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penelope's newsJuly 10th 2008, RIP Bruce Conner. Just heard the sad news that Bruce passed away on July 7th at his home. He was 74. All the more reason to see the exhibit outlined below. It's up until August 3rd and also includes some classic flyers from the period and displays of original copies of Search and Destroy magazine. Which you can still buy for your collection...'"Living the punk life, 1976-1979." Incendiary interviews, passionate photographs, art brutal. Corrosive minimalist documentation of the only youth rebellion of the seventies. Crammed with information and inspiration. The real thing, not some doddering sensational rehash.' June 5th 2008, Hi folks, Be sure to check out the Bruce Conner/Mabuhay exhibit at the Berkeley Art Museum this month. It features 53 pics of The Avengers, Negative Trend, UXA, F-Word, Sleepers, The Mutants, the audience members and more. May 28, 2008 Don't miss this show: SF Punk Pioneers... get your tickets early.Last time we played with Flipper and the Mutants at the Fillmore it sold out and everyone was begging me for tickets. This time you've got plenty of warning, but tickets will be announced to the public in a few days...Better get your's now. This looks like the only Avengers show this summer. Ticketmaster.com LiveNation.com Fillmore Box Office Feb. 28 2008 Jimmy, Danny, Greg, Brad... Jonathan: Where are they now? Feb 17th 2008 Happy Saint Constabilis Day and Happy birthday Fred Frith (59) and Billie Joe Armstong (36). I did a very fun show at the de Young Museum a few days ago. About a thousand people were there looking at art (Gilbert and George) and listening to these songs: Hole, Soul Redeemer, Dead Girl, Missouri Lounge (My new song that name drops the home of the Wed Night Open Mic by Paul Pot) If You're Willing, You Reel Me In, Pale Green Girl, Paint It Black, Corpus Christi, and The American in Me. All kinds of small children --incuding Barbara Lui's who wore their underwear on the outside -- not to mention older folk's --Jean Caffeine's parents stayed all the way through sound check -- library workers and crusty punks; thrilled to the sounds of Jello's voice and my semi-righteous band, Lout, with Pat Johnson, Ned Dougherty, and Dave Leonard. Eventually lavish praise was slathered about. Keep an eye out for more PH/Lout gigs as the Avengers are on a little hiatus (see below). Dec 14th 2007 The US tour was fast and fun. My favorite shows were in Austin and New York. Look for my first ever interview with Ratso (a sock puppet) on Chic-a-go-go. And look for Greilian mention in the 01/08 issue of Interview Magazine. Other news... Luis is opening a store in Brooklyn called Urban Rustic. Go on down there and get yourself a Santanoni sandwich and a fresh squeezed Saranac. Oct 5th 2007 Here's the word on presidential politics and Avengers lyrics from writer Falling James in this week's LA Weekly. "The Avengers, Pansy Division at Spaceland. Great moments in presidential speeches rewritten: “Ask not what you can do for your country/What’s your country been doing to you?” as the Avengers’ Penelope Houston railed back in 1979 on the Steve Jones–produced “The American in Me,” an anthemic look at the first Kennedy assassination that still raises chills today. “It’s the American in me that makes me watch the blood running out of the bullet hole in his head... It’s the American in me that says it’s an honor to die in a war that’s just a politician’s lie.” What a shame that we don’t live in wartime or an era when politicians are routinely deceitful — otherwise you could argue that the Avengers, one of the earliest and most thrilling San Francisco punk bands and a direct influence on an entire generation of riot grrls, are still relevant today. After the Avengers broke up, Houston worked for a spell with Magazine’s Howard Devoto, then morphed into a contrastingly laid-back folk-pop persona before reuniting her old band a few years ago with original guitarist Greg Ingraham. They’re backed by drummer Luis Illades and bassist Joel Reader, who’ll do double duty with the reconstituted queercore parodists Pansy Division. Sept 18th 2007 Mmm... a ridiculous amount of time has gone by since my last news bit. But lots is happening. We're going on an-almost-all-ages tour of the Ol' US of A in a few weeks and hope to see you face to face. I expect the October (Punk) issue of SPIN Magazine is gonna have pictures of myself and Jimmy Wilsey along with members of X, The Germs, Dils, Slits and Weirdos and a free-for-all style interview we all did with Jack Rabid. Some nice old and new pics up on the myspace page. Also check out this cool webpage run by Alice Bag, which coincidentally features an recent interview with yours truly. Also see my somewhat cleaned up webstore... new FAQ and there really is going to be a whole new site someday. April 15th 2007 Just had the funnest