best of 2013 by marissa magic

I saw new bands more than I listened to new records this year so heres some bands that blew my mind:

Swarm - Stillsuit was in Philadelphia in a bike shop  when we played with this band that consisted of two drummers, a bassist, a main singer and then a chorus of three women dancing and singing back ups. It was exhilarating and emotional. I'm pretty sure I cried. After tour anytime anyone asked what bands were good this was a always at the top of my list.

Permanent Ruin - This band is one of those bands to me that i'm kind of like "yeah, they're a good band"  and then I see them and without fail my jaw drops. Non-stop rage, bass and drums unrelenting, a guitar that squeals into chaos constantly and a singer that runs from belting to growling to screaming to holding a note for so fucking long.

Vexx - Wet Drag played a bar in Chehalis that stuffed us with free food and was totally one of those instances of  the bands watch the bands, no one else really there. The atmosphere was a little awkward and Larsens bass kept cutting out but they still slated the shit out of everything. I've been a big fan of stuff that Maryjane does for awhile now and this definitely fed the obsession

Black Dog - This band is somewhere between total sleaze and the heaviest of the heavy. They are so absurd that every time I see them I spend the entire time head banging and laughing hysterically. Their singer consistently wears corpse paint and does push-ups and occasionally brings free weights. This year the line up stretched to include a bass and some general tape loop noise. Basically a bunch of noise freaks decided to start an over the top metal band and its pretty amazing

Daisyworld - Grunge at its best. Jaime is such a rad drummer, The guitar keeps a sickly trance, back and fourth boy/girl vocals. Defenitely another band that falls into the category where I like them and then I see them and my jaw drops.

Styrofoam Sanchez - These noise weirdos. They all dress in suits and build masks and monoliths out of styrofoam that are ripped to shreds by the end. Earsplitting and filled with doom, a wall full of static and bleeps and growls. I once caught a glance of a lyric sheet and it said something like "the toxic rivers run through your blood"

Condominium - This band lands in the space of hardcore that I love, the part that gets real freaky all of the time. They have this seven inch called Carl that jags through an entire intro and then falls in line in the most seasick sense. Everything is barked out in disgust. I saw them live they were wearing flannel.

Not new bands I saw favorites:

favorite summer of my adult life: 2013 - Basically Stillsuit put out our own record, Wet Drag put out a tape and a seven inch, both went on tour, all experiences were excellent.

Realizing I still have feelings and I can get lost in love and get my heart broken

Starting The Blues with Max Nordile and daring to play quiet

Reading The Dialectic of Sex by Shulamith Firestone, getting pretty obsessed

Salami and Cheese snack packs

Moving into a room with a real window and door

Yogurt

Anything by Roky Erickson

Ok now I'm just rambling...

Best of 2011 by Marissa Magic

25 things that interest me in 2011 in no particular order:

occupy/decolonize movement
The shutting down of various things and taking back of space is both
exciting and inspiring. I feel like it's already changed the world to
some tiny degree and I hope it continues to push that

hysterics
This band wows me every time I come across them whether it's in
recorded or live form. And their lyrics are even better. (blistering
lady hardcore)

stillsuit
I consider this to be my band of challenges. Playing guitar, singing
pretty but keeping it entirely abrasive. One of those bands that grew
out of and into the best of friendships. (fucked guitars punishing
drums and fake harmonies)

knife in the eye
This is another challenge band, playing music with people I admire and
one of the more straightforward projects I have ever touched. (freaked
out straight ahead punk rock)

sewn leather
An anomaly of a person, electronic kind of dance music chock full of
references I actually understand (FLIPPER+THROBBING GRISTLE)

sissy spacek
a name I heard so many times but finally this year witnessed the
wonder. (powerviolence noise)

chicago
A town I have loved forever and I finally got a grand tour/hangout
from a native. If I ever found myself wanting to move somewhere new
this would be it.

olympia
I spent more time here this year than I have in the last five. It has
turned into a town of acquaintances where I exist as a bizarre myth,
where people know of my past hijinks and have kept track of me via my
writing but have had minimal real interaction with me. It was real
excellent to hang out with Tobi and make some new friends. For the
first time in a long time I miss it for what it is now rather than
what it was when I lived there.

