'm wondering about those hippies and punks... It's all the same isn't it? Hmm...

April 7, 1989, Album Network

The Mighty Metallica by Keisha

Keisha W., Leather Trio Productions.
Autumn asked me to write about Metallica cause that's how we met. This was in 1987. I went into the Record Vault to buy Garage Days Re-Revisited (now on Garage Inc), and I met Autumn there. There weren't too many girls who liked Metallica so we knew we had something in common right away. We've been friends ever since. First I have to tell you about the two cute minitapes that Elektrika has put out. They have Pushead covers and extra bonus b-sides. "Eye of the Beholder" minitape has "Breadfan," a Budgie song, and "One" minitape has "The Prince," an awfully cool Diamondhead song. You should also get the Diamondhead album from that Metal Blade label. It's called Behold the Beginning, and has liner notes by Lars. Diamondhead made metal music back when James and Lars were wee and had not yet made a band. The wee Lars was very much impressed with Diamondhead and the Metallica boys have now recorded three of their songs for Garage Days releases.

On my skateboard I have a sticker that says, "language of the mad." Wanna know why? Go get your ...And Justice For All CD right now and put it in your player. Oh, already in there? Where it belongs. Now go to song six, "Harvester of Sorrow." You will hear crunch c-c-crunch c-c-crunch. This is not a pretty kind of song like the kinds of songs they play on the radio. It's a real kind of song. For me Metallica music has the same rhythm as the streets. Crunch c-c-crunch. And songs with the language of the mad people I pass by. Metallica reflects my world. The rhythms, the noise. That's why it says "language of the mad" on my skateboard. That's the world I live in.

March 10, 1989, Album Network

Grammys 1989

Cindy J/Autumn Meredith, Leather Trio Productions.
Autumn: Cindy is in a huff.
Cindy: Yeah. My dad did not get nominated for an academy award.
A: She's talking about Clint Eastwood. (Note: this was written in 1989 and 20 years later, Clint Eastwood was again overlooked by the Academy, this time for Gran Torino. He has won Academy Awards in the last 20 years, but not for best actor.)
C: Bird was 1988's best film and it only got one academy award nomination.
A: For best sound.
C: It shoulda got best actor and best director.
A: And best use of great music in a great film.
C: Well I think Autumn is in an even bigger huff than me.
A: Cause 'tallica did not win a Grammy. And they could just crunch those wimps Jethro Tull who walked off with the award.
C: Which just goes to show if you wanna win the heavy metal Grammy you gotta prance around in leotards and play a flute.
A: Metallica do not do this. But their performance of "One" on the show just crunched all over everybody else.
C: Maybe Tracy Chapman could give them one of her extra Grammys. What do you think, Leah Simon?
A: Just as cool on the Grammy show was our Sinead O'Connor who was being all punk rock and torn jeans. And she's a mom too.
C: Way to shock the yuppies Sinead.

Album Network, March 3, 1989

Grammys 2009 - Neil Diamond Makes Us Swoon

Cindy: Here's our thoughts on last night's Grammy award bash.
Autumn: U2's set looked very Zoo TV. The song sounded like "Hold me, Thrill me..."
C: They're going backwards.
A: I read a magazine during the boring parts.
C: I fell asleep.
A: Kid Rock!!! Give the man some Grammys!!!
C: He has Lynyrd Skynyrd songs inside his songs.
A: That's Grammy worthy.
C: Miley Ray Cyrus and Taylor Swift were actually kind of ok. Ah, fifteen...
A: At least Justin Timberlake didn't jump up and start singing with them.
C: That girl who kisses girls is strangely sexy.
A: Why was Stevie Wonder singing with the Jonas Brothers?
C: Thankfully Justin Timberlake wasn't involved. Oh look. Radiohead thinks they're Fleetwood Mac.
A: What was that Gwyneth Paltrow intro all about? Shouldn't she have introduced her husband's band?
C: It was like Yoko introducing the Rolling Stones. If Gwyneth had introduced Coldplay she could have said, and they kinda sound like Radiohead only not as good. Oops.
A: And now Coldplay will probably use the USC Marching Band on their next album.
C: They can be Fleetwood Mac too!
A: Paul McCartney made cool look effortless as usual. But they didn't give him a Grammy as usual.
C: He'll probably stop showing up.
A: And then he'll win one.
C: Could it be? Yes it is... "Sweet Caroline..."
A: Neil Diamond! Swoon.
C: I almost fainted.
A: We like old guys.
C: And that girl who kisses girls.
A: Justin Timberlake could learn a lot from Neil Diamond.
C: I think I saw him taking notes.
A: I liked the Bo Diddley thing.
C: Autumn is a fifties kinda girl.
A: A cool bluegrass fiddler and the former lead singer of Led Zeppelin won album of the year and 4 other Grammys. The music business is very strange.
C: "I'd like to say I'm bewildered. In the old days we would have called this selling out, but I think it's a good way to spend a Sunday." -Robert Plant
A: Alison Krauss is adorable.
C: She looks like my sister.
A: She has 26 Grammys!
C: Look out Quincy Jones. My adorable sister has 26 Grammys.

