Interesting photo of Ms. Houston here:
http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/pictures/1999/02/23/penelope23.jpg
Penelope Houston Lets Out Her Punk
Ex-Avengers leader releases new and old tunes
Neva Chonin, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 23, 1999
©1999 San Francisco Chronicle
URL:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/02/23/DD83308.DTL&type=music
Like a skilled sonic chef, Penelope Houston has perfected the art of fusion. Sporting
blue hair and sensible shoes, the striking 41- year-old singer-songwriter looks like a
cross between her latter-day incarnation as an acoustic chanteuse and her historic
identity as leader of the legendary late '70s punk band, the Avengers.
Houston's personal aesthetic reflects where she's at professionally. Last week
Lookout! Records released "The Avengers Died for Your Sins,'' a collection of live,
studio and rehearsal recordings from the lauded San Francisco band whose ferocity as
an opening act blew the Sex Pistols off the stage at Winterland in 1978.
The album's release will be celebrated tonight at the Great American Music Hall and
Friday at Berkeley's 924 Gilman Street with concerts by Houston and a band billed as
the ScAvengers. If that's not enough to get the old punk blood pumping, on March 24,
Houston will break with her neo- folk persona and release "Tongue,'' the first album
in her 11-year solo career that rocks more than it strums. "It's pretty exciting that
these albums are coming out at the same time -- one with my earliest music and one
with my latest,'' says Houston over a plate of grilled veggies at a San Francisco
cafe. "I knew I could do it after a recording session with Billie Joe Armstrong (of
Green Day) and (local producer) Kevin Army.
"They kept saying, 'We want you to scream like you did when you were in the Avengers!'
So I finally let loose, trying to relive those moments of punk fury, and it felt
really good. I thought, 'I can do this.' ''
Armstrong, who co-wrote the song "New Day'' on "Tongue,'' introduced Houston to her
future ScAvengers rhythm section, bassist Joel Reader from the Mr. T Experience and
drummer Danny Panic, formerly of Screeching Weasel. (Original Avengers guitarist Greg
Ingraham completes the lineup.)
"I think Joel Reader was 6 months old when I played my first show,'' says Houston with
a wry smile. "But when we started rehearsing, it blew my mind. We sounded so much like
the Avengers.''
Houston's return to her roots started two years ago when, during a European tour to
promote her previous album, "Cut You,'' she found herself longing to rock out during
her acoustic set.
After returning home, Houston parted company with her backup band and began
collaborating with local singer-songwriters Pat Johnson and Chuck Prophet and ex-Go
Go's Jane Wiedlin and Charlotte Caffey. The result was "Tongue,'' an infectious blend
of sly, vitriolic vocals (the first single, "Scum''), rambunctious pop hooks ("Grand
Prix'') and distorted indie-rock guitars (the title track).
At the same time she was recording her new album, Houston was scouring the Internet,
looking for tape traders with vintage recordings to include in Lookout's Avengers
collection.
It was a long historical trek. Houston was only 19 when she moved from Seattle in 1977
to attend the San Francisco Art Institute. Already a veteran of the Northwest punk
scene, it wasn't long before she co-founded the Avengers with three other renegade
artists. Though the band lasted only two years, it won its place in the punk hall of
fame thanks to its artful garbage-bag attire and one album of scathing, passionately
political songs.
Though Houston's days as a revolutionary punk rocker have passed
--she's happily married to art director Patrick Roques and settled in a funky old
house in Oakland -- at heart she figures she'll always be an iconoclast.
"When they were interviewing me for the 'Tongue' bio, they asked what lyric sums up
what I want to tell the world,'' she says. "I thought about it and realized it was a
lyric I wrote when I was 19 -- 'I believe in me.'
"I'm still the same person I was then. I still feel strongly about people finding
their way through life and being true to who they are.''
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CONCERT
THE ScAVENGERS play at 9 p.m. tonight at the Great American Music Hall, 859 O'Farrell
St., San Francisco, with the Hi-Fives and Pansy Division. Tickets are $10. Call (415)
885-0750. The band also plays Friday at 924 Gilman Street, Berkeley. Tickets $5-$7.
Call (510) 525-9926.
