Jason Traeger

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Anyone who knows me knows I've never been one to revel in the past. I'm the last one to cast a misty-eyed glance back at the "good old days". In my experience the people who take this angle are usually the ones who weren't there. Whatever mistakes, false starts and missed opportunities I've had the pleasure of having, I was wherever I was for better or worse.

This blog is not meant to romanticize any choices I made or any particular era. It's simply a place where I share stories and take stock of where I've been as a way to figure out where I might want to go next. I'll celebrate some people along the way, some of them you'll know or know of, others will be new to you. I'm glad to have known every one of them.

The posts are in no thematic or chronological order. The date at the end of the post's title refers to how the content of the post relates to me personally. I make no claim about the accuracy of my recollections I only promise that I'll be as honest and accurate as I can be. If you were there and you remember things differently than I do, or you find evidence that contradicts my memory (I wouldn't be surprised or upset) feel free to let me know.

Rather than editing the posts for historical accuracy, I'll put ( * ) next to any parts that have been challenged or updated for that reason.

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May 2, 2013

INTERVIEW WITH CAROL GATES ON CORPORATE RADIO REJECTS PORTLAND 2013.

This is the first interview I’ve ever done about the Punk Rock era. Carol and I cover a lot of ground in this conversation.

https://soundcloud.com/corporateradioreject/corporate-radio-jason-traeger

Photo: Me onstage at YoYoAGoGo Olympia 1997.

July 3, 2012

MAURO FROM RAW POWER AND JELLO BIAFRA AT A PARTY SAN DIEGO 1984

This is a little bonus blog entry to tack onto the one that preceded it.

I don’t remember who took this picture, I’m pretty sure I didn’t but I was there when it was taken. Like I said in the other post this was the second time I met Biafra who I’d end up working for at Alternative Tentacles a few years later in the decade.

I’m pretty sure Biafra’s leg got fudged up on stage in L.A. at the Olympic by some over eager stage diver. The venue was notorious for having a ridiculously porous stage policy that would often lead to the bands being almost totally lost in the crowd jumping, stage diving and slamming all around them on stage.

I remember it was weird seeing him do the show in San Diego perched on a stool with his leg out straight in front of him, doing his trademark hand gestures and stuff. He still rocked and the kids went crazy of course. That night though really belonged to Raw Power. Hardly anyone had heard of them and they simply blew the SD crowd away with their relentless attack. They were unstoppable and the hard-headed SD punks loved them for it.

SD Punks of a certain age take note of the Personal Conflict shirt in the other room!

(Photo of Mauro and Jello from my personal archives)

12:33am | URL: http://tmblr.co/Zl8DhvOc3hS8

(Notes: 27)

Filed under: Dead Kennedys Jello Biafra Mauro Codeluppi Raw Power alternative tentacles olympic auditorium san diego tim maze personal conflict

July 2, 2012

MARTA, GAVIN, ME and RAW POWER AT THE BEACH SAN DIEGO 1984

Life’s a beach.

In 1984 there was a big international punk show held at The Olympic Auditorium in LA that featured headliners Dead Kennedys with BGK from Holland, Riistetyt from Finland, Italy’s Raw Power and Tijuana Punks Solucion Mortal rounding out the bill. The same line up, minus BGK I believe, played in San Diego the next weekend at the Adams Ave Theater.

I was a high school kid living in San Diego at the time and would’ve been way stoked for this bill even if I hadn’t been asked earlier in the month by Chris BCT to host one of the bands during their stay in SD. Chris was a big booster of the international hardcore scene and was involved somehow in putting these shows together. I asked my mom if she’d let a band stay with us a couple nights and, if you follow my blog at all you know how cool she is now and was then, she said yes.

My friends and I went up to the LA show, and went backstage with Chris to meet Riistetyt the band I’d agreed to host. They were complete douches. They were no longer a hardcore band, they were now a glam rock band in the Finnish tradition of Hanoi Rocks . Along with their now crappy music they brought a crappy dismissive, drunky, druggy, rockstar attitude. I wasn’t going to let these guys into my mom’s world. No way, no how.

The dressing room next door was a whole other scene, even though only one of them spoke English, the guys in Raw Power were as warm and down to earth a bunch of guys as you could hope to meet. They were not only super friendly, they also played a brand of anarcho-metallic hardcore that was blisteringly manic and totally intense. These were the dudes I wanted to hang with. Hang with them I did.

On a side note: I also met Jello Biafra, the man I’d work for four years later, in the Raw Power dressing room. It’s funny to recall being a little star-struck at the time considering how well I came to know the guy in future days!

