Quotes of Note for 2020

Alice Bag revs it up in Seattle in March 2020. (Cat Rose photo)

We honestly didn't think we'd get much out of 2020, but we did manage to nail down some interviews and write a bunch of stories for this here blog. We're fucking 10 years old! We made it and we hope to continue the ride for a while (10 more? Let's see, shall we?).

We wish you all a happy new year, and thanks for reading TSHIT. Cheers!

Here's some of our quotes of note from 2020:

Alice Bag:

The album is called "Sister Dynamite." "Sister Dynamite" was inspired by a group of women that I'm working with called Turn It Up, it's an organization of women who are all somehow involved in music, but it's to support each other, to help amplify the voices of women in music. Just getting together and talking about issues that they faced in the past and talking about brainstorming solutions, really made me feel like it was a time of change and that we were gonna create that change. And then I was also inspired by the women who took over the House of Representatives, and I was inspired by the vision of them walking in in their suffragette white suits. It was inspiring for me and I wanna see more of it and I feel like change is on the horizon. So "Sister Dynamite" is this character, this super hero that exists in my imagination, just comes and like is just not gonna put up with being put down anymore.

------------------------------------

Suzi Quatro:

I have a little theory that I live by my whole life. Let's say you're upset with somebody else about something and you're reluctant to say it and they're reluctant to say it. It's so funny... you stick it on the table, 'Boom, there it is.' You know, it loses it's power because nothing is that important. It's such an important lesson to learn. I've never been afraid of the truth, and I've been a walk-through-the-fire kind of girl my whole life. 'There's the fire. OK, I'm gonna go through it. I know it's gonna burn me, but I will come out the other side.'

------------------------------------------

Joe Nolte, The Last:

That's been the goal since I started playing guitar in 1967. And that remains, I want my music to live on and to be heard and enjoyed by as many people on the planet as possible. And they can call it what you want because you gotta figure that I'd written like about 30 songs for The Last before the Sex Pistols released their first single, and, of course, "Anarchy" was the obvious signpost. "Anarchy" was pointing the way where everything was going to have to go, it was just such a brilliant record. But I already had my own take on punk rock, which decidedly was somewhat different and had a much stronger pop element and keyboards. Back in the day, we weren't just, "Yeah, they're a pop band, but they play with the urgency of punk rock," ... no.

Joe Nolte leads The Last through a gig about four years ago. (Elise Thompson photo)

---------------------------------

Sean Elliott, Professor and the Madman:

I'm a believer in the album revealing itself eventually. We're working on it and moving forward and sometimes we don't know what's going to come out of it. So as far as what were we thinking, we didn't, it was just instinct to do it and see what happens.

--------------------------------------

John Haggerty, Pegboy, on Pierre Kezdy (RIP):

Besides being a great player and a brilliant songwriter, he was a lot of fun to be in a band with. He had a great sense of humor and would give you the shirt off of his back, without hesitation. He was a great card player and could drive massive distances without a break. He could do an interview in the afternoon, play a show at night, load gear like a longshoreman then drive us safely back to the hotel. He was the MVP of our band and one of my favorite people in the world.

--------------------------------------------

Keith Morris on the Circle Jerks' beginnings:

When we first started, our situation had us skipping out on the learning to crawl and walking bits and going directly to a swift paced run. Everything was moving fast and we didn't have time to dwell upon the events that were happening to us. The CJs were just going for it! 

-----------------------------

Ceasar Viscarra, Stains, about an epic gig with Black Flag, FEAR, Caustic Cause and Youth Gone Mad on Sept. 11, 1981 at Devonshire Downs in Northridge, CA:

I remember just looking out, 'cause the stage was probably 5 1/2-foot height, I remember being able to look at the very back of the auditorium and seeing people as far as I could see, and just the mosh pit while we were playing was ... it seemed to me like it was a half of the audience. Right in front of the stage, there was just so many people moving in a circle. It was crazy.

-------------------------------

Palmyra Delran, DJ on "Little Steven's Underground Garage" on Siriusxm:

Within my Trash Pop Treasure, I try to hit my favorite types of music. I do a lot of power pop because there's a lot of power pop bands that are like, 'Who the hell is that?' Like I just played The Miamis last week and it was like, 'Only New York people remember those  guys,' you know what I mean?

-----------------------------

Amy Farina, Coriky, on her band's music:

I hope it brings something to somebody somewhere, (that) would be really amazing. I feel just lucky to have been able to make some music. I guess it's all pretty surreal. I think when I was younger and I was in bands, everything was so immediate -- you know, you write a song and you play it for your friends or you play a house party. The energy was instant, and it's not that way now. For us, it's really, we do a lot of toiling by ourselves and it's hard to know if it's even music, it's hard to know what it sounds like or what effect it has.

----------------------

Jon Wurster, on drumming for the Bob Mould band:

The great thing about playing with Bob is, because it's so intense and it's so physical, I had to train to tour. So I'm already in good shape to tour, and then the touring is just like an Ironman challenge. So by the end of that, I'm in the best shape of my life. Luckily we do it fairly often, so I have to maintain my health, which is a great byproduct of the gig.

--------------------

Barry Henssler, Necros:

It wasn't like we had career aspirations, it was just we wanted to be able to travel and get gas and a place to stay and maybe food, enough for that day. It wasn't like there's bags of gold at each stop just waiting for you to pick 'em up (laughter)... You're playing some shithole in Tucson, right?

-------------------------

DJ Bonebrake, X:

I'm proud of everything we've done. Some records are are better than others, some shows were better than others, but overall I think our percentage is pretty good. We've all had our lows personally and artistically but I'd rather think about the highs. I think the string of albums at the beginning of our career were definitely in the high-point category. Also, I think our live shows over the years, although always inspired and intense, have improved. I think we're better now than we were 40 years ago.

------------------------

Steven McDonald, Redd Kross, on recording the band's debut EP:

I was going for it. I'm sure I probably had a little bit of insecurity, but also just was like empowered by my youth. Also I had my brother encouraging me, and Jeff was like, 'Amazing! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!' He loved my high screaming voice (laughs), and he's always encouraged me to approach the nether realms of my capabilities. To reach far beyond what I should be reaching for, particularly in a high vocal range.

-------------------------

Jeff McDonald, Redd Kross, on the band's beginnings and their parents' reaction:

We were very serious about (the band), and they were OK, they were reasonably supportive. We didn't have these aspirations of a career in music, we just were doing things in the moment. They were cool, but we didn't really want them coming to any of our shows, 'cause we were horrified if they saw some of the conditions that we were playing in that it would be shut down, and rightfully so. We had a few friends that were older like Keith Morris and my friend Ella who drove, so they were OK with those people being kind of chaperones, but what would they know? (laughs)

--------------------------

Matt Gentling on Archers of Loaf's musical style(s):

There's a lot going on. There's a good bit of dissonance in there and stuff. Structurally, I guess, it's pop music, but it's pretty obscured by all kinds of stuff going on and intentionally weird... We weren't trying to be pretentious or anything, it was just sort of, you get engaged and you wanna throw the kitchen sink at every idea.