Well Nurtured Minor Players

In the early 1980s Los Angeles was the centre of a ferocious musical revolution. Bands such as The Dead Kennedys, Circle Jerks, The Germs, Black Flag and Bad Brains shook the foundations of popular music, storming the scene with a new style of hardcore punk music that attacked the political aspirations of post-Vietnam America and refused to conform to the new world order. They then went global, sharing their ideology and anti-conformist ideas, inspiring youth movements and punk bands across the world.

Now, for the first time since the early ’80s, the international music community is again being drawn to Los Angeles. Punk rock is having a revival, led by a swell of bands based around cult LA venue The Smell, owned by local legend Jim Smith. No Age, The Mae Shi, Mika Miko and HEALTH are among the bands leading punk rock’s timely revival, all touring extensively, gaining publication credits and inspiring young bands throughout the world. Proof of the revival can be witnessed on the pages of LA magazine Maximum RocknRoll, started in 1977 by LA’s original punks. For the first time ever, the magazine nicknamed ‘The Punk Rock Bible’ has featured an all-girl band on its cover; the band was Mika Miko.

Like their name suggests, The Widow Babies are the babies of the LA punk scene. They have not yet played a show outside of Southern California and are only in the early stages of developing their own fan base. However, despite their status on the local LA punk scene, fans online have already started to show some interest. In 2008 The Widow Babies went global, before being fully appreciated in their home state. Their debut EP (The Mike Watt EP) made its way on to the internet and as a result the band had more fans online than they had grounded in California. Guitarist Danny Millar says in a rather shy, slightly nervous voice, “It’s sort of difficult for me to consciously realise, because we couldn’t get ten people to go to our shows until about six months ago. The idea that someone would picture themselves as a fan of our music is as real as it is gratifying.”

“The Mae Shi saw us play a small show at a punk venue in Santa Ana about two years ago and our bass player got beat up and my guitar amp broke.”

Fourteen months after releasing The Mike Watt EP, the band has its full-length debut album pressed and are waiting patiently to take the next step. What started as a school yard friendship spawned from “a mutual love of Led Zeppelin and Marilyn Manson” has blossomed, (”We released an album ourselves, we made 50 copies for 50 dollars and sold like three of them”), maturing rather quickly and bringing with it aspirations of touring outside of California.

“It’s probably a little way away yet but we all have dreams of releasing an album and being able to tour in support of it. We’re a horribly managed band in that none of us have any sort of sense of the real world, so we’ve never been able to put together a tour of any sort.”

Blessed with being surrounded by a music community willing to celebrate success as well as harness up and coming minor players, The Widow Babies have many ears at their disposal. Jim Smith, owner of The Smell has been hugely influential in the band’s career as well as in their personal lives, offering up memories and inspirational advice. “We’ve all been aware of The Smell since we were in ninth grade together,” says Danny. “So it was motivational in that sense and we were big fans of bands like Mika Miko, Abe Vigoda and No Age. It’s a very accommodating place because there’s probably like between three or four key venues at any given point, most of which have good shows going on at least two or three nights a week. So if you want to get involved in anything it’s probably there.”

The band has gotten more involved with The Smell, releasing their debut album Jetpacks via olFactory Records, the record label based at the venue. As I talk with Danny, he and the band’s drummer Tabor Allen are heading to The Smell to pick up the test pressings of the album. “It feels like the first genuine accomplishment of our lives,” he says, “I can’t imagine how it’s going to feel to be holding the vinyl in my hands in an hour.”

With LA currently producing a huge wealth of very talented bands, it’s made life a lot easier for The Widow Babies. They have been able to play shows with many of their local heroes, but it was The Mae Shi who first offered to help them. The two bands met several years ago at a show in Santa Ana.

“The Mae Shi saw us play a small show at a punk venue in Santa Ana about two years ago and our bass player got beat up and my guitar amp broke. I actually had to borrow the bassist in The Mae Shi’s amplifier and he introduced us to Sean Carnage, record producer Chris Schlarb and Jim Smith at The Smell. They’re also very world-wise and they’ve given us an idea about how to think about how our band is perceived by a wider audience.”

Since meeting Chris Schlarb their aspirations and confidence as musicians has been greatly boosted. They are now very close friends and Schlarb produced both The Mike Watt EP and Jetpacks. “We’ve worked with him on a bi-monthly schedule and tell him about what’s going on in our lives and he keeps us up to date with what’s going on with him. He’s validated us in a way, made us take things a little more seriously and work a little harder. He’s a very wise and beautiful man.”

“We have some songs like ‘Arboreal Womb’ on the album which is written purely from that perspective, where the ending is sort of a non-secular free-jazz jam.”

At this early stage in their career they might feel like they need validating, but The Widow Babies already have a fine set of songs that will soon validate themselves. Danny might claim to have little sense of the real world, but when it comes to song writing, himself, along with band mates Tabor, Elise McCutchen and Neal Marquez play with some wonderfully wise philosophical ideology, perhaps stemming from their high school studies in creative writing and visual arts.

“The idea behind Jetpacks… we were thinking about what people thought would happen in the future. Like in the year 1950 would things be remembered by 1970… Sort of the realisation of where we had actually progressed as opposed to what we were promised. Sort of this ethereal longing and a reality of what is actually happening.”

With only one song running over two minutes, Jetpacks continues a punk rock legacy. Danny makes no apologies for this, but when played live the songs expand, often becoming very different and at times unrecognisable. “They’re very difficult to play as they were recorded so when we play live we have to improvise to make the sound more whole in the moment. We have some songs like ‘Arboreal Womb’ on the album which is written purely from that perspective, where the ending is sort of a non-secular free-jazz jam.”  

And as a novelty to end the album, final track ‘Thank You’ is a forty-six-second credit roll, thanking everyone who worked on the album. It’s definitely unusual, but as Danny explains, “when it’s written on the back of an album there’s no real reason you would have to read it or look at it, but if we combined it with a nice song maybe a few more people would pay it more attention.”

The Widow Babies- Moon Milk: MP3

The Widow Babies- Mike Watt Created The Universe With A Bass Solo: MP3

 The Widow Babies- Myspace

 Purchase The Widow Babies’ debut album Jetpacks from olFactory Records.