mecca normal free album downloads Mecca normal free album downloads. Mecca Normal updates, videos and art on FaceBook. Mecca Normal blog for artifacts through our 35+ year history. Opening for The Julie Ruin in Portland, 2016. "Wasn't Said" from "Empathy for the Evil produced by KRAMER. Many of the lyrics are directly out of two of Jean Smith's unpublished novels. Jean Smith is represented by the Carolyn Swayze Literary Agency. David Lester and Jean Smith's ongoing collaboration on Magnet Magazine -- free Mecca Normal download every week. YouTube Playlist of Mecca Normal's recorded songs. Unreleased, live songs, and interviews on BandCamp. "Arguably the greatest rock band without a rhythm section ever, the duo of acid-voiced singer Jean Smith and guitar hero David Lester must be seen to be believed." -- Douglas Wolk. Jean Smith is a major writer of our generation." -- Ronnie Pontiac, senior editor Newtopia Magazine. "An unbending advocate of thoughtful indie culture for two decades now, the Vancouver guitar-and-voice twosome doesn't just make demanding music, they also make books, paintings, photos, cartoons, among other things." -- San Francisco Chronicle. Read the four star Rolling Stone review. --------------- All Content � 2000 - 2020 Lester/Smith unless otherwise noted. Mecca Normal - Frozen Rain at the Fast Forward Festival, 1994, Holland. Mecca Normal CDs, books, posters, t-shirts and art on BuyOlympia.com . BOOKS: The Listener is distributed in Canada through LitDistCo , in the USA through AK Press , and in the UK through Global Book Marketing . The Gruesome Acts of Capitalism by David Lester -- the revised, second printing is in stock at buyolypia.com . Available in Canada from Arbeiter Ring and in the US from AK Press . Black Dot Museum of Political Art -- features David Lester's Inspired Agitators poster series including "Malachi" about war protester Malachi Ritscher. || "The Family Swan and || other songs" Jean || Smith's lyrics from the || new CD. || " Afternoon Descends || To Night" graphics by || David Lester. || Mecca Normal has a few || t-shirts designed by || Jean. Maybe one of them fits you. Newsletter. Irritated by the standard four-guys-on-stage scene in the early 1980s, Mecca Normal – Jean Smith and David Lester – formed their voice-and- guitar duo with one thing on their mind. Changing the world. Weirdly, they succeeded. Frequently cited as an inspiration to the co-founders of Riot Grrrl, Smith regularly spoke from the stage between songs in the 80s and 90s, encouraging women in the audience to form bands of their own, and a few key figures did just that. “Jean Smith was really poetic and had feminist ideas at the core of a lot of her songs and she wasn’t ashamed of it. And when I saw her, I was just like, that’s it. I’m done. I’m sold.” Kathleen Hanna, Bikini Kill (The Fader, 2010) For a few years in the 90s, Vancouver’s Mecca Normal headlined (and sometimes sold out) shows on the west coast and in the Northeastern USA, yet, until now, there hasn’t been a live album. For a brief time in the mid-90s, New Zealander Peter Jefferies (Nocturnal Projections) was on drums. Known for the intensity of their live shows, this one borders on incendiary. Recorded at The Cabaret, a beautiful little theatre in Montréal, Québec on April 16, 1996 for later broadcast on CBC’s Brave New Waves, Smith’s unparalleled delivery of songs about injustice is viscerally enmeshed with Lester’s furious guitar. As for the drums… while there is wisdom in not allowing romantic partners in a band, that tension had been intensified after the couple in question started a new band (2 Foot Flame on Matador) while living in New Zealand. “Maybe it’s just me, but I figure the guitar and the drums are both trying to get the last word, while I felt I needed to elevate my performance to justify the drama,” Smith recently divulged about the show. In 2016, Mecca Normal opened three shows for The Julie Ruin (Bikini Kill members) at which Kathleen Hanna said from the stage: “Their music is still as relevant as it was 25 years ago when I first saw them. It makes me happy that their music is still relevant because they’re doing it better than ever. And their new songs are so fucking great and hilarious.” Jean and David’s incredible creative partnership continues, but its focus is currently visual art. Lester’s graphic novel about the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 is out now, and Smith has sold over 600 of her ‘$100 USD brand’ paintings on FaceBook. Mecca Normal’s long-running association with the CBC’s Brave New Waves included many interviews as well as songs recorded by Kevin Komoda at DNA Studios in Montréal. Mecca Normal’s Brave New Waves session is released on vinyl, CD, and digital formats. The digipak CD comes with a short interview with Brent Bambury, as well as bonus cuts from the CBC archive. Released on Toronto-based Artoffact Records. Limited edition 12″ vinyl on see-thru green wax with insert of Jean Smith’s $100 USD paintings. 