the church
My new home. Filled to the brim with forever weirdos. Again I find
myself in a semi-public living space (which I prefer) and the constant
go ahead if not encouragement to make the entire place into a series
of art installations is inspiring

diet cokeheads
how did I not know about this? I read an interview that they were on
indefinite hiatus due to different members moving to different places.
I hope they play a reunion show in my living room. (FLIPPER with delay
rather than distortion)

oakland
This is the year I realized that San Francisco was no longer the
social culture I longed for so I moved the fuck on and dove straight
into a bizarre fantasy that is now my reality.

new years
I had this moment where I tried to go to a party in Oakland and felt a
meltdown coming on so I jetted and went to a party in a squat in San
Francisco. It was a magical night.

rind
When Lee moved here I got an e-mail from my friend Danimal telling me
what a wonderful person she is, he is right. Here performances as RIND
are chilling and her record is haunting. An amazing artist and I feel
honored to even be slightly associated with her. (dark bleeps and slow
vocals)

vanessa
maybe this is awkward? Vanessa is my best friend. She is an amazing
guitar player(one of my favorites), excellent screamer and a rad
drummer. She makes creepy drawings and wreaths of hair. She is one of
those people who consistently challenges how I see the world. On her
birthday she took me to creative growth which is the art studio for
adults with disabilities that she volunteers at and it was one of the
most intense and emotional moments of my life

the end of self hatred
too reveling? I kind of don't hate myself anymore. I almost don't know
how to handle it.

MRR column
apparently my writing garners a spot for reporting to the world my
thoughts on things on a monthly basis. Does this make me influential?

meals
she also goes by Amelia. This is another person in my life that
consistently challenges how I see the world. She is an amazing front
person and a mind blowing artist.

magicmeals
the above mentioned and I have this forever project together that has
morphed from a dance thing to a band to performance art to video
making to visual bullshit. A two person art collective. Some of the
rawest and most vulnerable things in my life are presented to the
public via this.

livid
an amazing and inspiring band. Aggressively queer, positive in a
non-hippie sense, rejoicing in the outsider, talk sing vocals provided
by the above mentioned meals. (bags meets val-speak)

displeasure
I hope this doesn't bum anyone in this band out because I really think
they are amazing, but with this combo of people in it I managed to
convince myself it would be a pretty straightforward punk band of the
ilk that I'm not way into. Half way through their first song I was
literally jumping up and down and squealing. This band is
aaaaaamazing. They just put out a demo that has garnered some heavy
rotation from yours truly. (too melodic to be hardcore, not melodic
enough to really be considered melodic)

all-american road trip with family to national parks
nature is FUCKING CRAZY.

midnight magic snax
did I even spell that right? This is a weirdo video project/occasional
DJ duo that I do with my dear and longtime friend jerrylee. Currently
we are at the editing point of a video whose main focus is a "puppet
urinal" staged during folsom street fair.

dadfag
their new record is really fucking good (no wave tinged sonic youth)

nuts! release party/nuts! in general
this was one of the best shows I attended this year, Ben Trogdon must
be a fucking magician or some shit. All day punk show in the middle of
downtown olympia during artswalk in a burnt out building with no roof?
done. Seriously, what the fuck? Beyond that, nuts! is one of the best
zines I've read possibly ever in my entire fucking life. Ben is an
amazing interviewer and it's in general such a mish mash from weirdo
art to food reviews to essays to whatever.

Polly Darton
I thought Maryjane was pretty fascinating in the first place and then
Tobi sent me a link of a performance she did and I really hope she
comes here sometime.

Marissa Magic Reviews Tom Tom magazine

And what do I do with these wooden sticks?

I heard about Tom Tom magazine a bit ago and I was stoked. I’m always excited about ladies magazines that are made by non-corporate entities, and to focus on a field that is so male dominated? So rad! I envisioned grrls giving other grrls drumming advice and tips, gear reviews, maybe even some feminist analysis. I dreamed of a magazine that was glossy like pro magazines but filled with information and insights not normally seen in a mainstream publication, something that was entirely about grrls supporting grrls and breaking up the boys club of drumming. Recently Explode into Colors cruised through town armed with a stack of Tom Toms. Hanging out at the place EIC was crashing I spotted a couple copies on a coffee table and quietly swiped one to peruse. I sat back on the couch and began to flip through. Oh. It’s a fucking fashion magazine.

