By David Ensminger, excerpted from Houston Press…

Sometimes people come into our lives with the force, elegance, and nimbleness of water. Musician, photographer, and patient advocate Kathy Johnston invoked those traits. “Kathy was such a huge part of our lives. We already miss her intensely,” band mate and friend Trish Herrera is quick to testify.

My own heart filled with crows when I heard that she passed away barely beyond midnight on Sept. 4th, 2011, due to a longtime bout with leukemia, which stirred an outpouring of sympathy on punkwomen.wordpress.com, where Tracy Richardson noted, “Kathy was a talented musician, animal lover, friend and humanitarian. I am one of the many who will miss her. She helped me be a better person.”

The Mydolls in 2009 (L-R): Kathy Johnston, Trish Herrera, Linda Younger and Dianna Ray (photo by David Ensminger)

A bit estranged after returning to Houston after my stint in Oregon a few years ago, I soon encountered the Mydolls. Fortunately, they opened their arms and welcomed me. I began snapping photos of the band, documenting their lore and ephemera, curating their archives, and evening substituting on drums for original member George Reyes when he was stuck out-of-town. Bass player Dianna Ray and guitarist and singer Trish Herrera became vital “informants” for a series of articles I penned examining women, Hispanics, and gays and lesbians in the punk and hardcore scene. These texts later formed the backbone of my book Visual Vitriol.

The band was already legendary in my mind, ever since hearing them in the mid-1980s on the Cottage Cheese From the Lips of Death compilation. Being their companion only increased my awe as they helped me organize gigs benefiting victims of heart disease and cancer and led efforts to popularize, promote, and teach at Girl’s Rock Camp Houston. Kathy Johnston, the iconic fifth Mydoll married to Dianna Ray, was a heartfelt, diligent presence during all these activities, bringing her wit and honesty to the forefront.

“In the 1990s, we had a couple of short-lived bands. Women with Instruments (WWI) and Black Dresses with Kathy. WWI was a crazy fun band with an euphonium player!” Herrera recalls with glee. “Black Dresses was more of a folk-oriented type musical endeavor, and we wrote wonderful songs, helped raise money for animal rights activist groups, and played out a few times, but never really got it off the ground. It was then we discovered how talented Kathy was at guitar, who led most of the creative power behind the Black Dresses combo. The late 1990s brought Mydolls back together to perform occasionally, and we asked Kathy to join us.”

This past summer, Johnston joined my band No Love Less, featuring half of the Mydolls, at Sugar Hill Studios, where she acted as a dependable, acute ear as we re-cut songs for our first EP. She teased me about the homemade smoothie I kept at my side, which she thought might be chock-full of calories. Such easygoing humor was a distinct trait.

“There are models for the person who you would easily welcome into your trust,” tells Bob Weber, drummer for Really Red and Anarchitex. “It was obvious at the first moment that I met her, many years ago, that Kathy was loving and honest and tender and vibrant. I was merely lucky to have known her due to my long time friendship with Dianna, and honored to be present at the ceremony of their partnership. I am not a poet, so what should I say except ‘I loved her.’”

Singer Mary Manning has not forgotten the tenderness that Johnston provided guests at her home as well, “Kathy was the consummate care giver–always concerned about the comfort of her friends. When I used to stay with her and Dianna, she always took care that the bed was made — with the cleanest sheets, lots of pillows, plenty of blankets — and always a stuffed animal, just in case you needed it!”

On stage, when I played with the Mydolls, Johnston would effortlessly pound her percussive bells alongside me as I tried to mimic Reyes’ Latin and tribal-infused drum wizardy. More so, her guitar work, nuanced and willowy, made the Mydolls’ tunes richer and more deeply woven. “She and I had a private language when we played, and it made the experience so earthy and grounded having her there. In Kathy’s honor, Mydolls is gonna record “Don’t Fucking Die.” With fierce love forever, Kathy. Fuck Cancer! Oh Cancer UP YOURS!” angrily remonstrates Herrera.

Determined to play live music even in her days of sickness this past scorching summer, Johnston became an emblem of punk fortitude and perseverance, resilience and passion. The Houston community will miss her deeply and fondly. In those chords forever buzzing, others will come forth to build a new nation, in which no lovers, anywhere, should be at the mercy of unjust laws.

Johnston and Ray married in 2005 and lived without bounds; others are not so lucky. Her memory will keep generations focused, and keep the beat pulsing to a revolution worth dancing to. As Keri Knott recounts, Johnston’s “energy stretched across the room” when she met her. Now, that energy stretches forth, tirelessly, connecting the spheres, as Walt Whitman once wrote, ‘Till the bridge you will need, be form’d – till the ductile anchor hold.”