Sugar Pie Desanto - Down in the Basement

Cindy J, Leather Trio Productions:
Living right here in San Francisco there's a cool blues and jazz singer who calls herself Sugar Pie Desanto. Her real name is Umpeylia Marsema Balinton. She was born in New York 53 years ago, but she was raised in San Francisco. In the sixties she lived in Chicago where she recorded whole lots of cool songs for Checker records. She returned to San Francisco in the seventies and has remained here ever since.

Last year (1988) Chess put out an album of Sugar's best sixties stuff called Down in the Basement--The Chess Years. Everyone go out and get a copy right now. Listen to that voice. Sultry, sassy, bluesy, falling all over those R&B songs with a fiery punch. Just the way she sings the line "don'tcha know you gonna messa my mind" on "Can't Let You Go" is enough to make you wonder how a woman who did not even grow past five feet tall can sing with the voice of a giant. The title song, a duet with ultracool Etta James, is all about not having any money, and going down into the basement to do lotsa naughty bad things. Like sweat and dance and get funky.

But the sexiest song of the bunch is "Soulful Dress." Listen to the way Sugar's voice attacks the line, "with that tight fittin' waist and that low neckline." And then at the end when she says to the guitarist, "play it any way you wanna." And the guy gets all raunchy and crazed. Isn't it amazing how us girls can say the simplest thing and guys will get all raunchy and crazed? So everyone let's all go down into the basement and get real funky with Sugar Pie Desanto. "Do any dance you wanna do cause there's no one under you in the basement..." Ooh yeah.

Album Network, February 24, 1989

Maureen Tucker and the Velvet Underground

"I was sitting drumming thinking thumping pondering the Mysteries of Life." --Lou Reed

Autumn Meredith, Leather Trio Productions: Two cool things happened in 1967. My parents had their only child, me, and the first Velvet Underground album came out. I got the album when I was sixteen at this used record store in North Beach where Cindy's boyfriend, Billy, later worked. I always thought that the coolest thing about the Velvets was their drummer, Maureen Tucker. In those old pictures she always looked kinda sweet and tough with her bangs and dark clothes. And she played drums with such understated simplicity that you hardly even noticed how good she was or how perfect her style was for the band unless you listened really close.

After the Velvets broke up Moe settled down, had a bunch of kids and then got divorced. But she never stopped playing drums. In 1987 that 50 Bejillion Watts label put out a Maureen Tucker mini album called MoeJadKateBarry. Jad Fair of Half Japanese sings and Moe plays primitive drums like only she can. They do old Velvets songs, a Jimmy Reed cover and one original. It's one big crunching dirge of a record.

Now everyone knows that the only great album released so far this year (1989) is Lou Reed's New York. And of course Lou got Moe to play drums on two songs. The real cool one is the song dedicated to Andy Warhol, "Dime Store Mystery." Moe's drums sort of fade in and out of the mix, but whenever they pop out you can hear them thumping along with Lou's voice and guitar like two old friends rediscovering each other. Her drumming is so much tough primitive pounding and so unlike all those oversampled drum machine sounds on so many records these days. Maureen Tucker's drums are "shrieking screaming whispering the Mysteries of Life." Yeah, whispering. Keep on pounding Moe.

Album Network, February 10, 1989

Betty Blue, Joan Jett and the Art of Saying, "I Love You"

Cindy Jacobson, Leather Trio Productions.
The other day Billy used the "L" word. Shit, did I chew him out. First it's a totally stupid thing to say. I mean yuppie couples probably use this kind of nonsense on each other all the time. "I love you honey." "I love you darling." Second, it doesn't count unless he says it in French. And none of this whispering, "Je t'aime," either. He's gotta shout it out loud. He's gotta open the car window and scream out "Je l'aime" ("I love her") so the whole world can hear like in the movie Betty Blue.