-marissa magic

read the rest of her thoughtful review here

Interview with Marissa Magic

marissa magic is a writer (deep suburbia, FAB, MRR) and scream-y punk rock girl noise maker (awesomes, the punks, the divine feud) from the bay area. she used to live in olympia and now she lives in san francisco. this interview took place via email. i asked her about her current writing projects, feminism, punk, noise and what bay area bands she is excited about right now...i miss having her in olympia but there's a lot of cool stuff happening where she's at right now. here is what she has to say about it:



What writing projects you are involved in right now?

my most consistent writing thing right now is MRR. I do music and zine reviews, the occasional column and the occasional interview. I'm a writer for the bumpidee reader but haven't posted in a while, I am slowly working on another epic zine that's going to be similar to Deep Suburbia but it's going to be called Endless Bummer. I write for a literary zine called Deep Leap that comes out occasionally. Oh! and I am working on a script for a riot grrl zombie movie with my friend Gentry McShane.

How do you approach writing for MRR?

For the most part I do reviews. Cissie says I always reference the 90's. It's true. I can be kind of harsh and sarcastic but really, they sent their record for review and I review it. For interviews I tend to just try to talk about the things I want to read about. For the most part I don't really care about tour shenanigans and songwriting process, I wanna know if punk and politics work together, I want to know what the DIY community a band is a part of is up to, I wanna know about their thoughts on feminism and queer issues and class issues and race issues. These are the things I find most interesting to read about. When I write columns it tends to come from just talking about punk and feminism with Layla, and I'll make a point or explain one of my theories on something and she'll ask me to make it into a column. In all of this I also try to write like I talk.

What are some of the ideas behind Deep Suburbia?

The core of Deep Suburbia for me was a way to validate my writing for myself. Like most girls I constantly question whether my opinions are valid and that's such bullshit. There's something about having a physical document of your ideas, something you give to your friends and sell at shows and leave at libraries - there's something about that that makes your thoughts feel really real and worthwhile and important. It was also a document of being 25 and not only having grown up in suburbia but a lot of it was written when I was living at my parents house in suburbia for 6 months when I was 25. My long term plan for it is to write one every five years, and at some point after a couple cycles of that compiling them all into one document. A big theme for me when I was writing it was not only trying to prove to myself that my opinions were valid, but also to try to document how my theories and ideas would change and be different as I got older. The essays are basically my ideas about the world, society and my community when I was 25. To come up with the different subjects I mostly just did a lot of jotting down random ideas and then just writing more and more about those ideas everyday.

Can you describe the Awesomes band concept for our readers?

awesomes started out as mainly being about subverting female stereotypes. At this point that explanation seems kind of simple. We have different performances that we do before each set, like we have one where we dress up in work out gear and do aerobics to "let's get physical" by olivia newton john, during it we have mcdonalds burgers that are filled with fake blood that we chew on and spit at each other and rub on ourselves, and then we play, basically being about body image and consumerism, kind of playing with a theme of bulimia and the image of the all american burger and then making it really foul and animalistic. Another thing we do is put black tape over our nipples and then hand out toy squirt guns to the audience filled with fake blood, then they shoot at us, which is just a comment on mainstream medias habit of censoring sex and controlling women's bodies but not really censoring violence. As for the actual set we're usually wearing weird skimpy outfits, and if we're not we usually end up in our underwear, we're covered with something - sometimes blood, sometimes chocolate or whatever and then we're performing. We're making ourselves incredibly vulnerable but the music that we play and our stage presence is extremely aggressive. And then all our set up is is drums and a ton of effects pedals, things that I feel are traditionally kind of male things in music, you know we're not playing keyboards or a tambourine. It's fucking with the idea of what it is to be a woman not only as a performer and as a musician, but just in general what it means to be a woman in american society.

Do you think there is a feminist noise scene right now?

