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