I have to scold Billy all the time. Like the other day me and Autumn and Cliff were at the Hideout waiting for Billy to show up. And pretty soon Autumn and Cliff are getting all googly eyes at each other and they have to go off someplace and grope. Leaving me at the Hideout by myself surrounded by assorted dweebs and sexist scum, waiting for Billy who never shows up. The next day I chewed Billy out good. Bad Billy bad bad. "I fell asleep," he said. Bad Billy! If this shit keeps up it's gonna be like that Joan Jett song, "Someday," where she says, "listen to me you son of a bitch... I'm gonna kick you outa my life and when you come crawling back to me on your hands and knees on glass..." And only Joan Jett can say the "on glass" part with just the right sinister touch. "I'm gonna spit in your face." Not that I would do that, but it sounds all threatening and punk rock.

So Billy's all, "I'm sorry Cindy. I was tired. I fell asleep." At first he's making like it was no big deal. I'm telling him there was sexist scum everywhere oggling me. And then here it comes. "I love you, little blonde." Now whenever he says "little blonde" he's gone off into the mush zone. And I'm like, "no way, Billy. You gotta say it in French. You gotta open the window and scream it out so the whole world can hear. Or it doesn't count." Trust me girls, this works. Make him say it in French. Make him yell it out. Threaten him with Joan Jett. Practice that sinister "on glass" part real good. Trust me.

Album Network, February 3, 1989

Cindy and Autumn's Favorite Albums of 1988

Cindy Jacobson/Autumn Meredith. Leather Trio Productions.

Cindy: I'm writing my half of this from Chicago where I'm visiting my dad and step mom and my two half brothers who are total Ninja Nintendo brats. And if I hear one more word about those dweebs the Chicago Bears--ooh! Football has gotta be the stupidest game ever invented. Here are my favorite albums of 1988. Everything But The Girl/Idlewild. Sugarcubes/Life's Too Good. Primitives/Lovely. Jesus and Mary Chain/Barbed Wire Kisses. Jane's Addiction/Nothing's Shocking. Ramones/Mania. Flipper/Sex Bomb Baby. And no Van Halen! Honorable mentions go to Michelle Shocked for "Anchorage," Transvision Vamp for "Tell That Girl to Shut Up" and Wednesday Week for their awfully cool fan club EP. Wake up Enigma! Since I'm in Chicago I won't know what Autumn put on her list till I get back. If she puts that ultra macho Van Halen nonsense on there she will be spanked. Boy stuff bleah.

Autumn: Spank me now Cindy. Spank my bare bottom. See if I care. Ultra macho what? She's right about the Bears, though. 49ers rule! Here's my list. Metallica/...And Justice For All. Jane's Addiction/ Nothing's Shocking. Van Halen/OUHateCindy2. Sugarcubes/ Life's Too Good. Primitives/Lovely. Book of Love/Lullaby. Joy Division/Substance. Coolest record label of the year award goes to Elektra cause they have Sugarcubes, Leah Simon, Suki Sir, MetalliRay Gmeiner and even that Rob Sides person who got all squished at the I-Beam Sugarcubes show. Thanks to everyone who contributed to our sleepy time crusade at the end of last year. Charlie Springer is a Christmas star in the west. Cindy hurry back so we can go ice skating on the Golden Gate Bridge. Welcome to 1989 everyone.

Album Network, January 6, 1989

Two Wednesday Week Fans Interviewed

Autumn: This was originally done for some now forgotten fanzine. Or maybe it was in the Wednesday Week newsletter. I think it might be unpublished. Our archives are in disarray.
Cindy: We should mention that we forgot who asked the questions, but it was definitely a boy.

What do you think of Tiffany and Debbie Gibson?
Autumn: I don't think of Tiffany.
Cindy: I think of Debbie Gibson, sometimes. She has horrible clothes, but I like "Only In My Dreams."
A: Put that girl in some black clothes.
C: Put Tiffany in a closet.

Who do you sleep with at night?
C: Mostly I sleep by myself, but sometimes with Billy.
A: I sleep with Floppy Bear.

Which member of Wednesday Week do you most want to be like?
C: I think I'd wanna be like Kristi. If I could sing that cool. Or Heidi. I could stomp as a bass player.
A: I'd wanna be Kelly. A girl drummer. Rad.
C: Uh, oh. Here comes the Val yack.


