Every Saturday, we’ll be posting a new illustration by David Lester. The Mecca Normal guitarist is visually documenting people, places and events from his band’s 29-year run, with text by vocalist Jean Smith.
Twenty years ago this month, my first novel, I Can Hear Me Fine, was published by David Lester’s Get To The Point Editions. It was a tremendously exciting time. Mecca Normal had already toured a lot (since 1986), and we had put out quite a few records. It was incredible to have my book in our merch case on tour, a thrill to see our fans pick up my book and start reading it as we packed up our gear. It made the connection for us—people who liked our music also liked books.
From the book jacket: Claudine’s thoughts have a strange power over her former lover. He is out of control. Claudine walks through her New York studio, tracing her way back to the hot Arizona summer when she and Marcus met. Her memories and dreams send Marcus spilling through time and space.
David, in his capacity of hard-working publisher, succeeded in getting the book reviewed, and he secured distribution from Vancouver’s Arsenal Pulp Press.
Mecca Normal was going strong and touring frequently, having released the album Dovetail in 1992 and a compilation album called Jarred Up in 1993. These were also the riot-grrrl years, and Mecca Normal was seeking out interviews in the same way we always had—to engage with the media to make a few points along the way. To set the scene in a very idiosyncratic way, here is a smattering of Mecca Normal’s 1993 press clippings.
“I’ve met plenty of people who act like pins were just stuck in their eyeballs at the mere mention of Mecca Normal.” –SF Weekly, 1993
“Mecca Normal’s Jean Smith would be a heroine in any age: her beautiful harsh voice, her uncompromising lyrics, her sheer performing dignity guarantee her that. But until you see her face down a crowd of hypocritical and uninterested punk rockers, you don’t know what true heroism is. Smith’s music is dissonant, deeply felt, feminist, courageous.” – Gina Arnold, San Diego Weekly, 1993
“After your French tour I received a lot of letters from people who write: ‘Mecca Normal is the best gig I saw in my life, strong and amazing.’” – Quentin in La Rochelle, France, 1993
“There’s such a wide gulf between establishment rock and what Mecca Normal and other bands with the same spirit are doing. Corporate rockers write all these love songs about women, while keeping them absent from any creative role.” – Jean Smith interviewed by Ned Raggett, 1993
“We pretty much cleared rooms,” says Smith, speaking of the band’s early performances. “That was our main function. So if that happened we knew we were on the right track.” – Jean Smith interview in Ray Gun magazine, 1993
“Onstage, Lester is a sonic weed whacker throwing off a frenzy of fuzz, while Smith, a dynamo capable of raw power and somber beauty, adapts her limber voice like a wind instrument.” – Rolling Stone Magazine, 1993
“I don’t see us as vying for mainstream attention. This is exactly how I want to live my life. We’re not waiting for our lives to begin.” – Jean Smith in Rolling Stone Magazine, 1993
“Look at the music we do, is anybody really going to consider this a marketable phenomenon? If it ever did come to that, it would be time to do something different.” – Jean Smith interview in Billboard Magazine, 1993
“The Orbit,” from Who Shot Elvis? (Matador, 1997; Smarten UP!, 2009) (download):