In March 2010, Bruce Roehrs passed away leaving an irreplaceable void in the lives of his family, friends and the punk world. Though he is gone, his immense contributions will never be forgotten. What ever Bruce meant to you, please raise your glass to him this weekend, his birthday weekend. Posted here are pages from Bruce’s memorial issue, MRR #324. SYFATB

TRUST FANZINE from Germany turns 25 this month, making them the second oldest continuously-published punk fanzine in the world! MRR has had a long relationship with TRUST — we even published a photozine together back in 1987. We are ever so proud… The next TRUST zine (August/September 2011 #149) will be a special issue about Dischord Records… Watch for it.

Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag!

X-Ray Spex Live at the Roundhouse, London in 2008. (photo by Dave Knapik)

by Marc Arsenault

On Monday, April 25th, 2011, Marianne Elliot-Said, better known to the world as Poly Styrene — the singer for classic UK punk rock band X-Ray Spex — died after a bout with breast cancer. Her third solo album, Generation Indigo, was released to shocked fans the following day. X-Ray Spex has stood the test of time and taste to stand out from the English punk rock mid-late ’70s era. Their initial handful of singles and debut album – Germ Free Adolescents – some 16 songs total – still stand as strong statements in a field of often now-faded thrashers. That album was released on major label EMI, the home of the Beatles, and it reached number 30 in the UK album charts. But it was punk as fuck, and such was the nature of things in those few brief months in the late ’70s where punk bands were in the mainstream.

OK. So why was Poly Styrene awesome? She was a chubby, mixed-race (Somali/Scottish-Irish) teenage girl with braces in awkward, brightly colored clothes who could barely hold on to the tune. And, despite the mentions of this by the critics of the time and later, and the insistence that she was the antithesis of a rock band front person, she was, in fact, the perfect front person for X-Ray Spex. None of these things mattered. She was just awesome. What she did was brilliant, and it was popular. X-Ray Spex were a chart success in the late ’70s: they were on Top of the Pops, The Old Grey Whistle Test and recorded sessions for John Peel. A few years after X-Ray Spex released Germ Free Adolescents on EMI, the rock band Heart were signed to that label and their lead singer Ann Wilson notoriously received much pressure from the label over her weight. Like I said. It just didn’t matter with Poly Styrene. The subject never came up.

Poly would go on to release some very different solo material shortly after X-Ray Spex broke up the first time around, before vanishing into a Krishna-tinged haze for a bit. X-Ray Spex re-emerged in the mid-’90s to release the little known album Conscious Consumer. The Spex did not get far after that after Poly was run over by a fire engine(!). Poly came back strong during the last decade with two solo albums, an X-Ray Spex reunion (the Roundhouse reunion show was released on CD/DVD in late 2009) and the holiday singles “City of Christmas Ghosts” with Goldblade in 2008 and “Black Christmas” in 2010. She will be much missed.

Poly Styrene Official Site

Obituaries and memories:

A roundup of Twitter memories on Spinner.com

13 Reasons Poly Styrene Was Cool on And Your Bird Can Swing

“Remembering Poly Styrene” and interview on Pop Dose

Los Angeles Times Obituary

The Guardian Obituary

On Friday March 18th, Jose Eduardo Matute, guitarist of Guerrilla Urbana, the band later known as Ataque Frontal passed away. Along with bands like Leusemia, Autopsia, Zcuela Crrada, Narcosis, Eructo Maldonado, Psocosis, Panico, Flema, Luxuria, Juventud La Kaigua, Sociedad De Mierda, Eutanasia, Radicales and others, Guerrilla Urbana/Ataque Frontal were the pioneers of La Movida Subterrenea, the underground music movement that emerged in Lima, Peru, as a result of the mass bloodshed and extreme political and social turbulence in the early ’80s. Ataque Frontal recorded a demo in 1986, which was re-pressed in 1987 by the French label New Wave. This record captures the sound of fury of the band. It’s raw, it’s angry, it’s punk as fuck. You can hear how bands of this time and punks like Matute laid the foundation for much of the Latin American punk we know today. Matute also wrote a Peru scene report that appeared in MRR #26 in July 1985. His contributions will not be forgotten.

El viernes 18 de marzo, Jose Eduardo Matute, guitarrista de Guerrilla Urbana, la banda conocida despues como Ataque Frontal, murió. Junto con bandas punk como Leusemia, Autopsia, Zcuela Crrada, Narcosis, Eructo Maldonado, Psocosis, Panico, Flema, Luxuria, La Kaigua, Sociedad De Mierda, Eutanasia, Radicales de Juventud y otros, Guerrilla Urbana/Ataque Frontal eran los pioneros del La Movida Subterrenea, el movimiento subterráneo durante y resultado de las matanzas y de la turbulencia política y social extrema en los años 80 en Lima, Perú. Ataque Frontal grabo un demo en 1986, que salio en vinilo en 1987 por New Wave Records de Francia. Estas canciones capturaron el sonido de la furia del tiempo — es rabioso, crudo y es Punk. Usted puede oír cómo las bandas punk de ese tiempo y los punks como Matute pusieron la fundación para mucho del punk latinoamericano que conocemos hoy. Matute también contribuyó un reporte que apareció en MRR en Julio de 1985, la edición #26 de la escena Perúana. Las contribuciones de Matute no serán olvidadas.