What are your favorite Wednesday Week songs?
C: "Thrash." (Note: this song is actually called "All That Again.")
A: Cause it thrashes. I like "Just My Size." Cool lyrics.
C: I like "You Want So Bad to Believe" cause it's so sexy. It would drive boys to do dangerous things.
A: I like it when boys do dangerous things.
C: Me too. I think my favorite Wednesday Week song is "I Wonder What You Hear." It has that kinda mystery, you know? Plus Kristi's voice just aches. My favorite female singers are Kristi and Tracey Thorn who is in Everything But the Girl. Both Wednesday Week and Everything But the Girl have songs about relationships with that underlying emotional tension. And you can hear that in Kristi's voice. She captures the real emotional content of the song. That's why Wednesday Week are so good. There's so much feeling expressed.


What are your favorite Wednesday Week shows?
C: I like the one we saw at the San Jose State University Pub.
A: The Leather Trio, that's me and Cindy plus Billy--
C: My dreamwalk baby.
A: --we drove down to San Jose in Billy's car. I think this was in March of 1987.
C: There was hardly anyone there. Maybe 50 people. So Wednesday Week were real relaxed, real casual. After they played "I Saw The Light" this whole table full of beer-drinking Hank fans stood up and cheered.
A: That was so cool.
C: And they played "Boy (You Got Me Good)" as an encore. They don't play that live very much.
A: I like the show we saw in San Diego best.
C: Oh yeah. That was like two years ago. We drove down from San Francisco in Billy's car, but we left Billy behind. It was a girls only adventure. He was so pissed!
A: Cindy had to act all cute and sweet to get him to lend us the car.
C: Did not.
A: He lets her get away with anything.
C: Does not.
A: Neither of us had turned 21 yet, but we were really good at getting into clubs.
C: And you were such a wimp about it. I practically had to drag you down there.
A: Did not.
C: The place was called the Belly Up Tavern. It's in Solana Beach.


A: When we first got there we went straight to the bathroom.
C: Long drive. Needed to pee.
A: On the way to the bathroom we ran into David.
C: Yeah.
A: We got all nervous and giggly.
C: He thought we were so weird.
A: There were tons of people at the show.
C: Watching football!
A: Wednesday Week had to wait to go on cause the game went into overtime.
C: When it was finally over Wednesday Week came out and played.
A: They won over all those San Diego Chargers fans.
C: People danced and spilled beer.
A: They played "Safety First" that night. I love that song.
C: The calico cat song.
A: We like calico cats. There's one who hangs around fisherman's warf. He's a vagabond cat.
C: We like black cats too.
A: Like Sweden, who visits us all the time.
C: Don't tell them that.
A: Why not?
C: Sly secret.
A: Oh.


Do either of you have any nicknames?
C: My dad calls me "Cin." My biker friend Old George calls me "Little Cindy." And Billy calls me "Little Blonde," but only when he's in a really mushy mood. He's such a boy.
A: You'd think she was a midget the way everyone calls her little.
C: Yeah, I'm not that small. Really.
A: Oh, everyone just calls me Autumn. 'Cept Cindy still sometimes calls me "Tomboy."
C: Still sometimes.

How old were you when you lost your virginity?
C: Not tellin'.
A: Me either.
C: I know how old Autumn was.
A: If you tell I'll hit you.
C: You will not.
A: Will too.
C: She always says she's gonna hit me, but she never does.
A: But I will hit you this time.
C: She says that all the time too.
A: Do not.
C: Leave it to a boy to ask this kind of question anyway.
A: Yeah.

Who do you make out to? Mathis or Sinatra?
A: Definitely Sinatra. Nancy Sinatra.
C: Or Buzzcocks.
A: Or Wednesday Week.

Do you have anything else you want to say?
A: Hi Natalie.
C: We should call her.
A: Good idea.

November 16, 1988
Another legendary unpublished Leather Trio Production
Photographs by Joe Beine (20 Nov 1986, Belly Up Tavern, Solana Beach, California; Kelly Callan - 3 April 1986, Callan Garage)

Natalie Kerr phone home!

Flipper Noise

Cindy Jacobson, Leather Trio Productions/San Francisco.

Flipper was to San Francisco what X is to L.A. or the Ramones are to New York. Actually I've never really cared much for Flipper's studio albums. Only their live shows really captured what they were all about. I remember the first time me and Autumn saw them. It was at the Elite club, which used to be called the Fillmore, and is now called the Fillmore again. There were tons of bands, but Flipper just crunched everyone.

