Punk House

‘Punk House’ means a lot to some people and to others is a completely foreign concept.  To me, it can be translated to ‘home’ or ‘community’.  Houses where artists, thinkers, workers, students, musicians and everyone else live together collectively.   The picture below is one of the houses Ginger & I lived in – the Taco Bell house.  I started the house with a few college and music friends …. satisfact started here, plenty of bands I don’t remember the names of started and practiced here including Mocket, Red Stars Theory, Lice, Compact, Christopher Robin …. some for just a day others for the years we were there.  It was also the home to many projects in the garage, our friend Chris’ journey to endless university (he’s still going), my bachelor’s degree and probably the best garden Ginger ever had.

Oh yeh … why Taco Bell?  The house was stucco and we couldn’t resist the urge to place Taco Bell adverts in the windows.  Many a rocker would walk by and say ‘whoah, I didn’t know this used to be a Taco Bell!  Legend carried … I still wish we hadn’t left that moped in the garage when we moved to Seattle.  If I ever have time … I have a Joy Division karaoke party on film somewhere … and then there’s the music videos shot there.

I got nostalgic about these houses after comparing life with 2 small children similar to being in a punk house … there’s art all over … music all the time and the dishes never really get done.

I don’t know the person who made this short film about the fabled Olympia, WA ‘Red House’ .  It’s not a perfect story for the uninitiated … but it has some great memories & ideals in it.  I spent a lot of time in the Red house in the mid 90s … 91 to 95.  There was a Summer I slept on the couch quite a bit.  I remember hanging out in Tim Green’s room when he put a huge bass speaker under his bed.  Sue’s spoken word.  Karp ‘accoustic’ after the cops shut down a show.  The possum that ate doug-the-cat’s food all the time (Steve K couldn’t of said Possum better).  Many great shows and meals (Rachel C. in the video had the best salads).  The Red House is still around (as far as I know?) and Olympia has never stopped being an active home to artists.

Couple of other houses in the lineage … I lived @ The Haunted House (I still believe it was haunted), The Wilson Street House, The Central House (carpet in the kitchen …. the first show I played).  The last punk house Ginger and I lived in was the Goat House in Seattle.  I wish my neighborhood now had a Lucky 7 house (Blonde Redhead in the basement playing to 20 people ….) …

All in all – being part of these houses is like being around idea concentrate.  There’s always something happening or a way to foster an idea.  Community.