time on Pirate Cat Radio, the lovely local pirate station. DJ Drinks with Tony had me DJ-ing and I dug out some old 45s to spin... Pink Section, Inflatable Boy Clams, Mutants, Student Nurse. There will be a podcast of the show up on their site for 6 weeks so check it out! click on the "Drinks with Tony" april 14 show in the Podcast list (I don't start until a quarter of the way into the show). And come see the Avengers play next week! April 5th 2007 Secret show tomorrow in the East Bay! I'll be dusting off the autoharp and tearing some hearts up. Don't miss it. Finally I've got a downloads page on on my website. Not streaming (someday I'll figure that out... there really is a new website being developed) but songs you can buy. Thanks to everyone who's bought CDs, LPs and Tees from this site. That's what keeps it up here in the www. Mar 14, 2007. Ahhh... home from a fun but long Avengers tour. Rome was the best! There are some clips up on You Tube made with cell phones or... here's my favorite one from Stuttgart. There's also some up there from the Pearl Jam concert where Greg and I joined them for The American in Me. Who knows how long any of that will be up there. Other news, a couple of local shows coming up. And I brought back some tour tees in new designs and they come in Girlie sizes for the ladies! Both of these designs are from my art school days. I also made the teeshirt page a bit easier to maneuver. Check 'em. Jan 23, 2007 New Avengers European Tour. Starting in a couple weeks. We'll play just one show in NYC on the way over the big pond. It's at the Bowery Ballroom, so please come see us and help spread the word. Look for some big news posted on our return and a new website in April! July 27 2006, New All Ages show announced! Hi folks, Last week was pretty crazy for me. Sang "The American In Me" 3 times; breaking personal records in the hottest, biggest crowd, and best local gig catagories. On Sunday, I went with Avengers guitarist Greg to see Sonic Youth and Pearl Jam (who had been covering the song live in 2004-5) My friend Liz works for them and got us into the sold out shows. When we were invited to meet the band, they asked us if we wanted to perform the song with them in front of their 7000 rabid PJ fans. "uh yeah what key do you do it in?" "In G"... Just one whole step down, which was easy for me, but Greg had to refigure his chords and solo after playing in "A" for the last 27 years! He pulled it off though and it was a blast. In case anyone was there and wondering what my self-made pink duct-tape wristband said... it was "Fuck Bush" July 6 2006, 2 more PH albums are available for download from iTunes. Newly posted is a video of us playing in Hamburg in February on the Avengers Myspace page. Some Av shows coming together, with interesting support bands... on July 21st in SF we'll play with the bizarrly amusing Mon Cousin Belge and the wildly debauched Jonny Lives. The next day we will hit the streets of Modesto to share a stage with Numbers, Micah P. Hinson and Pedro the Lion frontman David Bazan. That's part of the X-Fest which also sports (on various other stages) Vanilla Ice and the Marshall Tucker Band! Yikes. SoCal the following weekend, and in August some shows for the under-21 crowd... stay in touch. June 1 2006 Summer is acomin' and maybe, if you're lucky, the Avengers will be playing in a large American city near you! Keep your eye on the shows page for updates. NoCal and SoCal in late July and the East coast and Chitown in September. The good news is that I don't have vocal nodes... (phew!) So we plan to hit the Continent again next Spring. I'm working on new penelope songs and hope to play some next Wed at the Rickshaw Stop in SF. Hope you'll make it. Check out the new PH section on iTunes for all your downloadable PH needs... such as downloads of the out-of-print albums Cut You and Tongue. May 10 2006 My, how time flies. Lots has happened in the last few months. The Avengers had a smashing Euro tour where we stayed and played in squats and youth centers and 4-star hotels and great standing-room-only rock clubs. It was friendly and freezing cold and I lost the upper end of my voice for a few shows, but we plowed on with the intrepid Ales of Nomads of Prague, a great touring company. I was amazed at how many of the opening bands had female punk singers who have recorded Avengers covers (4 or 5) and even more startled by how many of them (3!) actually played our songs in their opening sets!!! We plan to go back again once our bones have thawed out. The highlights were Rome, Berlin and Hamburg. I promise to get some fotos up in the next... month. Until then, check these out from Rome. While we were gone all my friends and people who would later stopme in store parking lots, got to see me and Pat play "If You're Willing" on the Josh Kornbluth Show. Which you can view online if you have Real Player. I've been