A Season in Hell
Hell's Kitchen Radio #233: Punk As F@#$ Renaissance
September 14, 2015 @ 8:00pm

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Sometimes I interview heroes of mine, and sometimes there are musical heroes in the room and I have no idea I'm talking to them. That happened once, back in 1993, while I was standing in Waterloo Records in Austin, while I was thumbing through a record stack and came upon the "Sid and Nancy" soundtrack. A woman standing next to me saw the record and commented about a movie she saw the previous night on her hotel room TV, staring the woman who co-starred in "Sid and Nancy", Chloe Webb. Coincidentally I was watching the same movie in my hotel room. The conversation moved on to other great films, then music, then authors. Then she said goodbye. This was about a 10 minute conversation, at the most. Pleasant. Short-lived. Soon after she walked away, the store manager, or owner announces to the room "ladies and gentleman, we're so lucky to have with us, reading from her new book of poetry, the seminal punk goddess, Exene Cervenka. Give me a break. Really? That's who I was talking to? One of my musical heroes, form one of my favorite bands of my youth? Really? Yeah, I'm sure she was thrilled that I wasn't being all eye-lash-batty to her, and fawning over her every word, and agreeing about how amazing some director and author is, but COME ONE.

If you tune into my show on any semi-regular basis, and I have a guest on with me, you've probably noticed that I have some clue as to who they are. I do my homework, after all. On last Monday's show, I had a lot of homework to do, and it would appear, that I missed some assignment. D'oh indeed.

The 40th Anniversary Punk Renaissance showcase begins tonight, and runs for the next week, so I had some old-time punk-rockers from the Punk Rock Sewing Circle in the studio to talk up the onslaught that is about to be hoisted upon us.

Raymond Ernest Andre III (Flame); Ripper Sisters Linda Walker ("Gale Force" of Ripper Magazine), and Verna Wilson ("Violet Vamp"); Michael Reid (booker of the Mabuhay Gardens, and co-founder of Reckless Records); Bob Clic (from The Lewd); Ethan Port (from Savage Republic); Eugene (from Oxbow (who I had no idea was going to be in the studio, and therefore had no clue who the hell he was, EVEN THOUGH I am not only a fan of Oxbow, but I had the good fortune to MC a show at least 20 years ago at the Cubberley Community Theater in Palo Alto, where they headlined. That may have been the last time I saw them too)).

I can't do this as much justice as my friend Silke Tudor can, so I'm just going to let her words describe the mayhem that starts tonight and runs for the next week.

We don’t know how they pulled this off, but we love Punk Rock Sewing Circle. What began as a string of remembrances on the Mabuhay Gardens Facebook page has transformed into a 40-year anniversary celebration. SF Punk Renaissance: Final Warning! is a weeklong festival that draw doyennes of the underground back to this city where punks could pogo with the deaf, live in a treehouse, perform with live chickens, and survive on SSI. The festival kicks off with an all-ages East Bay sonic survey including members of the seminal Psychotic Pineapple and Dr. Frank. The rest unfolds with must-see photography exhibits; a swap meet for records, ‘zines, flyers, and other memorabilia; panel discussions on early zines, the queer/punk node, and where it all went wrong; educational walking tours of the Mission, North Beach, and SOMA; and of course more music than you can shake your trick leg at: Avengers, The Lewd, The Mutants, Frightwig, Toiling Midgets, and Negative Trend, to name a few.
— Silke Tudor

All the information you could ever want about the upcoming shows, performances, films, readings, etc. can be found here, on the Punk Rock Sewing Circle website.

Get your punk on, but don't forget to take your Midol first.

Enjoy.

jh