“Tengo ahora pocas penas…estoy seguro de lo que hago…y hago lo que tengo que hacer…”
—“Memorias”

Pirates Press Records, Longshot Music, and Maximum Rocknroll are very proud to offer this special chance to help our beloved friend Bruce Roehrs to be immortalized in San Francisco’s Columbarium, and be part of something that can hopefully continue to help effect music in the way Bruce did for decades.

The Columbarium is the one place in San Francisco proper allowed to be someone’s final resting place. There are no cemeteries in SF. This is a very special place, and a very special honor — truly one that a lot of us believe he deserves.

Bruce had taken people there and shown it off as a place of solace and peace for him — a place he unquestioningly appreciated. It is a very expensive proposition though, but one many of us, his closest friends, are very passionate about. If we succeed, he will be with many other people who have also shaped San Francisco.

Those of us who attended Bruce’s memorial saw that it is filled with the high and mighty of San Francisco’s past, and a load of characters who illustrate the vibrant scenes and cultures San Francisco always prides itself on… What the Columbarium still needs is an intelligent and thoughtful, tough as nails Rock N Roller — and Bruce is the perfect person for the job. Regardless of your religious affiliation, one can imagine and appreciate how Bruce would shake things up at that party… and how much he would enjoy it.

Furthermore, it gives Bruce’s family, friends, loved ones and fans a place to pay their respects to a man who was constantly showing his respect and love to everyone around him.

This project was started on a whim, because of the music. It in many ways exemplifies Bruce, and the effect he had on a music scene and the people involved. The Harrington Saints were all very close with Bruce, (as everyone who saw him front and center shaking a fist at one of their shows can attest to) and share deeply in our passion for making this record successful. Booze and Glory, who knew of Bruce and had read his columns in MRR, (without intention) wrote the song “Swingin’ Fuckin’ Hammers”, which essentially sparked all of this. Hearing it, we felt it was Bruce — as it is many of our hardworking brothers and sisters — but him especially!! We hope you agree.

UP THE HAMMERS!! AND UP BRUCE!! Oi! Oi!

ALL proceeds from this record will be donated to the Bruce Roehrs Memorial Fund to secure his place in the SF Columbarium. Any additional funds will be used to help organize Roehrs Records, a record label in Bruce’s honor, run by a coalition of his friends, to promote unsigned bands he would have been a fan of and whom would have most likely never been given a chance by anyone else. Through his column in MRR, Bruce was the unheard voice of the little guys and the underdogs and he made it his mission to make that voice heard. Through an annual release on Roehrs Records we can all help him to continue to promote and discover new music to be excited about!!

If you haven’t heard by now, Japan was hit with a devastating Earthquake followed by a giant Tsunami. To all of our friends and those who have family in Japan, all of us here at MRR have you in our thoughts.

Narm Discos sent us this link which may be helpful for anyone searching for loved ones in Japan, and we will pass on any information we receive in assistance to the tremendous relief effort that will be needed.

Taken from Huffington Post, Associated Press writers Jay Alabaster, Mari Yamaguchi, Tomoko A. Hosaka and Yuri Kageyama contributed to this report…

TOKYO — A ferocious tsunami spawned by one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded slammed Japan’s eastern coast Friday, killing hundreds of people as it swept away boats, cars and homes while widespread fires burned out of control.

Hours later, the tsunami hit Hawaii and warnings blanketed the Pacific, putting areas on alert as far away as South America, Canada, Alaska and the entire U.S. West Coast. In Japan, the area around a nuclear power plant in the northeast was evacuated after the reactor’s cooling system failed.

Police said 200 to 300 bodies were found in the northeastern coastal city of Sendai, the city in Miyagi prefecture (state) closest to the quake’s epicenter. Another 88 were confirmed killed and at least 349 were missing. The death toll was likely to continue climbing given the scale of the disaster.

The magnitude-8.9 offshore quake unleashed a 23-foot (seven-meter) tsunami and was followed by more than 50 aftershocks for hours, many of them of more than magnitude 6.0.

Dozens of cities and villages along a 1,300-mile (2,100-kilometer) stretch of coastline were shaken by violent tremors that reached as far away as Tokyo, hundreds of miles (kilometers) from the epicenter. A large section of Kesennuma, a town of 70,000 people in Miyagi, burned furiously into the night with no apparent hope of the flames being extinguished, public broadcaster NHK said.

“The earthquake has caused major damage in broad areas in northern Japan,” Prime Minister Naoto Kan said at a news conference.

The government ordered thousands of residents near a nuclear power plant in Onahama city to move back at least two miles (three kilometers) from the plant. The reactor was not leaking radiation but its core remained hot even after a shutdown. The plant is 170 miles (270 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo.

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