A Flipper live show was chaotic, loud, messy, dark, hostile. I've never felt so much raw intensity blasted out from four people on a stage like Flipper could do on a good night. And a good night for Flipper meant the band stumbling through an alcohol haze, Bruce and Will arguing over who should play bass and who should sing, and having members of the audience come up and sing "Sex Bomb" at the end. My favorite Flipper songs are the ones that just drone on like "Ever," "Shine" and "Sacrifice." And of course my favorite album is the live one, Public Flipper Limited.


Now there's a new (in 1988) Flipper record on Subterranean called Sex Bomb Baby that collects all their singles and stray tracks. It's a really good album, what with "Get Away" and "Sex Bomb" on there, but there's something missing. It's not just lamenting Will's stupid death by an overdose. It's just... San Francisco won't seem right without one of those powerfully erratic Flipper shows to go to. They pulsed with a strange noise just like the underside of the city does. Sure other bands will come along and try to claim their turf. But only the guys in Flipper could be the biggest bunch of fuck-ups in world and get it right.

originally published in:
Puncture #15, Spring 1988
Album Network, November 11, 1988 (partial)

Suggested Listening:
Sex Bomb Baby (Collection) by Flipper
Album - Generic Flipper
Blow'n Chunks - Flipper live at CBGBs, 1983

Photographs by Joe Beine
The Eagle's Lodge, Denver, Colorado, December 7, 1984

Clint Eastwood's Bird and Charlie Parker

Cindy and Autumn, Leather Trio Productions/San Francisco.

Cindy: One of my favorite things to do is rent a Clint Eastwood western and watch it on Billy's VCR.
Autumn: Cindy doesn't have a VCR. All she has is a little B&W TV with a broken antenna. She doesn't even have cable.
C: I am not an eighties kinda girl.
A: In order to be an eighties kinda girl you gotta have cable.
C: Clint Eastwood is my adopted dad. I watch his movies all the time.
A: Now there's a new movie that Clint directed called Bird. It's all about Charlie Parker.
C: Who is one of Autumn's heroes. She likes Metallica and Charlie Parker. You figure it out.
A: I first found out about Charlie Parker from reading On the Road by Jack Kerouac.
C: She reads all this Beatnik stuff. She's a fifties kinda girl.
A: In the book the characters are always hanging out at smokey bars listening to jazz played by people like George Shearing, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonius Monk and Charlie Parker. I had never heard of these people before.
C: This is cause we are young sprogs raised on punk rock.
A: So I started checking into it.
C: With a little help from my biker friend Old George, who, when he was our age, hung out in smokey jazz filled bars. One night George told us all about Bebop.
A: And we told him about the Jesus and Mary Chain.
C: We were amazed to learn that people could make music this cool before we were even born. So when Bird opened, well we had to go on opening night. I mean we're talking Clint Eastwood here.
A: We're talking Charlie Parker.
C: Of course the movie is totally cool.
A: You know it doesn't bother me at all that people are now going to think Charlie Parker is cool cause of Clint Eastwood. Cause Bird is a lot more important to music than any of that Kenny G slop that yuppies are buying and thinking it's jazz.
C: You tell 'em, Autumn.
A: So get yourself some Charlie Parker albums and go see the movie.
C: Directed by my dad.

Album Network, November 4, 1988

No Rules

A carefully calligraphied handbill posted near the corner of Divisadero and Haight:

A Musical Event
A Dance
A Black Celebration
An Observance Of The Full Moon

Your Musical Menu:
The Pink Floyd (When They Had Syd)
The Creation
Prince
Eddie Cochran
The Beatles (circa 1966)
The Who (circa 1965)
Billie Holiday
Depeche Mode
Wednesday Week
The Sugarcubes

Attire: Skin Tight Clothing, Black Preferred, See Through On The Girls, As Little As Possible On The Boys. Drag Ok.
Admission: One Postcard With A Reproduction Of A Work By William Blake

The Games Begin At Midnight

The Club Is Called No Rules

Cindy: This is us.
Autumn: Definitely us.
Cindy: "Carefully calligraphied" is hard to say.

