Review - Treat Me Like Dirt

Saira Chhibber is a DJ for an open format show up at CHRY with a heavy punk slant. She wrote this review of Liz Worth's Treat Me Like Dirt for MRR, which appeared in the April 2012 issue (#347).

Flyer - Thursday March 15th, 2012

Here is a radio PSA put together for the show.

Zine - Das Bande #1

Gena Meldazy, who used to be a DJ on EXD, has pulled together a zine on inspirational women in the punk scene. Das Bande contains profiles and interviews of these women who got into punk, what they think of the male over representation in the scene, what they think about the advances in technology and whatnot. It is funny because I just read this in depth interview with Alice Bag that Martin Sorrendeguy did in MRR and I was still left wanting to know more about the background of the times. Das Bande has even shorter interviews often being the equivalent of one page each. And although we live in a time were brevity is preferred I somehow feel cheated on not getting more of their story. It is like we get a teaser from Jill Bain (a.k.a. Jade Blade) about the DISHRAGS in Victoria. The DISHRAGS were one of the first all female punk bands in Canada and yet I know very little about them. I did learn that her cousin started Vancouver’s first band the FURIES around the same time, which made it easier for her to take the steps in starting up a RAMONES inspired band. However I wish I knew about who they played with and crazy show stories or scene stories about the early Victoria scene. I know that Jason Flowers attempted at capturing some of those stories with his comp “All Your Ears Can Hear”, but this too suffers from being restricted by space and so you only get one or two stories. I feel there is so much more to be said about the DISHRAGS and maybe that is the purpose of this zine. To give you a teaser that you will take and research more of. One of the profiles that I enjoyed was of Janick Varning who does the Varning fests in Montreal. Janick used to sing in an awesome band called HELLBOUND and sadly nothing is said about that in her piece. But her greater contributions of starting up the Katakombes which is a punk run space that shapes itself off the squat system in Europe does get mentioned. That is significant. And her background was interesting to learn growing up in foster homes and being inspired by Chris Boarts-Larson of Slug and Lettuce fame. Reading Sandy Miranda’s profile saddened me a bunch because she sounded down on punk. I knew Sandy as someone who was super enthusiastic about the scene and wrote a great zine that doesn’t get mentioned in here. Anyway, Sandy’s piece was very different from what I expected. Juls Generic’s piece was very good. Juls sang in MARGARET THRASHER before moving to Newfoundland where she has been in a couple of bands since. She is also a regular columnist in MRR so there have been a lot of updates on Juls regularly. But this piece is Juls’ back story. Zoe Dodd has a portrait of her in the zine and I wish someone had taken the time to get Zoe’s story to paper given she grew up in the north and moved to Toronto and sang for the BAYONETTES and did shows here. And there are a bunch of other women from the past and present that could have been included in this issue. I guess the door is wide open to continue on telling the herstories of the scene. Hopefully this is not a one off project. Tara Bursey did sketches and is responsble for the SCHOOL JERKS record covers. She also did an amazing re-make of the “Warriors” movie film poster for an EXD benefit show. Tara is a talent and I would have loved to know more about her back story. But you do get Liz Worth, the author of “Treat Me Like Dirt” and you get Megan Speers of Wanderlust who also did the cover artwork for this issue. Catherine Roussel of STRIVER is in here. And Emily Kendy of Absolute Underground. My last pet peave is the wasted pages. The zine is done on legal sheets folded in half. The inside pages are not copied on making for a full page that has not been cut out. It doubles the size of the zine and makes it difficult to flip pages. I wish that technical thing had been figured out but the size is a unique size making the zine stand out. (Gena Meldazy – gmeldazy@gmail.com)

Flyer - Wednesday June 2, 2010

Zine - EXD, Volume 10, Issue 01

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This issue features Let's Dance and SNFU. Both bands are from Edmonton. Let's Dance refer to Edmonton as Stabmonton, so this is the Stabmonton issue. Their first ep has loads of knives on it. I think that's how bar fights are fought especially amongst the rig pigs.

Radio - Sunday, January 31, 2010

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SIMPLY SAUCER - She's a Dog (Pig Records) 
Interview with Gary "Pig" Gold 
SIMPLY SAUCER - Interview with Gary "Pig" Gold 
SIMPLY SAUCER - (Sonic Unyon) 
 THE CLASH - Dictator (Unreleased) 
RANCID - Reconciliation (Hellcat) 
DELINQUINTS - Go Van Gogh (Self-Released) 
HORSES - Danforth and Main (Juice Box) 
 MUD - Ice T (Fans of Bad Productions) 
INFEST - Where's the Unity? 
ADRENALIN O.D. - Bugs (Buy Our Records) 
NOMIND - Checking the Obituaries (Lone Wolf)

Sunday, January 17, 2010

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THE VILETONES – Screamin’ Fist (Other Peoples Music)
Interview with Liz Worth
THE RAMONES – Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Sire)
Interview with Liz Worth
TEENAGE HEAD – Little Boxes (Sonic Unyon)
Interview with Liz Worth
THE DIODES – Noise (Polydor)
Interview with Liz Worth
THE POLES – CN Tower
Interview with Liz Worth
THE VILETONES – Rebel (Other Peoples Music)
Interview with Liz Worth
THE UGLY – Alley Cat (Other Peoples Music)
Interview with Liz Worth
THE CURSE – Shoeshine Boy (Other Peoples Music)
Interview with Liz Worth
THE FORGOTTEN REBELS – Third Homosexual Murder (Other Peoples Music)
Interview with Liz Worth
THE DEMICS – New York City (Ready)
Interview with Liz Worth
THE B GIRLS – Fun at the Beach (Other Peoples Music)

Interview with Liz Worth

Tune in tonight for the first interview with Liz Worth about her book "Treat Me Like Dirt", which is an oral history of punk in Toronto and Hamilton and a little bit on London from as far back as can be traced. We will get into the lore and legend of our local punk pioneers and their stories. I just finished the book after reading it for three weeks straight and to be honest I couldn't put it down. I was always trying to find time to sneak away and read more. I have heard stories from this past, but Liz has figured out a way to make sense out of the various narratives. This is the first time I understand what went down at the Crash 'n Burn the night Phil Lynott knocked out Mike Nightmare. I never realized the extent of how outside the law the Ugly and the Curse lived. I had heard that the Go-Go's were inspired by the bands in Toronto but I never realized that Charlotte had written the B-Girls on how to start up a band. The Misfits played here the day after David's burned down. There is loads to this book and without giving it all away I hope you tune in tonight for more details on the book and the music from the period. 89.5FM for those in southern Ontario and www.ciut.fm for those outside the listening range.

Treat Me Like Dirt

Liz Worth interviewed as many first wave Toronto punks as she could find. She organized their story telling into chapters based around event and ways to describe the scene. The result is an anecdotal story telling by the characters that made up that scene. It is brilliant because punk is an oral history and Liz uses their quotes to retell their stories. She doesn't re-write or paraphrase or even use rock journalism techniques. Instead she gathers quotes by the folks involved in the incidents and has them tell the story. There is always more than one story teller so they go back and forth and you get a perspective on the folk lore and legends of Toronto. Gary Topp, Colin Brunton, Steve Leckie, members of Teenage Head, members of the Diodes, members of the Ugly, and loads of other unsung bands that made up the scene. She hads done an incredible job here of bringing the stories back to life. And Gary Pig Gold of the Pig Paper assists in the editting and Ralph Alfonso publishes this on Bongo Beat Records so this has more than gone through the first wave filter of fact checking. You can be assured that the stories in here are accurate.