resting the voxbox since returning excpt for the sold-out "Fab Mab Reunion" at the Fillmore w/ the Mutants, Avengers, Flipper and The DKs sans Jello (which in my book is not the best idea) It was a very fun night for everyone involved. On to the future... some Penelope appearances and Avengers shows in NoCal, SoCal and the East coast. Jan 27th 2006 We're getting ready for the Avengers first ever European Tour. Most dates are up but a few in the uK are still being set up. Thanks to Mutti's Booking and Bryan. Please let all your eurotrash friend know of out shows. We promise to be amazing! While we're away you can catch me and Pat Johnson playing a new song live on the Josh Kornbluth Show on KQED. It'll be on Feb 20th at 7:30 PM. I do a little interview with the very smart, large-headed Josh and Dirk Dirksen expounds on punk history as well. The latest in must-haves for my super-collectors is a limited edition, hand-printed letter-press broadside of the lyrics to The American in Me. Signed, of course! Dec 16th 2005. Well well well. The year's flown by. Tomorrow is my birthday, so go to my webstore and buy me something (and then keep it) I've been doing a lot of shows with my musical colaborator, Pat Johnson to celebrate the U.S. release of his CD October Moon and have I another coming up in Jan. Also, Thunderbirds ARE GO for an Avengers tour in Europe so please check all the shows and tell your friends! Last week I played a new song live on the Josh Kornbluth Show on KQED. It will air sometime in Feb, 2006. I've been keeping an infrequent blog on the Myspace page with some poems on it now. There is my Penelope page and my Avengers page with some new live recordings. Join up for more fun! Sept 28th 2005, OK Avengers have gotten a last minute show in Silverlake (Los Angeles) at the Echo!!! 18 and over. Please spread the word. Sept 24th 2005, Sorry, I've been out of the newsroom for a while. It's been quiet around here and I'm writing songs. Check the shows page for last minute changes in upcoming spots. It looks like the SoCal Wasted Fest has been cancelled due to business difficulties. But the Avengers are trying to get a show in LA on Oct 8th to replace it. Join our email list to get updates. I will be playing with my band Lout! Sept 30th in Berkeley. The very talented Mike Theriaeu and sean smith will open the show. Here's a recent Penelope interview from online zine Here and There. May 3, 2005 It looks like the Avengers will be taking a break for most of the summer after this next round of shows. Joel and Luis will be playing shows across America to support their upcoming Plus Ones CD out early July. Look for them! Penelope will be working on a new solo album and will be playing new material with Pat Johnson and crew around California (look for her at the Mission Creek Music Festival) So this may be your last chance for an Avengers fix: The Avengers play Cafe du Nord, on Friday the 13th of May w/ Harold Ray Live In Concert! and special guests Baby Jail. This could sell out, so get your tix now online. Then we'll rock the UK playing The Underworld in London May 21, and the bloated punk festival called Wasted in Morecombe @ 6:PM on May 22.On a more literary note: I had so much fun (and butterflies stomach) at the reading for JT Leroy's novella Howard's End, that I'm doing it again. Don't miss me and others, including the mega-talented Sean San Jose, and a showing of Cherry Hood's original illustrations for the book. It's free and all ages. Sat. May 7th 7:00 - 11:00 @Varnish Fine Art Gallery 77 Natoma street between 1st and 2nd St. and Mission and Howard. Jan 27th 2005 We raised $2400 at the door of the benefit (see below) for Nancy Kravitz! And a feverishly good time was had by all. In other recent fund raising feats, Penelope gave a Vivienne Westwood Seditionaries shirt from early Avengers times to the People For The American Way fundraising auction which sold for $800! If you're in Germany check out this one hour radio special on Penelope, Friday Jan 28th at 19:00 on Radio RSG. If you live in the Bay Area see Penelope read Thursday, Feb. 3rd 6:PM from J.T. Leroy's new novella "Harold's End"details here. The reading preceeds the SF debut of the film "The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things" which opens the SF Independent Film Fest. Jan 20th 2005 We had a great time doing the Avengers UK tour and playing with The Damned, who brought us Absinthe backstage, which led to my singing along during an encore of "Smash it Up" and giving Captain Sensible (in his schoolgirl frock) a righteous spanking during his guitar solo! If you're across the pond and missed it, we will probably be going back over in May for Morcombe. I did bring back Some UK Avengers tees and have 2 designs in GIRLIE Tees!! So all you girls and friends of girls, check out the new swag. Tonight we play a benefit to help cover the medical bills of Mr Nancy Kravitz, a