{"id":27258,"date":"2024-03-20T05:30:39","date_gmt":"2024-03-20T09:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=27258"},"modified":"2024-03-21T10:30:41","modified_gmt":"2024-03-21T14:30:41","slug":"the-contractions-kicking-ass-taking-names","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/20\/the-contractions-kicking-ass-taking-names\/","title":{"rendered":"The Contractions: Kicking Ass, Taking Names"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The following is a liner note essay I wrote for 1980<\/em>, a brand-new archival release from Liberation Hall Records. It’s a live set drawn from the group’s 1980 dates at at San Francisco’s Mabuhay Gardens. The album is available on CD at this link<\/a><\/strong>. — bk<\/span><\/p>\n

Several U.S. cities hosted punk and new wave scenes in the 1970s; in many ways, San Francisco\u2019s was among the most wide-encompassing and egalitarian. But for every act that broke through nationally, several others of merit stayed largely a local secret. Among the most significant of those was an all-woman trio known as The Contractions.<\/p>\n

During their time together (1979 to 1985), The Contractions not only built a local following, but toured nationally, and released a pair of singles and an album. Now \u2013 with the cooperation of the group\u2019s three founding members, and thanks to the live recording endeavors of archivist Terry Hammer \u2013 this live compilation from two SF dates comes as a worthy addition to the group\u2019s catalog.<\/p>\n

In her youth, Mary Kelley was inspired in equal parts by her mother\u2019s collection of 1940s pop and jazz, orchestral music, San Francisco counterculture radio and concerts featuring British Invasion bands like Pink Floyd, The Who, The Kinks and Led Zeppelin. After years playing piano and French horn, Mary switched to guitar, and when punk started bubbling under in the Bay Area, she was hooked.<\/p>\n

Deb Hopkins, on the other hand, first picked up her drumsticks as a child. \u201cI got my first drum kit the summer between sixth and seventh grade,\u201d she recalls. Her dyslexia would prove a creative advantage, as she created her own drum parts and committed them to memory rather than reading musical notation. At one point she auditioned for No Sisters, but she didn\u2019t get the gig. \u201cThey told me they didn\u2019t think I was strong enough, hard hitting enough, to play their music,\u201d she says. Taking that rejection as a challenge, Deb bought the fattest drum sticks she could find. \u201cI got strong,\u201d she says, \u201cand I got strong fast<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deb recalls that her drumming prowess impressed her friend Lisa Wexler, daughter of legendary record producer Jerry Wexler. \u201cShe repeatedly said to me, \u2018You should be playing with Mary!\u2019\u201d Lisa brought the two of them together in her living room with the goal of having them jam on Mary\u2019s original songs.
\n\u201cAnd we hit it off,\u201d Mary says. The two agreed to meet again, acknowledging that they\u2019d need a bassist to complete the trio.<\/p>\n

At the time, Mary leased a warehouse in the heart of SF\u2019s Mission District, The Manor (later rechristened Contraction Manor), where she hosted a sculpture show by renowned artist Paul Lindhard. One attendee was Kathy Peck. \u201cShe told me she played bass and wrote songs,\u201d Mary recalls.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kinda lied,\u201d says Kathy.<\/p>\n

In fact, Kathy had taken piano lessons starting at age five, and started writing songs immediately. By the time she met up with Mary and Deb, she was plugged into the nascent punk scene, thanks in part to husband Don\u2019s gig with punk pioneer Mary Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo Mary invited Kathy to a practice at Iguana Studios,\u201d Deb recalls. \u201cIt was clear immediately that the chemistry was there, and that Kathy had what we were missing: punk style.\u201d She also had some original songs. But what Kathy didn\u2019t<\/i> have was a great deal of experience on bass. \u201cI saw that as an advantage,\u201d Deb says. \u201cHer being a novice musician gave us the rough edges and simplicity that helped us fit in. We were all three so different, but we had immediate chemistry. And we laughed a lot<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was never any plan for The Contractions to be a group of woman musicians. \u201cI don\u2019t think we ever talked about it,\u201d Deb says today. \u201cIt just happened.\u201d And from the beginning, they were adamant that their all-female lineup not be viewed as a gimmick.<\/p>\n

Each of the women wrote songs on her own; the musical arrangements were collaborative. \u201cWe thought of ourselves as a three-legged chair,\u201d Mary says. \u201cAlways a team. It wasn\u2019t The Contractions without the three of us.\u201d The group worked out of Truth and Beauty Labs, the rehearsal\/recording studio they built themselves.<\/p>\n

Kathy and Mary wrote most of the band\u2019s material, but Deb contributed \u201cYou\u2019re Making Me Crazy\u201d and others. And while The Contractions were punk in attitude, their music wasn\u2019t pure punk: Mary characterizes some of her songs \u2013 like \u201cBreaking Up is Not Hard to Do\u201d and \u201cWater Beast\u201d \u2013 as orchestral or cinematic.<\/p>\n

The band\u2019s first gig was at Deaf Club, opening for Offs and No Alternative. \u201cI recall feeling like a fish out of water, but the audience was appreciative,\u201d says Deb. Their success there led to spots playing on bills with many legendary Bay Area groups including Dead Kennedys, The Offs, No Sisters, SVT, Jim Carroll, Flipper, and The Mutants. The Contractions also shared stages with no-wave pioneer Glenn Branca, The Go-Go\u2019s, Duran Duran, and Bush Tetras.<\/p>\n

Contractions 1980<\/i> is culled from two performances at Ness Aquino\u2019s Mabuhay Gardens. By day a Filipino restaurant, at night the space became Ground Zero for Bay Area punk and new wave. Notorious emcee Dirk Dirksen was a friend of the band, but as was his wont, he teased them endlessly, and would often introduce them this way: \u201cAnd here they are, the Contraptions<\/i>!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople described us as \u2018musically dangerous,\u2019\u201d says Deb Hopkins. \u201cYears later, I am still meeting women who tell me that they decided to learn an instrument and start a band after seeing us. And that is what I hope our legacy is: empowering females to play music, and to expect to be treated and respected for their music and not treated like sex objects.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had fun and I learned a lot,\u201d says Kathy Peck. \u201cI feel very fortunate that I could play with Mary and Deb: it was like \u2018no net below us.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI look from inside the band, so I don\u2019t have a pure sense of what The Contractions\u2019 legacy is,\u201d says Mary Kelley. \u201cFor me, we showed up, kicked ass and took names. We were out there. We happened.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following is a liner note essay I wrote for 1980, a brand-new archival release from Liberation Hall Records. It’s a live set drawn from the group’s 1980 dates at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27259,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,49,59],"tags":[5388],"class_list":["post-27258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-new-release","category-punk","tag-contractions","cat-41-id","cat-49-id","cat-59-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27258"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27299,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27258\/revisions\/27299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}