Alice Bag

Alicia "Alice" Armendariz is an American punk rock singer also known as Alice Bag. She is the lead vocalist and co-founder of the Bags, one of the earliest punk bands to form in Los Angeles in the mid-1970s. Her first book, Violence Girl: From East LA Rage to Hollywood Stage, tells the story of her childhood in East Los Angeles, her eventual move to Hollywood, and the euphoria and fallout from the first punk wave.

Alice Bag
Alice Bag speaking into a microphone
Bag at the Women Who Rock 2012 Conference in Seattle, March 2012
Background information
Birth nameAlicia Armendariz
Born (1958-11-07) November 7, 1958
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
GenresPunk rock, Chicano punk
Occupation(s)Singer, author, educator, feminist activist
Member ofBags
Websitealicebag.com

Bag has remained active in music since the late 1970s and released her second book in 2015.[1] She released Alice Bag, her debut solo album on Don Giovanni Records in June 2016.[2][3] A second solo album, Blueprint, was released in 2018,[4] followed by 2020's Sister Dynamite.

Early life and education

Bag was born and raised in East Los Angeles, California.[5][6] Her father, Manuel Armendariz, was a self-employed carpenter who worked for a time in the Bracero program, and her mother, Candelaria "Candy" Armendariz, was a homemaker. Both of her parents were from Mexico. Candy had five children from her first marriage, which ended after the death of her first husband.[7] She had an older half-sister, Yolanda.[1]

As a child, Bag was influenced by the music played by her family, including her father's ranchera music and her sister's soul music collections.[8] As a member of the punk rock band the Bags, Alice was at the forefront of the L.A. punk rock scene in the late 1970s. Though punk rock is seen as a predominantly white male genre in the mainstream light, Bag describes the early movement as an extremely welcoming community open to everyone, especially to women.[9]

Bag was a victim of bullying throughout her adolescence. During her middle school and high school years, she was picked on for her weight, her teeth, and her physical appearance. As a result, she was often alone, which influenced her taste in favor of music such as Queen, David Bowie and Elton John. After transferring high schools, she was often called "Ziggy" after David Bowie's persona.[10][11]

After receiving her bachelor's degree in philosophy from California State University, Los Angeles, Bag began working as an English teacher in inner-city L.A. schools.[12]

Career
Bag in the 1980s
Bag spoken word 'Violence Girl', acoustic performance in San Diego, March 2014

Bag is best known for being a member of the Bags, one of the first bands on the L.A. punk scene. The Bags were notable for having two female lead musicians (the group was co-founded by Bag and school friend Patricia Morrison) and for pioneering an aggressive sound and style which has been cited as an early influence on what would become the hardcore punk sound. The band's aggressive sound was later noted to have a Mexican/Chicano influence, which Bag unintentionally incorporated from her childhood.[13] Members of the Bags appeared as the Alice Bag Band in director Penelope Spheeris's landmark 1981 documentary on the Southern California punk scene, The Decline of Western Civilization. As a lead singer of the Bags, she pioneered the first wave of California punk alongside Black Flag, X, the Germs, Phranc (then in Catholic Discipline), and the five musicians who would go on to form the Go-Go's.[11] Bag went on to appear and perform in other Los Angeles–based rock bands including Castration Squad, The Boneheads, Alarma, Cambridge Apostles, Swing Set, Cholita – the Female Menudo (with her friend and collaborator, performance artist Vaginal Davis), Las Tres, Goddess 13 (the subject of a KCET/PBS produced documentary, "Chicanas in Tune"), and Stay at Home Bomb.[14]

Later in Bag's career, she founded the "punk-chera" genre, fusing aspects of punk and ranchera performances.[15]

Music

Alice Bag began singing professionally at the age of 8, recording theme songs for cartoons in both English and Spanish.[16] She did not gain exposure until forming the Bags.[12] Alice collaborated with Patricia Morrison and Margo Reyes in what they first called Mascara, then Femme Fatale, and then finally the Bags.[17] The Bags were active from years 1977–1981. They released a single "Survive" along with "Babylonian Gorgon".