There are definitely feminists who play noise - I hesitate to call it a scene because that implies community, which I don't feel that feminist noise makers are very united and/or supportive of each other. I know some other feminists who play noise and there are definitely some ladies doing rad things like marlo eggplant doing a three cd ladies in noise comp or anna oxygen doing her performance/noise group or sharon cheslow doing sonic tryptych. I guess in reality is I don't feel like it's cohesive scene. I know people here and there but I don't feel like I'm part of a community which is a bummer. Though the other day awesomes played a show with schwule and american splits - mostly ladies, mostly POC's, mostly queer, mostly feminist bands and I felt like I was part of something really awesome, it was a fundraiser for girls rock camp. That was inspiring. I guess I just wish that would happen more and there would be more idea sharing and collaboration within that.

Who are some of your favorite women in noise?

I kind of feel like a lot of women just have this different way of approaching music and approaching art that comes off as noise but I always just think of it as really weird and noise-y punk, but when I think of noise I usually just think of one dude twiddling nobs. anyways- some noise ladies whose music I like - viki, MOM, stuff that azita is/has been involved in, metalux, inca ore, u.s. girls, magik markers (though I didn't like balf quarry), soft shoulder (I don't think the girl is in it anymore though), Marlo Eggplant, Pauline Oliveros, anything that erika anderson does, Bonnie Mercer...

What bay area bands are you really excited about right now and why?



Schwule are great, they are these three really radical ladies that play this really off-kilter hyper punk with weird instrumentation and lots of effects, they do weird skits too. American splits are really rad, my friend described them as drugs at the disco, basically super minimal disco and my friend meals sings like something between yoko ono and a valley girl and it's amazing.

TITS are really good, it's like five girls that play this super doomy metal drone and they all chant lyrics together. No babies are always exciting, kandis(drummer in my band) just joined them, they got kicked out of a bar show they were supposed to play at the other night so they played in the parking lot with the guitarists playing trumpet and clarinet and the singer running through the crowd and screaming, it was really exhilarating. The dudes from long legged woman started a new band that I'm not sure what its called but it's amazing doomy chaos. I just got dadfags record for review at maximum, realized it was an amazing mix of 90's girl indie rock and no-wave. brotman and short are completely amazing two dude darkwave! The dudes from that are in another band called base of bass thats super heavy and exciting, they run the vocals through this crazy speaker that is the size of a person and the singer wears it on his shoulder. Grass widow is good. Rank/xerox are really good, they have a split tape with grass widow thats super awesome. Shannon and the clams are a good time. and of course I love hunx and his punx and younger lovers!!! Those are the bands I am excited about like right at this moment.



What are some of your favorite things that happened in music in the past 5 years?
the feminist takeover of MRR (still going), the bus that has shows here,
being in all girl bands, teaching myself guitar and drums, watching the gossip get famous, Lady Gaga (I don't really like her music but her presence in mainstream media blows my mind!), everything that veronica ortuno does, the rad almost all-lady punk show in olympia, getting involved in girls rock camp, the solo show I played in portland where colin self unplugged all of his equipment midway through his set and he just spoke to the audience in a normal way and everyone was completely silent and mesmorized, feeling like part of the punk scene here but feeling like I still have my northwest membership.

How do you see the future of women in punk/noise/underground whatever?

I don't know. I have fantasies of all these girls who go to rock camp starting noise punk bands and RAGING. I wanna see more ladies playing music that rages and that has a point and a message. I hope for it. I'm kind of cynical. I want to have some level of feeling safe going to shows.

How do you see the future of punk/noise/underground/independent culture and feminism? More specifically, does punk etc have anything to offer feminism?