fab SF girl drummer who's supported the scene and like many artists and musicians in the US, has no health care. Nov 24th 2004 Don't let Thanksgiving turn you into a turkey-stuffed TV watching zombie! The Avengers are going to the UK to play 5 shows. But before we go... our last US show this year will be: Friday, Nov 26th 9:PM $12 The Cafe du Nord, Buy tix online. It's all ages!! The Avengers w/ Von Iva (hot rock band of four hot girls!) The Horribles ( two girls and one guy playing punk rock and roll from LA) Not to say girls are better... but this line up features the talents of 7 girls! Avengers UK dates: Dec 8th and Dec 9th supporting The Damned. Dec 10th and Dec 11th we headline two shows and Dec 12th London "Wasted X-Mas" at The Astoria w/ The Damned, Sham 69, UK Subs, Chelsea, 999 + more. But with only about 3 girls out of 40 musicians Oct 30th 2004. We are back from Europe and had a great time there. Many wonderful shows starting with a performance in Bonn at the Harmonie. and ending 19 days and 19 shows later in Salzburg. Some more live photos here. We brought back some brand new Pale Green Girl Tour T-shirts and posters. Back in time to VOTE! And starting to think about the Avengers shows coming up in November (26th at Cafe du Nord in SF) and maybe 5 in the UK. Check out the new Pat Johnson CD Famous Butterflies available from my webstore, featuring ex-Byrd Gene Parsons, Mike Therieau and me! Oct 4th 2004. Tomorrow we fly to europe to play 19 shows...wheeee! Oct 1, 2004. Wow. What fun playing in Portland and Seattle with the Avengers last weekend. Portland's big punk club, Sabala's, was the site of maybe our best show with this line up. The band rocked like banshees and the audience went insane. Amazing. The next day we drove to Seattle to play a benefit for "No Vote Left Behind" which is a voter drive with the intent of getting Kerry in and Bush out of office. Here's a few words from each musician involved, about why they played, from Seattle's best weekly rag The Stranger. There was also this review in the Seattle PI. We also got a tingle when we heard that Pearl Jam had played "The American in Me" to a sold out crowd the night before! Sept 17th, 2004. Today I'm having my first real DJ experience. You can hear it streamed on KUSF TODAY from 3-4:pm Pacific Time. My playlist will include unreleased material from people like The Moore Brothers, Pat Johnson, The Plus Ones, Thistle, and timely songs from Mekons, Bart Davenport, Hard Place, did I mention the Avengers? other PH faves and music from some of the bands playing with us on 9/19. So tune in, stream in, and come to Valencia Street Fair on Sunday. August 30th 2004, We had a blast playing SoCal again. Next Avengers shows are Sept 24+25 in Portland and Seattle. For my Penelope/Pat Johnson band (the Crankies?) we are reheasing a new drummer; Dave Leonard, for our 19-show European tour. We'll do a couple of warm-up shows in the Bay Area (Sept 9th and 19th) before heading out in early Oct. It's mostly Germany with a few Austrian, Swiss, and Croatian shows for good measure. Please spread the word about us if you've got friends abroad or up North. July 25th 2004, We've been having a great time playing the scAvengers shows. A few more are scheduled for 2004; some all ages shows in SoCal (including the Sunset Junction Street Fair with a great line-up) and 2 in the PNW and maybe a couple in London at the end of the year. If you miss the punk shows, don't miss out on the new Avengers Tees. I will be doing a European Tour in October with my "solo" band, the Crankies or whatever we're called. And the Moore Bros. will be along for the ride. It's going to like psycho summer camp! Look for some SF warm-up shows before then. (Sept. 19th Valencia Street Fair!) June 16th 2004, scAvengers shows are coming to SoCal! Don't miss them. The American in Me CD got a great review in Pop Matters. May 19th 2004, Important news for all Avengers fans: I'm re-uniting with Avengers guitarist, Greg Ingraham(AKA Gerg Scars) and we will tear up a full set set of Avengers tunes at 924 Gilman St, Berkeley CA on Fri. May 28th. Filling in on bass and drums are Joel Reader and Luis Illades (of the Plus Ones.) This will be the first of a handful of Cali shows, and celebrates the release of the new Avengers CD The American in Me on DBKWorks. The name we are playing under is the scAvengers, so don't miss out! Get on our email list or check the shows page frequently. May 9th Happy Mother's Day! April 25th 2004, I know it took a long time coming, but now that The Pale Green Girl CD is out, it's causing a bit of a commotion... All Music Guide gave it a 4 star rating. April 13th 2004, Here are the promised audience-eye-view photos of my moment with Mission of Burma. A groovy review of my covers CD Snapshot just came out in the latest issue of Venuszine. And the new Avengers CD is not officially out yet, but already #4 on