To make a long story short, my mom, my brother and I ended up hosting Raw Power for over a week! The couple of days got stretched out to over a week because after the SD show a couple of the Italians went down to Tijuana to party with Luis and Solucion Mortal, which was a big mistake because some of their papers were still in NYC with a woman who’d helped get them to the states. Even though this was pre-9/11 America, the border was still the border and a couple shaggy mediterranean looking guys, with the wrong papers, who didn’t speak English weren’t getting back into SD unless they were ready to hop the fence…which the TJ punks offered to help them do by the way.

After discussing the options, they decided to wait for the papers to be sent express from the East Coast instead of trying to get across illegally and potentially be barred from the US forever. It turned out okay, mom and the guys made tons of spaghetti, we got to know the folks at the gelato place in the neighborhood, and we went to the beach almost everyday. This photo was taken at Pacific Beach I believe.

I remember when Fabiano and Davide finally got back from Mexico to mom’s house and the company of their tanned, well-fed and rested bandmates they were rough around the edges and suffering from some gastric distress. Davide clutched his stomach and said “San Diego…very good…Tijuana…not so nice!”

My mom and I were sad to learn ten years ago that guitarist Guiseppe Codeluppi had a heart attack and died. He was a nice guy.

…oh yeah, I’m sorry to say the guy in SD who ended up hosting Riistetyt after the show was stuck with a huge bill for a bunch of international phone calls they made while he was at work. I always felt bad about that, but hey, I got first pick what can I say?

R.I.P. Guiseppe Codeluppi

(Pictured L to R: Mauro Codeluppi, Guiseppe Codeluppi, Maurizio Dodi, Marta Brandes, myself, my brother Gavin Traeger. Polaroid from my personal archives)

3:25pm | URL: http://tmblr.co/Zl8DhvOa5gZJ

(Notes: 3)

Filed under: raw power dead kennedys bgk solucion mortal mexico tijuana LA jello biafra bad compilation tapes

March 28, 2012

BODY COUNT: LIFE AND TIMES OF HUSTLA’ LOLLAPALOOZA SAN FRANCISCO 1991

Whoever said hustlin’ ain’t easy never met Ernie C.

Back in 1991 I was working for Jello Biafra at Alternative Tentacles Records in San Francisco. It was that year, or maybe the year before, that Ice-T’s heavy metal band Body Count had released an album that opened with a sample of one of Jello’s spoken word recordings. Ice was a big fan of Dead Kennedys and Biafra.

When Ice-T took Body Count out for their inaugural tour as a part of the first Lollapalooza fest, he invited Jello to come out and say hello.

Biafra, myself and the rest of the small A.T. staff had been planning to go to the festival anyway because our friends in Nine Inch Nails were playing, and even if they hadn’t been, we had peeps at Bill Graham Presents who always got us into shows out at the Shoreline Amphitheater in the suburbs near San Francisco where Lollapalooza would soon be happening.

Jello let Ice know he’d be there. Luckily, I’d be there too.

Yeah, I was waaaay cool back then.

The festival was fun, totally sunny, tons of people, great bands, we got backstage, ate good food, I met some of the rockstars milling about, and ate way too many Jell-o shots.

It just struck me… I don’t remember Jello having any Jell-o shots…

Each of the acts playing the fest had their own set of mobile-classroom type backstage trailers. We found Body Count’s trailers and stopped by to visit. The guys were hanging out, looking very cool, very Gangsta. They were all super nice, Ice-T was as friendly and down-to-earth a man as you could hope to meet, and it was all very pleasant.

We had been chatting for while when the band’s lead guitarist Ernie C., who had been absent until now, entered the scene carrying an empty duffle bag, looking amused and more than a little bit pleased with himself.

Ernie C. (who Ice would later introduce from the stage colorfully as “…the ignorant lil’ n-gga on lead guitar…”) explained to everyone where he had been. He told us he was outside in the parking lot of the venue selling Body Count T-shirts directly to fans as a way of circumventing having to give Bill Graham Presents the 20% cut they took off the top from the legitimate merchandise stands run by their staff inside the place.

Security had busted Ernie in the parking lot and refused to believe he was in the band, which is not an unreasonable assumption for them to have made, after all: why would a rockstar be out in the parking lot standing in the hot sun selling his band’s t-shirts from a duffle bag?

You can’t really blame the security for not knowing that the reason this was happening was because this particular rockstar happened to be a CERTIFIED HUSTLA’ off the streets of South Central Los Angeles by the name of ERNIE C.!

…that’s why!

Ernie smooth talked, shrugged off, and ultimately convinced security he was legit without having to give up one dollar of the fat stack of cash he’d earned out there.

Score one for Ernie C.!

Later as we left, Biafra mentioned to Ice-T how much he admired the oversized, black, padded jackets the band was wearing. The ones with the embroidered Body Count Logo on the back that was a take off on the famous Oakland Raiders logo. Ice asked if he wanted one and Biafra said he did.