I think feminism has far more to offer punk then punk to feminism. I guess I was involved in feminist stuff for a long time but I didn't fully connect with it until it was in a punk context. But other than that in general I feel like the punk scene (here at least) is kind of highschool-ish. Theres dumb jocks who say dick shit to me, I mainly hang out with the weirdo stoner kids, theres lots of girls who are really concerned about being fat and unattractive and they're not really involved with making music or art, they're just hanging out with their jock boyfriends. My point is is that I feel like feminism is a way of calling that kind of shit out. feminism is a vehicle to say you guys are living your life basically in the same way that those assholes do. why? In some ways I feel like punk without feminism is just dudes drinking mass amounts and singing songs about fucking girls. Feminism forces the question of how are you going to live your life differently? what do you want? how will you get it? how can you help others around you?



discography:

2005
the punkssssss - thank you for the alternative rock - 5RC

2006
Punksssss - live cassette - 777 was 666
Marissa Magic - fuck off fer sure like totally - bumpidee
punxxxxxxx - unanimous bangers - 5RC

2007
Marissa Magic - abeyance - self-released

2008
The Divine Feud - drum machine demos - self released
Marissa Magic - vocal fuck place - self released
ladyz in noize - 3 marissa magic tracks - spleen coffin

2009
awesomes - "we don't put out" - self released

marissa and me, back in the day:

Best of 2008 by Marissa Magic

11. finishing Deep Suburbia, getting mega positive response from it (I
guess people never call to be like "yr. zine
suuuuuuucccccckkkkeeeeddd", whatever) and even getting mentioned on
Bull Tongue (I think they fucking called me a genius!)!

2. writing more and more for MRR (and hanging out more), because I
really like those punks and it kind of blows my mind to have such a
gigantic world wide audience for all my semi-radical rants

3. realizing I really want to be a librarian, basically I've felt
weird and out of place for the majority of my working life except for
that chunk of time at KRS/5RC, and then I got my childhood dream job
of working at the Exploratorium as a library assistant (I'm on call,
wish they'd call me more) and suddenly realized getting paid to work
in a room full of information I have full access to with super smart
librarians is kind of amazing

4. finally landing myself in an all girl punk band, though short
lived, I got to open for some bands I really love and respect and that
blow my mind, our best show by far was playing at million fishes, an
all ages gallery thing in the mission, where all of our friends were
flipping out dancing in the front. Or maybe the best show we played
was the dude warehouse in Oakland where when we loaded in and it was
like "where the fuck are we?" and then we mega ripped shit up, at the
end I said "most triumphant"

5. starting a new-as-yet-unnamed band with Amelia, Dave and Corrine,
playing a house show a week after our first practice, not clearing the
room, and everyone describing it as "a surf-y early sonic youth" It's
the music I've always wanted to play!

these shows:
1. sex vid, sisters, nodzzz, and gun outfit in laylas backyard
(everyone was like whoooaaa! girl in the pit!)
2. purple rhinestone eagle at million fishes (never liked the
recordings, blew my fucking mind live)
3. new bloods, grass widow at the bike kitchen (actually, grass widow
in general)
4. boredoms at the fillmore (yoshimi drumming for 2 HOURS STRAIGHT.)
5. night wounds at the mansion (fucking shit up, got hit in the head
with a bass guitar)
5. nu sensae at the mansion (yeah, until the cops came and shined
their cop light on us)
6. carrots at the knockout (hottest day of the year. You walked in and
would be instantly damp. All the texans were like "wait, it's hot?")
7. u.s. girls at the hemlock (usually I don't like when people just
sit and sing at you, but something about it is the saddest sound on
earth)
9. explode into colors at some hair salon (I swear it's like an army
on horses coming over the hill to fuck you up)
10. old haunts at thrillhouse (their old records spent a lot of time
on my turntable this summer, the old ones just because I don't have
the new one yet)


some records:

1. nu sensae 12" (grrrrruuuuuuuunnnnnggggggeeeee)
2. vivian girls - wild eyes 7" (it's kind of sweet but totally full of danger)
3. modern creatures - thick thick black 7" (new/no wave, bedroom dance)
4. new bloods - secret life (this band kills me everytime)
5. vapid - do the earthquake 7" (I love girl scream rave-ups)
6. grass widow tape (pretty much my favorite local band)
7. u.s. girls - introducing (it's like neil young but a girl fuzzed
out alone in her room)
8. explode into colors tape (ok, I haven't actually heard it but I
know I'm getting one, I know I'm going to like it, and it happened in
2008)
9. free kitten - inherit (FREE FUCKING KITTEN!!!!!!!)
10. mutators - secret life (#1 girl screamer.)