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Customer Review
A Punk Life, Examined
Being a fan of the late seventies west coast punk scene, I ordered this book based on the author's history in the Bags, a band I had only heard of in relation to other bands of the time. I have to admit that I expected this book to be similar to other punk tomes I have read: either a sloppily written oral history or a breathless tell-all about the crazy punk days. What I got was so much more. Violence Girl is a universal coming of age story of a bright young artist who is struggling to come to terms with her identity as a daughter, a woman, a chicana...and how she finds her voice and sense of purpose through her incredible experiences. I was blown away. Certain scenes made me catch my breath with their ferocity and then I would turn the page and find such heartbreaking tenderness and forgiveness that I was moved to tears. NOT your average rock and roll fairytale, Violence Girl has many lessons to teach. In fact, I turned around and ordered books for my entire high school advanced...
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October 18, 2011
(Brooklyn, NY) | Helpful Votes: 5 | Rating: 5
Read this book..it'll open your eyes!
This is an autobiography unlike any other..not selectively choosing only the flattering memories to tell the reader, but rather openly, willingly, painfully at times & with great humility Alice's recollections are conveyed. As a woman who was part of the same music scene a few years already into her genesis as a frontwoman for the Bags, I am humbled to have shared the intimate details of just how this woman put HERSELF up front. There is a constant thread throughout this book...it is one of hopefulness & truth. The lessons in futility become the fuel for this formidable female who realized her value emanated from within not from the external view..there is great beauty in this book, even within the violent times painful as they must have been. This is a story for everyone..about growing up, rising up, surviving, finding your voice & healing your heart through your own actions. Inspiring, interesting, funny & powerful define this book....these same traits describe the Author. Get...
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October 7, 2011
| Helpful Votes: 4 | Rating: 5
Product Description
The proximity of the East L.A. barrio to Hollywood is as close as a short drive on the 101 freeway, but the cultural divide is enormous. Born to Mexican-born and American-naturalized parents, Alicia Armendariz migrated a few miles west to participate in the free-range birth of the 1970s punk movement. Alicia adopted the punk name Alice Bag, and became lead singer for The Bags, early punk visionaries who starred in Penelope Spheeris' documentary The Decline of Western Civilization.
Here is a life of many crossed boundaries, from East L.A.'s musica ranchera to Hollywood's punk rock; from a violent male-dominated family to female-dominated transgressive rock bands. Alice's feminist sympathies can be understood by the name of her satiric all-girl early Goth band Castration Squad.
Violence Girl takes us from a violent upbringing to an aggressive punk sensibility; this time a difficult coming-of-age memoir culminates with a satisfying conclusion, complete with a happy marriage and children. Nearly a hundred excellent photographs energize the text in remarkable ways.
Alice Bag's work and influence can be seen this year in the traveling Smithsonian exhibition "American Sabor: Latinos in U.S. Popular Music."
An original voice
Alice Bag's memoir is less about the first-wave LA punk scene that she was such an integral part of and more about family, growing up, finding yourself, and testing your limits. A discursive book written in short chapters, "Violence Girl" is a quick read, even though it's more than 300 pages long. Alice's voice shines through -- a thoughtful, confrontational, sometimes confused but rarely cowed woman, Alice goes from being an awkward, overweight teenager with an Elton John obsession and crooked teeth to being the lead singer of the seminal proto-hardcore band, The Bags. Along the way, she befriends and bemuses a bevy of LA scenesters like creepy impressario Kim Fowley; doomed, nihilistic Darby Crash of The Germs; the women who would become The Go-Gos; Patricia Morrison, who co-founded The Bags and would go on to be in both The Gun Club and influential Goth act Sisters of Mercy; even Tom Waits makes a cameo. But the book is more than a name-dropping trek across the glittery landscape...
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September 25, 2011
(Birmingham, AL) | Helpful Votes: 6 | Rating: 4
