Alice Bag is so punk that the founding face of the Los Angeles scene has never actually released an album. The Bags, her band with Patricia Morrison, were so volatile that they put out just one single in 1978 (before a compilation recording years later). Two years later, Penelope Spheeris captured one of their ferocious performances for her documentary Decline of Western Civilization, but by the time it was released in 1981, strife between Bag and Morrison meant that they had to be credited as the Alice Bag Band.
There have been other bands, and two books, in the interim decades, but Bag, now 57, is finally releasing her self-titled debut album this June via Don Giovanni. It was a collective endeavor: She used Kickstarter to fund the record (almost tripling her initial $6,000 ask), which features a wealth of young musicians she met through her work with Girls Rock Camp and Chicas Rockeras in south east LA.
On “No Means No,” she's tapped into an equally youthful sound, finger-wagging about the entitlement that enables rape culture with the kind of spirited humor that bands like Tacocat, T-Rextasy, and Chastity Belt employ as a salve against exploding with rage. “You paid for dinner, she ate dessert/ Those tender kisses, ow! They made you hurt,” Bag sings in a playful sneer, over a girl-group, surf-pop rattle. It's temping to call it the catchiest PSA ever, but "No Means No” flips the usual public messaging script, and puts the onus on the perpetrators.