The Bags Songs included:

  • Survive (single)
  • Babylonian Gorgon (single)
  • Gluttony
  • TV Dinner
  • Why Tomorrow?
  • We Don't Need the English
  • Animal Call
  • Chainsaw
  • We Will Bury You
  • Violent Girl
  • Disco's Dead
  • Sanyo Theme

The Bags broke up by the year 1981, which then led Alice Bag to join the band Cholita in the late 1980s. The Bags were renamed the Alice Bag Band for the release of The Decline of Western Civilization, after Alice Bag and partner Patricia Morrison had a dispute about who had the right to use the band name. Following the birth of her daughter in the mid-1990s, Alice Bag made the choice to take a break from the music industry and become a stay-at-home mother. Soon after, she started her current project, Stay at Home Bomb. Stay at Home Bomb is an all-female community centered around punk rock that exists to address social constraints that are put on women both domestically as well as musically.[16] The band features Alice Bag as Mothra Stewart on vocals, guitar and washboard, Judy Cocuzza as Judy Polish on drums, pots and pans, Lysa Flores as Lady Licuadora on vocals, guitar and blenders and Sharon Needles on vocals and bass guitar.

In 2016, Alice Bag released her debut solo album, Alice Bag, on punk label Don Giovanni Records. A second album, Blueprint, followed in early 2018, and featured numerous guest musicians including Allison Wolfe and Kathleen Hanna. Wolfe and Hanna were featured on the track "77", which refers to the unequal pay that women receive for the same work as men.[4][6] Another song on Blueprint, "Se Cree Joven", features backing vocals from Teri Gender Bender and Francisca Valenzuela.[6]

In 2020 another album, entitled Sister Dynamite, was released by In the Red Records on April 24, 2020.[18]

Writing

Bag's memoir, Violence Girl, From East LA Rage to Hollywood Stage – A Chicana Punk Story, was published by Feral House in fall 2011.[19] Bag was inspired to write Violence Girl after attending a comic-con with her daughter in 2008.[20] Her memoir is a compilation of short stories that sets the stage for her desire to be a punk artist. Her book contains stories of entering the punk rock scene at a time that was more inviting for women musicians. Violence Girl also reveals how domestic abuse fueled her desire for female empowerment and sheds a new perspective on the origin of hardcore, a style most often associated with white suburban males.[21][22] The confrontational style of Alice Bag's performances take direction from witnessing domestic abuse as a child. Bag channeled deeply rooted personal trauma into power on stage, refusing to be victimized or oppressed by men.[23] Through punk music, Alice realized the extent to which she had internalized witnessing violence as a child, and she worked to overcome using violence as a mode of releasing rage. Music became both a process of healing her wounds and a way to extend power and support to her community.[24]

Since 2004, Bag has also maintained a digital archive of interviews with women who were involved in the first wave of the Southern California punk scene in the 1970s, including musicians, writers, and photographers. The archive also includes newspaper and magazine clippings, photos, and postcards relating to LA punk.

Activism
Bag and Michelle Habell-Pallan at the Women Who Rock 2011 conference at Seattle University Pigott Building, February 2011

Bag was the keynote speaker at the 2012 Women Who Rock: Making Scenes Building Communities (un)Conference in Seattle, Washington.[25] A collection of various speakers and activities meant to empower and inspire not only Latina women, but women of every ethnicity, Alice Bag discussed her rough childhood and touched on points from her biography, Violence Girl. She sang alongside both The Januariez, a local band, and Medusa, a well-known emcee and hip hop artist. Bag explained at the 2014 Women Who Rock (un)Conference that the place for punk in the feminist movement is to continue to challenge; punk is meant to draw attention to things that are wrong in society: "We don't live in a post racism, post feminism, post anything; punk allows us to speak our minds."

She was also a part of the panel in the 2014 Women Who Rock (un)Conference.[26]

Personal life

Bag currently maintains part-time residency in Los Angeles, California, and Mexico City. She remains musically active and collaborates with artists including Teresa Covarrubias, Lysa Flores, Martin Sorrondeguy, Allison Wolfe, and others. She has recently begun exhibiting her oil paintings in gallery showings.[20]

Bag began filming and sharing workout videos on Instagram,[18] YouTube, and Facebook during the COVID-19 pandemic.[27]

She is bisexual.[28][29]

Discography

Solo albums

Alice Bag and the Sissybears
  • Alice Bag and the Sissybears (2017), pressing limited to 500

Bags
Singles
  • Survive (1978)
  • Disco's Dead (2003)
Collections
  • All Bagged Up: The Collected Works 1977–1980 (2007)