1. Water Cuts My Hands 2. Prize Arm 3. Don’t Shoot 4. Tower Island 5. Revival of Cruelty 6. The Dogs 7. Drive At / Peach-a-Vanilla 8. Ribbon 9. Man Thinks Woman / Strong White Male / I Walk Alone 10. Armchairs Fit through Doorways 11. Are You Hungry Joe? Limited edition digipak CD with bonus tracks 1. Water Cuts My Hands 2. Prize Arm 3. Don’t Shoot 4. Tower Island 5. Revival of Cruelty 6. The Dogs 7. Drive At / Peach-a-Vanilla 8. Ribbon 9. Man Thinks Woman / Strong White Male / I Walk Alone 10. Armchairs Fit through Doorways 11. Are You Hungry Joe? 12. Crimson Dragnet 13. Brave New Waves CBC interview, 1986 14. You’ll Never Know 15. Black Star 16. Hideous 17. Alibi. Peter Jefferies, Jean Smith, Patti Schmidt (Brave New Waves host), David Lester. Mecca Normal. Mecca Normal ( Jean Smith , David Lester ) started in 1984 with the express purpose of changing the world. Mecca Normal is known as a fore-runner and inspiration to the riot grrrl movement in the 90s. As part of the regional D-I-Y scene at that time, Mecca Normal co-founded the Black Wedge – anti-authoritarian poets and minimalist musicians "setting wild hearts free, spreading the damn difficult word of how to combine poetry with activist resistance culture". At the Black Wedge show in Olympia (1986) Jean and Calvin Johnson met and traded LPs – Mecca Normal's first album (later to be re-issued on ) for the first Beat Happening record. Mecca Normal has released thirteen albums on assorted labels including Matador and . Jean Smith. “Unlike most portraits, especially the ones men tend to paint of women, these were not made to be looked upon. The subjects were equal partners in the looking. You stared at them and they stared back. Smith’s women seemed to have rich interior lives and sometimes wore uniforms to indicate what they were doing before you, the viewer, so rudely interrupted.” – Nick Marino, New York Times Magazine, January 10, 2021. FOLLOW me on FaceBook to see $100 USD paintings for sale daily. I’m currently focused on creating groups 3 or more LARGE (16 x 20″ $600 USD) paintings based on the various “themes” I already paint. I will create a private album / page for you with options based on themes that interest you. Join my 3 or more LARGE painting GROUP on FaceBook when you have selected themes and are ready to buy. Please include which country I’d be shipping to. One Man’s Anger. From the Mecca Normal album Empathy for the Evil, released in 2014. Vocals, lyrics, video and illustration by Jean Smith. David Lester guitar. One Man’s Anger. This one man’s anger this one man’s rage this one man’s fear – it comes from pain oh ohhhhhh – it comes from pain. No matter what look is on his face what words he choose to say this one man’s anger comes from pain. it can fool you – you can be tricked he will tell you otherwise – otherwise. But as he’s walking down the way you will know his anger comes from pain comes from pain. This one man – is not a bad man, no he’s not a bad man in any way but this one man’s anger and rage. Coming out again is from fear of pain. And in the hollows of the shallows of the dark setting in In a quiet time. A look on his face – just a flicker like a flame will allow you to see his fear is his pain he fears the fear he fears the fear of pain. This one man’s pain and his angry ways the fire versus the flame the fire and the flame credits. Normal History. I collaborate on a weekly illustration, caption and song column for Magnet Magazine with Mecca Normal guitar player David Lester. Normal History is billed as The Art of David Lester, but at many points in the 612 volumes, my captions turn into small essays. Along the same lines (pardon the pun), David’s illustrations aren’t, strictly speaking, “ visually documenting people, places and events from his band’s 36-year run “. We’ve gone way off track on many occasions, unless you consider our band’s history to include pretty much any social justice, labour history, feminist issue or event we care to “document” within the parameters of David’s illustration, a Mecca Normal song (free download from all albums running in sequence) and my “caption” – which we do… consider to be within the realm of our band’s history.