KBOO Radio in Portland! April Fools Day 2004, OK seriously, I can now send out all the copies of my two new CDs, The Pale Green Girl and the Avengers The American in Me to all who pre-ordered them. Thank you! And although they won't be in stores until April 20th, you can buy them here. And on sale! We'll also be selling them at the CD release parties in SF and the East Bay. But why wait? March 24th 2004, A fun time was had by all at SXSW. We played 4 shows and I was asked to sing "The American in Me" with Mission of Burma! Hopefully I'll have some photos to post soon. I've posted the new press releases about my CD Pale Green Girl and the new Avengers CD which are offered at a special two-fer sale saving you $5. Did you know that 2 of my earlier CDs are available from CDBaby? They are included in their 3-fer $15 sale. What a deal! But it takes some serious browsing to find them. March 13th 2004, We're on our way to Austin for SXSW. We'll be playing 4 shows, three with our new band and one acoustic show with Pat Johnson. Most of them are free so if you're going to be there, please come by and say hello. My two new CDs will be available at my shows, or you can pre-order them online. (One is the Penelope CD and the other an Avengers CD.) They will ship on April 1st. Feb 21st, 2004, Pat Johnson and I have put together a great new band. Don't miss our historic debut on Feb 28th @ Starry Plough in Berkeley. It features myself and Pat, Mike Theriau on guitar (Mover, Dave Gleason's Wasted Days) Ned Doherty on bass (Mushroom) and John Hofer on drums (Persephone's Bees, Downy Mildew). Happy New Year! Thanks to all my friends and fans for their continued support (especially to the one who is giving my a new i-mac!) NOV. 27TH 2003, Another new disc! The new Avengers white vinyl LP Zero Hour from Italy's Get Back label. This wild live recording is from our third-to-last Avengers show in 1979. Recorded at the Old Waldorf, San Francisco, it's a vast improvement over a terrible sounding bootleg of this show on CD that came out some 10 years ago. Includes four songs that have never had an official release and some knockout photography by Ruby Ray. The package include a card innersleeve with more pictures and liner notes. Plus it's on high-grade white Italian vinyl. If you don't have a turntable, most these tracks will be included on a CD coming out in Mar/April, 2004. But the LP is frame-able! ...and only $9.99. Get it for your Avenger fanatic! Oct. 30rd 2003, It's here! The new 5 song EP Snap Shot from Flare Records. Read a review at All Music Guide. Order your copy (free shipping until Nov 2nd!)online or buy it from me in person at one of these CD release shows! Also available at Mod Lang in Berkeley, and Amoeba in SF and Berkeley. Sept 27th 2003, Coming soon! The Nov. 1st release of my new 5 song CD EP, Snap Shot, from Flare Records, with cover versions of songs by Pentangle, Colin Blunstone, The Band, Shocking Blue and the Flying Machine. Featuring the Maydays, Willow Willow and the Moore Brothers. Pre-order your copy now or buy it from me in person at one of these two new shows! And look for my interview and punk photo in the new Fall 2003 issue of the ever-hip Venus Magazine at cool newsstands and in stores everywhere.
Sept. 7 2003, If you are desperate for the Avengers album on CD or my other out of print CDs, check out my new offering on my Gotta have it! page. July 16th 2003, Today, my performance with Pat Johnson at the Howard Dean Celebration is reviewed in Greil Marcus' Real Life Rock Top Ten. Already, I'm getting emails from conspiracy theorists! Mr. Marcus likes "The American in Me" and "Scum", 2 of my most popular songs. See how all my fans voted on their favorites at the new survey results page. July 9, 2003, It's here!!! My new "Best of" CD on Warners Germany. eighteen stories down It's in store all across Europe, but everyone else had better by it from me! 18 tracks for just $13.99.
June 29th, 2003, What a week! On Monday evening Pat Johnson and I played "The American in Me" and "Scum" at a big (1000+) celebration of Howard Dean's running for Democratic Presidential candidate. It was about the strangest gig I've ever done. You can see a movie of it online at Lisa Rein's site. I do feel strongly about getting Bush out of the White House, and beating him in 2004 seems like the only legal way to do it. After my supporting Dean with my performance, I also have supported Dennis Kucinich with my MoveOn Straw Poll vote. I would be happy to vote for either of them next November.
June 11, 2003, What would you
put on a "best of
Penelope" album?
May 30, 2003,
May 12th 2003,
April 6th 2003,
March 30 2003, On the Music front: I'm working out a new project with WEA Germany. To be announced soon!
December 17th 2002,
Newly pressed UKEBOX Christmas CDRs and in!
October 19th 2002,
April
5, 2002, March
31st, 2002, Click here to see more news from the past. |