Works and publications
Books
  • Bag, Alice (2011). Violence Girl: East L.A. Rage to Hollywood Stage: A Chicana Punk Story. Port Townsend, WA: Feral House. ISBN 978-1-936239-13-9. OCLC 756484532.
  • Bag, Alice (2015). Pipe Bomb for the Soul. Los Angeles: CPSIA. ISBN 978-0-692-43319-5. OCLC 940969636.
Journals

References
  1. Bag, Alice; Pearson, Tanya (interviewer) (July 18, 2015). "Alice Bag" (Video interview – oral history). Women of Rock Oral History Project. Northampton, MA: Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College. {{cite news}}: |first2= has generic name (help)
  2. "Alice Bag's Punk Odyssey". MTV. Retrieved August 21, 2016.
  3. ""No Means No" by Alice Bag Review". Pitchfork. May 2, 2016. Retrieved August 21, 2016.
  4. Rettig, James (January 30, 2018). "Alice Bag – "Turn It Up" ft. Kathleen Hanna and Allison Wolfe". Spin. Retrieved January 10, 2019.
  5. Bag, Alice. "Biography". Alice Bag Official Website. Archived from the original on February 25, 2014. Retrieved June 2, 2014.
  6. Mejia, Paula (March 15, 2018). "Review: Alice Bag, 'Blueprint'". NPR. Retrieved October 11, 2019.
  7. Bag, Alice (2011). Violence Girl: East L.A. Rage to Hollywood Stage: A Chicana Punk Story. Port Townsend, WA: Feral House. ISBN 978-1-936239-13-9. OCLC 756484532.
  8. Vielma, Cory. "An Interview with Alice Bag". Network Awesome. Retrieved June 2, 2014.
  9. bublitz, Dana (April 17, 2014). "Women Who Rock 2014 Poster". Retrieved June 4, 2014.
  10. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on June 5, 2014. Retrieved June 2, 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. Seggel H. Violence Girl: East L.A. Rage to Hollywood Stage, A Chicana Punk Story. Bitch Magazine: Feminist Response To Pop Culture [serial online]. Spring 2012;(54):65. Available from: Academic Search Complete, Ipswich, MA. Retrieved June 1, 2014
  12. "Bio". Archived from the original on February 25, 2014. Retrieved June 6, 2014.
  13. "East L.A. Punk". americansabor.org. Archived from the original on June 24, 2015. Retrieved June 23, 2015.
  14. Ziegler, Chris (August 14, 2003). "Alice's Got a Brand New Bag". OC Weekly. Archived from the original on January 30, 2013. Retrieved April 27, 2008.
  15. Habell-Pallán, Michelle (2012) "Death to Racism and Punk Revisionism"
  16. Bag, Alice. "Alice Bag Blog". Archived from the original on February 25, 2014. Retrieved June 6, 2014.
  17. "Bags Biography". artifixrecords.com. Retrieved June 23, 2015.
  18. Ehrlich, Brenna (April 16, 2020). "Alice Bag's Punk Rock 'Spark' Will Not Let You Mope". Rolling Stone. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  19. "Survive: Alice Bag's "Violence Girl"". The Los Angeles Review of Books. Archived from the original on April 19, 2013. Retrieved June 23, 2015.
  20. "Razorcake Punk Music Magazine – Punk Band Interviews – – Alice Bag Interview – Photos by Kat Jetson, Originally ran in Razorcake #24". razorcake.org. Archived from the original on June 24, 2015. Retrieved June 23, 2015.
  21. Women Who Rock Archive
  22. "Women Who Rock Oral History Archive :: Alice Bag". washington.edu. Retrieved June 23, 2015.
  23. Alice Bag and Chola Con Cello, Interview, 2011
  24. Q & A With Alice Bag and Elona Jones, Interview, 2012
  25. "Women of Color For Systemic Change to facilitate the WWR 2015 (un)Conference Intergenerational Roundtable!". Women Who Rock. March 8, 2015. Retrieved June 23, 2015.
  26. "2014 Spiking the Honey – Saturday April 26". Women Who Rock. Archived from the original on June 24, 2015. Retrieved June 23, 2015.
  27. "Our Daily Breather: Alice Bag Gets Fit For The Apocalypse". NPR. April 20, 2020. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  28. "Chicana Feminist Icon Alice Bag on the Music of Her Life". Pitchfork. Retrieved January 26, 2023.
  29. "We Were There: Voices from L.A. Punk's First Wave - An Oral History hosted by Alice Bag - Razorcake". Retrieved January 26, 2023.
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