1988ish

Cindy Tears

Just a few months ago I wrote my first crusade. It was about Everything But the Girl and their fourth album, Idlewild. Since then they've released a single in England called "I Don't Want to Talk About it." And Sire added it to the Idlewild CD in America. I believe it's a cover of an old Rod Stewart song. (Editor's note: it was written by Danny Whitten of Crazy Horse.) It's real soft and pretty, unlike most of the stuff I usually listen to. The first line of the song is, "I can tell by your eyes that you've probably been crying forever." Just the other day Autumn said to me, "I've known you for seven years now and I don't think I've ever seen you cry." She's right. I don't cry very often. It's not cause I don't ever have anything to cry about. It's not cause I'm so tough I don't ever need to cry. Oh no. I think maybe...well I had kind of a rough time growing up. I cried a lot when I was a little girl. I guess maybe now I'm all cried out. Not many tears left in these wild brown eyes. Like if I'm fighting with Billy and I get to a point where I'm all upset and want to cry, I usually stop myself cause tears can be used the wrong way. If I start crying Billy's gonna get all, "shit Cindy, I'm sorry" and come over to my side. Men simply cannot deal with a woman's tears. Well I don't need that shit. I can tough out the fight without crying if I have to.

But you know there are those rare times when I do cry and usually it's one big mess. Cindy tears and blubbering nonsense pouring out all over the place. But it has to be a pretty big emotional deal before these tears will start flowing. And it sure is a lot nicer when there's someone else there, you know? It's obvious that Tracey Thorn of Everything But the Girl knows all about these kinds of things. She has a lot of songs that deal with emotional complexities. So after you've checked out "I Don't Want to Talk About it," you might want to go back to the album and listen to "I Always Was Your Girl" or "These Early Days" or "Apron Strings." These are really amazing songs. And if you ever need to have a good cry, go right ahead. It's good for you. Just don't get your boyfriend's shoulder too wet. They really hate that.

Album Network, October 10, 1988

On Whether Jane's Addiction is/was God...

It all started when my friend Colleen quietly uttered, er I mean loudly blurted, "Jane's Addiction are God" in Album Network. We didn't know the controversy this would cause. C'mon really. The thundering godhead (oops) noise of Perry, Dave and the boys? God? Or maybe they're just U2 from hell. You decide...

"Jane's Addiction - the band that pulls you into your speaker and consumes you until you feel, are, become. ... Put on a pair of headphones, slap in a copy and lose yourself. Jane's Addiction are God...." -Colleen Combs, Cathouse, Los Angeles (Album Network, Sept. 9, 1988)

"Let's get this straight. Jane's Addiction is not God. They're from L.A. for gosh sakes. However when ol' Perry says 'let's rock' in 'Had a Dad,' this U2 from hell launches into some mind jolting stuff." -Esa, Navarre Corporation, Minneapolis (Album Network, Sept. 16, 1988)

"Personal to Esa/Navarre: Cindy says Jane's Addiction are God. Colleen says so too. That's two against one, you lose." -Cindy Jacobson, Leather Trio Prodcutions, San Francisco (Album Network, Oct. 7, 1988)

"Personal to Cindy Jacobson: I need a broader cross section of the electorate before I'm outvoted. However, after repeated listenings, Jane is approaching sainthood and if talk about the live show is only half true, the Jane/Jesus/God Axis thang (as bold as love) may happen. I may have to acquiesce, I may have to succumb. Jane is not yet God, but she can see God from where she's at, mang." -Esa, Navarre Corporation, Minneapolis (Album Network, Oct. 21, 1988)

...And Justice for All - Metallica

Autumn Meredith, Leather Trio Productions.

Boy stuff. Boy stuff... Imagine guitars, bass and drums all locked into a groove, pounding, crunching, punching you in the stomach. This is Metallica's ...And Justice For All. My boyfriend Cliff says it's the best album ever. He also says this about Puppets and Appetite For Destruction. It's obvious he can't make up his mind. Here's what you do. Get the ...And Justice For All CD in your player and punch up track four. This is "One." First you will hear war noises then acoustic and electric guitars swirl around James Hetfield's nightmarish lyrics. Suddenly Lars, Jason and James get locked into a wildly thumping machine gun rhythm while Kirk goes crazy on lead. When it's over you will lay there devasted by this awesomely sonic metal guitar crunching experience. Start, stop, sputter, crash, kill. This is Metallica. This is the sound of my generation. This is boy stuff on overdrive. Thanks to my friend Leah Simon for the CD. ("We love you lots, Leah Simon."--Cindy) Hey radio people! DON'T PLAY METALLICA! You're so far behind anyway. Keep on playing the Doors and Lynyrd Skynyrd all day. We don't care. We don't listen to the radio anyway. We listen to Metallica.

Album Network, Oct. 14, 1988