A Little About Me
Being the new grrrl on the block, I’ll begin my first update by giving you a little bit of background on me. So, without boring you with my entire life story… here are the groovy highlights…
I was born and raised south of the rockin’ city of Boston. I fled for Philadelphia shortly after high school; went to college and ran amuck in the city of sisterly love for several years. I returned to the Boston area to work for a madman at a cheesy, syndicated talk radio network as a producer (also doing commercial voice-overs as well as sports and weather reports). That job provided me with lots of great stories to tell and I actually enjoyed it. Unfortunately, it didn’t provide me with the funds I needed to get out on my own.
I currently live in the Metro-Boston area. I live just a short subway ride from Downtown Boston. My partner in crime is sleazy rock journalist extraordinaire, Sleazegrinder (aka Ken McIntyre). I work a “regular” day job as an executive assistant/office manager. When I’m not there, I’m a freelance writer, most of my writing focuses on music. So, with that said, you can expect to see lots of music related stuff on my page (local, national and international). You can also check out my interview with Liz Enthusiasm of the Boston-based synthpop band, Freezepop, in this month’s issue of Womanrock.com.
I have an extremely eclectic collection of music. I’m pretty much a music junkie. In college, I was banned from playing music trivia at the bar that was the weekend hangout for my friends and me. Eventually, my friends got banned too, since we would end up winning all the free drink tickets!
Some other stuff I dig includes… cartoons, funky t-shirts, cooking (when I actually have time) and reading cool pop fiction.
There’s lots of cool stuff going on in the city of Boston, let’s get to it!
Autumn in Boston… brightly colored foliage (it is New England after all), book readings and of course rock n’ roll!
I went to my very first book reading in early September, at the urging of one of Boston’s coolest grrrls Kay Hanley, who I recently had the pleasure of interviewing. Kay, was not only the frontwoman for the band Letters to Cleo (which has disbanded), but also provided the voice of Molly for the animated cartoon “Generation O” as well as the singing voice of Josie for the “Josie and the Pussycats” film. But, back to the book reading… While in the midst of the interview, Kay mentioned she was going to be one of many, reading excerpts from author TJ LeRoy’s work, including his story compilation “The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things” at the Market Theater in Harvard Square. She urged me to go check it out, so I did.
The funny thing about TJ LeRoy’s book readings is that he never shows up (or he shows up incognito). He is apparently very shy and reclusive. He enlists the help of others to read from his book. At this particular
reading, Kay was joined by Julianna Hatfield (Blake Babies), Jake Burns (Stiff Little Fingers) and several local authors and actors. LeRoy wrote hilarious introductions for each reader (that he faxed to the theater). The introductions were read before each person read their selection from his book. I ended up enjoying myself. It was a very cool night!
Speaking of books… This summer, rocker/author Tim Catz released his second book “Hangover Palaces”(Gato Loco Books). This book of fictional (fictional? hmmm…) short stories is a great read. Tim’s tales of the trials and tribulations of hipster rock n’ roll lifestyle are not to be missed. Tim recently moved from the Boston area to Los Angeles. He was a fixture in the Boston rock scene for many years, playing in bands that include, Strip Mind, Roadsaw, Honeyglazed and Bloodshot. Tim recently returned to Boston for a week to reunite with Roadsaw (more on that in a bit).
What a show! Crack Torch held their record release party for Crack Torch… “Is Not The Problem” (Curve of the Earth) on Saturday, September 29th, upstairs at The Middle East. Flesh-eating zombies from outer space, The Humanoids, opened the show followed by Placer and Lost City Angels. We arrived in time to catch The Damn Personals, who played a set of rockin’ pop music that made me want to dance (but you don’t dance at the rock show…well, I don’t anyway.) Crack Torch took the stage at midnight and ripped it up, as usual. Frontman, Marc Schleicher, walked on the ceiling (really!) and surfed the crowd as only Marc can… he also proved that he could kick really high! With Chris Jackson on guitar, Staci Fick on bass and Nick Zampiello on drums, Crack Torch is definitely successful in the pursuit of pure, powerful, real-deal rock n’ roll.
Okay, I promised you more on the Roadsaw reunion… On October 12th, Roadsaw reunited downstairs at The Middle East for Scissorfight’s record release party. It my very first Roadsaw show. Ken couldn’t wait for me to check them out. I was totally impressed, especially since they hadn’t played together in quite some time. It was great to see Tim Catz back in town. It was also very cool to see Craig Riggs up front; he now plays drums for Quitter and Random Roadmother. What makes that interesting is that Hari Hassin, Roadsaw’s drummer, is the frontman for Quitter. Roadsaw is even planning a six-week tour of Europe for February. Scissorfight was as loud and rockin’ as ever. Frontman Iron Lung preached the gospel of rock n’ roll debauchery to the already fired-up crowd, moshing ensued and the rest of the night belonged to Scissorfight.
On October 27th, Ken and I were back at The Middle East (We seem to spend a lot of time there!) to see Quitter and Harlow (of VH1 Bands on the Run fame). I really dig Quitter. Frontman, Hari Hassin; guitarist, Ian Ross; bassist, Bob Maloney and drummer Craig Riggs make some seriously, soulful stoner rock. After following their television tour, it was fun to see Harlow play live. I spoke briefly with Amanda and Rayshelle; they both seemed pretty cool.
Halloween Eve was spent with The Humanoids at The Linwood. Black Helicopter opened the show dressed as characters from the The Wizard of Oz. What was totally wild was that they had the actual film playing behind them, as they played their heavy hitting rock n’ roll. Some friends of the band even came dressed as flying monkeys and gathered around the front of the stage as they played. Black Helicopter was followed zombie surf band Gein and the GraveRobbers. I like surf music, but after an hour, I had my fill and was ready to rock with The Humanoids. The flesh-eaters were in rare form as Frontman, Clay Nferno lost pieces of his face (he was made up as a werewolf) and split his leather pants down the middle (neither on purpose).
Well, that’s the update from Rock City… In my next update, tales from this month’s, 5th Annual Redneck Festival. Four nights of no-holds-barred rock n’ roll mayhem.
One last thing, I want to thank Cindy and Regina for helping me get the perfect header pic for my page… they rock! You can check out Regina’s website at http://www.reginafees.com
During this tumultuous time in the world, be good to each other.
Peace, Love and Coolness,
Stacey Dawn
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