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Violence Girl: East L.A. Rage to Hollywood Stage, a Chicana Punk Story Kindle Edition
Alice Bag (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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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."
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherFeral House
- Publication date27 September 2011
- File size3461 KB
Product description
Review
The book's slices of punk life from thirty-five years ago also document a flashpoint for a city rich with talent and anger, erupting into something completely oppositional to the feel-good, pastoral, and often saccharine Laurel Canyon melodies and glistening surf music of the preceding decade. - City Watch LA
Now 52 years old and a lot less angry, Alice is an author. Last year she published her first book Violence Girl: East L.A. Rage to Hollywood Stage, A Chicana Punk Story (Feral House) which spawned from a blog she started for fun. Violence Girl details stories of the 70s punk scene, her complicated relationship with her parents, her father's rage, her nationality, drugs, growing up poor in East LA and rising into a punk icon. -Vice
After decades of dudes telling their stories of punk's formative years in memoir, we finally get one of L.A. punk's most crucial figures--Alice Bag, frontwoman of The Bags--telling her tale. Unsentimental and tough, she gets out from under her patriarchal family and finds her place among a crew of motley, misfit kids as they accidentally invented the American West Coast punk in bands like X, Black Flag, Germs and her own band, The Bags. --Jessica Hopper, Rookie
Violence Girl is not some sentimental look back at how great it all was. Alice [Bag], without exaggeration, allows the reader to understand how exciting and in-the-moment things could be--but also how quickly and easily things can go bad and come to an end.With The Bags in the middle of it, it was a time of incredible innovation, explosive creativity and recordings that stand the test of time.--Henry Rollins for LA Weekly
The book's slices of punk life from thirty-five years ago also document a flashpoint for a city rich with talent and anger, erupting into something completely oppositional to the feel-good, pastoral, and often saccharine Laurel Canyon melodies and glistening surf music of the preceding decade. - City Watch LA
Now 52 years old and a lot less angry, Alice is an author. Last year she published her first book Violence Girl: East L.A. Rage to Hollywood Stage, A Chicana Punk Story (Feral House) which spawned from a blog she started for fun. Violence Girl details stories of the 70s punk scene, her complicated relationship with her parents, her father's rage, her nationality, drugs, growing up poor in East LA and rising into a punk icon. -Vice
After decades of dudes telling their stories of punk's formative years in memoir, we finally get one of L.A. punk's most crucial figures--Alice Bag, frontwoman of The Bags--telling her tale. Unsentimental and tough, she gets out from under her patriarchal family and finds her place among a crew of motley, misfit kids as they accidentally invented the American West Coast punk in bands like X, Black Flag, Germs and her own band, The Bags. --Jessica Hopper, Rookie
--This text refers to the paperback edition.About the Author
Alice and her Bags band was featured in the notorious documentary, The Decline of Western Civilization. She is currently married, has children, and lives in Phoenix, Arizona.
--This text refers to the paperback edition.Product details
- ASIN : B005R17ZYG
- Publisher : Feral House (27 September 2011)
- Language : English
- File size : 3461 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 386 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: 901,688 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 79 in Hispanic-American Studies
- 162 in Punk Music (Kindle Store)
- 394 in Biographies of Punk Musicians
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Alice Bag is a singer/songwriter, musician, author, artist, educator and feminist. Alice was the lead singer and co-founder of the Bags, one of the first bands to form during the initial wave of punk rock in Los Angeles. The Alice Bag Band was featured in the seminal documentary on punk rock, The Decline of Western Civilization. Alice went on to perform in other groundbreaking bands, including Castration Squad, Cholita, and Las Tres.
Bag has published two books, including the critically acclaimed memoir Violence Girl in 2011 (Feral House) and the 2015 self-published Pipe Bomb For the Soul, based on her teaching experiences in post-revolutionary Nicaragua. Alice’s self-titled 2016 debut album received critical acclaim and was named one of the best albums of the year by AllMusic. Her 2018 album "Blueprint" was named one of the Best Albums of the Year by NPR Music and the Los Angeles Times. In 2020, Alice will release her third solo album, "Sister Dynamite."
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thought, "I wish this book didn't have to end. I wish there was another one right
after it (I've already read "Pipe Bomb For The Soul",) and then it occurred to me
that my sentiments are really about the highest honor I give to books I love.
If you love music, read this book. If you love human beings, read this book.
It's just, THE BEST. Thank you, Alicia, for writing your life. Please, please,
PLEASE KEEP WRITING!!!!!


I would recommend this book simply because Alice Bag has a remarkable voice, there is a lot of Chicano history (socially) in her neighborhood, school, and family. Her stories are sad, moving, funny, and very interesting. It's a book for music lovers and much much more. Alice was right in the center of LA punk along with X, Weirdos, Germs, Black Randy, etc. She is a true source of inspiration. Even if one is not simply interested in punk history, this book is great personally-charged storytelling. Highly recommended. Violence Girl: East L.A. Rage to Hollywood Stage, a Chicana Punk Story
