Event
Songs from the Middle Ages CANCELLED
June 7th, 4pm-6pm
TOJ Upstair Gallery
$8 presale, $10 walk-up
Band line-up for 2015: Kay Turner, lead vocals; Gretchen Phillips, guitar and vocals; Joanna Labow, vocals and percussion; Lisa "Wick" Wickware, guitar; Jean DuSablon, bass; Darby Smotherman, drums.
Our Story: Girls in the Nose: Pickin' since 1985
Girls in the Nose (GITN) is a rock band of six uncompromising women founded in Austin, TX in 1985 to create activist lesbian, sex- positive music and performance. After some very successful reunion shows a few years back in Austin, the Noses began talk of touring. The time is now, as we celebrate 30 years since our first show in 1985. We still bring the crazy, rude, crude shows that brought many a house down from NYC to Seattle, San Francisco to Chicago, Michfest to Rhythmfest. And in June 2015 we will bring the Nose and all her glorious odors to Portland, Seattle, Eugene, and Olympia.
Herstorically, GITN occupies a middle ground between lesbian singer-songwriter music of the 70s and outpunk lezzies riot grrls of the 90s. The original group was co-founded by Kay Turner, Gretchen Phillips (ex-Two Nice Girls) and Betsy Peterson. We three of the big, honking, beautiful noses actively fantasized about a band of electric dykes that would herald a new age of queer music. We took our name from our physiognomy: all three of us had been told by men that we would be "prettier" if we got nose jobs.
Needless to say, we took this directive in a different way. We made our Noses into our job: we would be the band that smells like a dyke. It seems amazing now, but 30 short years ago there were hardly any all-woman electric bands, let alone all-electric lezzie bands. We became a six-piece band in 1987 and played our noses off until 1996. All of us have stayed involved in various band projects since then, but there was something so nosey and nasty about GITN.we want to bring it all back for old and new audiences.
Our Songs
Back in that day our influences ranged wildly from Sonic Youth to Joni Mitchell, from Black Sabbath to Alix Dobkin. But our songwriting was all original. We mixed it up, we played it loud and every time we played it proud. Some of our songs include "Menstrual Hut" about a safe haven for the display of raging hormones; "Prisoner of Pantyhose" a protest against those "cultural enclosures women are forced to wear; "Bite Me" a safe-sex song for lesbians; "Breast Exam" a call to make the monthly self-exam sexier and, hence, more desirable; "More Madonna/Less Jesus" espousing our philosophy of religion; "Medusa" a hymn to the scary goddess; and "Meat" a politically incorrect song about eating barbeque. AND MORE!
Our Shows
In addition to album, video production, and numerous national tours, highlights of GITN's herstory include playing: at South by Southwest showcases in Austin in 1990-1993; on the main rally stage for the March on Washington in 1993; and for several events in celebration of Gay Pride/Stonewall 25th Anniversary in New York in June 1994. With NYC's Maul Girls band, GITN founded and hosted "Lesbopalooza" a multi-act extravaganza of lesbian pride held annually in June for several years at the Continental Club in Manhattan. We enjoyed feature stories on DYKE-TV in New York and a spot in the PBS documentary "Greetings from Down Here: Gays and Lesbians in the South" by Ellen Spiro, a featured interview in "Radical Act" by Tex Clark; and a sequence of us playing "Breast Exam" in the official video of the March on Washington, directed by JEB. GITN played many festivals: Daystage act at Michigan Womyn's Music Fesival, 1994 and 1995, RhythmFest, 1990-1993, Northampton Lesbian Festival,1992 and1993, and Lone Star Women's Music Festival,1991-1993, and National Women's Music Festival in 1994. We shared the stage with the best, including Indigo Girls, The Butchies, Mrs. Fun, Yer Girlfriend, Tribe 8, Zoe Lewis, Two Nice Girls, Dixie Chicks, Melissa Etheridge, and Janis Ian.
Who We Are: Band Bios
Kay Turner lives in Brooklyn. Her recent music projects include September 11th Sing, "Snaggletooth," and various queer incursions with guitar goddess Viva DeConcini and bass boss Mary Feaster. She has recently branched out into music performance projects such as "Otherwise: Queer Scholarship into Song" (2013) and is working on a musically-infused hybrid theatrical work based on a meeting of witch figures found in Grimms' fairy tales. But she has never stopped blowing her Nose.
Gretchen Phillips The fruitful summer of 1985 miraculously found young Gretchen Phillips joining the dyke bands, Two Nice Girls and Girls in the Nose. She rode those little ponies as long as she could and then went solo. Fortunately she has now remembered how to play well with others again. She now leads "Disco Plague" in Austin and has recorded several solo albums.
Joanna Labow Feminist fatale, psychotherapist, music lover, vocalist, percussionist lives in Austin. First moment of musical bliss...playing triangle, nursery school, age 4. More bliss...summer camp singing in unison throughout day and night. Additional bands include The Oral Tradition, Slip of the Tongue, Mothra, Sheba and the Dustbunnies, and currently Gretchen's Disco Plague (It's Infectious).
Lisa "Wick" Wickware , based in Portland, has been rocking the Nose and inspiring bad behavior in other bands such as Handful, Supersluts, Argonauts, Meg Hentges, Hormones, and Karaoke Apocalypse since the 90s. In Portland she plays with the cover band Dyke Tyson. Her punk metal riffs have caused well-behaved women to rip off their shirts in topless frenzies at GITN shows all over the country. She now has a guitar with a whammy bar so total mayhem and chaos should be expected on the 30th Anniversary tour. Rest up.
JeanDuSablon , hanging out in Portland these days, enjoys the rivers and trees while completing her first undergrad degree in photography and printmaking. Portland reminds her of a mix of small-town Austin in the 90s and the quirky SF Bay Area, both places she once called home. She has been seen rocking a few Portland stages, slinging her bass at events such as Riot Grrrl Karaoke and Not Enough Fest PDX. Recent Bay Area projects include Bass Chair for Berkeley Repertory's critically-acclaimed production of the musical Girlfriend and bands Animal Prufrock, Shake It Booty, Clair.
Darby Smotherman is a sound designer and audio engineer based in Boston where she works at Boston Conservatory of Music. She has a wife, two children, three dogs, and a bearded dragon. She is a Pisces, born on Pi who loves pie.
Who We Were: GITN Personnel Herstory:
1985-1987: Kay Turner, vocals; Gretchen Phillips, guitar and vocals; Betsy Peterson, guitar.
1987-1990: Kay Turner, lead vocals; Gretchen Phillips, guitar and vocals; Betsy Peterson, guitar; Darcee Douglas, bass; Pam Barger, drums; Joanna Labow, percussion, vocals.
1990: Kay Turner, lead vocals; Becky Escamilla, guitar; Karla Thompson, guitar; Darcee Douglas, bass; Terri Lord, drums; Joanna Labow, percussion, vocals.
1991-1995: Kay Turner, lead vocals; Lisa Wickware, guitar; MJ Torrance, guitar; Jean DuSablon, bass; Darby Smotherman, drums; Joanna Labow, percussion, vocals.
With us faithfully from 1988 on: our dancing girls in wigs and poly, Lez Nez (Allison Faust and Kathy Smith).
Discography
Chant to the Full Moon, Oh Ye Sisters (cass.)--live recording--1988
Girls in the Nose (cass.)--studio recording--1990
Origin of the World (cass./CD)-- studio recording--1992
Breast Exam (video)1994 (filmed live at Chances Bar, Austin, TX)
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LocationTheatre Off Jackson (View)
409 7th Ave S.
Seattle, WA 98104
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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