As soon as Jello expressed his wish, Ice told one of his entourage to “give the man your jacket”. Much to the apparent chagrin of the big dude wearing the jacket in question I might add.

The A.T. guys and I protested that it wouldn’t be right and it was far too kind to give Jello the jacket off the guy’s back. Biafra thought it was okay however and that the guy could always get a new one and so it was that Biafra took the jacket and put it on along with his new Body Count stocking hat.

The only thing missing from his ensemble were the dark, wrap around shades.

Score one for Biafra.

Body Count photo from the web.

12:51pm | URL: http://tmblr.co/Zl8DhvIiVmgu

(Notes: 10)

Filed under: ERNIE C ice t jello biafra body count hustlin' hustla south central shorline amphitheater san friancisco alternative tentacles lollapalooza perry farrell bill graham presents bgp

March 24, 2012

THE FIRST TWO SHOWS I EVER PLAYED: BIAFRA and D.O.A. SAN FRANCISCO 1989

This still surprises me. I mean, how the f—k?

In 1989 the great Canadian punk stalwarts D.O.A. were doing a final west coast tour before calling it quits (yes, they’re still together and rocking at the time I am writing, I am pleased to report). This show at Club DV8 in San Francisco was to be their last S.F. appearance and would be filmed for a commemorative video to be called “The End” by the promoter of the show, the man who put the “fab” in the Fab Mab, the one and only “Pope of Punk” Mr. Dirk Dirksen.

If I remember correctly, in the hustle bustle of setting up the show and the taping Dirk had neglected to book an opening act for the evening and he mentioned this problem to everyone while swinging by Alternative Tentacles where I worked at the time. I had recently agreed to play my FIRST SHOW EVER opening for a Biafra spoken word date at the fancy new club Slim’s down on 11th St.,south of Market. Dirk caught wind of this fact and he off the cuff asked me if I wanted to open his D.O.A. show the night after my concert debut. Against my better judgement I said I would. I mean why not, right?

This two night stand playing my first two shows EVER back to back opening for my friends D.O.A. and Biafra also happened to be a two night stand opening for two acts that were once major heroes of mine and who were also still a lot of other people’s heroes. No pressure, no problem. After all I played weird pretentious psychedelic prog-punk alone with an electric guitar and had zero stage experience, what could go wrong?

The weirdest part of it is…nothing really went wrong.

Sure, I shroomed the first night at Slim’s before walking out in front of oh, say 800 people. I heard my voice through a P.A. for the first time in my life tripping. I totally sucked. The crowd was stunned or maybe puzzled is a better word, whatever they were they were seated and were mostly quiet and respectful. My only real memory of my time on stage was seeing Klaus Flouride near the front looking at me through his glasses with an expression of metaphysical sorrow and compassion and I felt a wash of Buddha-like acceptance of life’s suffering engulf me. Man, I must’ve sucked.

I got off stage in a halo of techno-Aztec arabesque filigree patterns, wept in my dressing room, and got paid $500!!!

The next night at DV8 opening for D.O.A. I had the good sense to get semi-hammered instead of psychedelic before playing. Dutch courage seemed more appropriate for playing to a sold-out crowd of punks who were there to wish D.O.A. happy trails. This crowd would not be seated.

With videotape rolling, Dirk Dirksen introduced me in the style he made famous as emcee at The Mabuhay Gardens back before my time by talking sh-t about how lame I was and how the crowd shouldn’t give me the time of day. They all knew about his spiel and took it in good humor. I walked out, plugged my SG straight into Joey Shithead’s Marshall 1/2 stack and let the good times roll.

I know I had to have been wretched and I definitely had no business being up there, but even though I did get heckled and stuff, most of the punks actually seemed to respect the insanity of me standing up there all alone just doing it. It went o…k…

The only person I remember seeing in the crowd was Karin Gembus. Smiling brightly, looking like a ray of sunshine in the dark clouds all around. Thanks Karin!

Later when Dirk thanked me and handed me $300 and a VHS tape of my performance, I was elated. I’d made $800.00 in two nights! I thought “fame and fortune, here I come!”

I only ever made that much from music maybe once or twice ever after that…whaa-whaaaa. (Miles Davis trumpet sound).

I set that VHS tape on top of my player at home and stared at it off and on for a couple days before gutting it and tossing it in the garbage. I have not one ounce of regret about that decision.

R.I.P. Dirk Dirksen and Ken Jensen

Photo from the D.O.A. show by Damon Malloy (?)

3:05am | URL: http://tmblr.co/Zl8DhvITqxdx

(Notes: 1)

Filed under: Dirk dirksen mabuhay gardens club dv8 slim's market street d.o.a. jello biafra klaus flouride damon malloy joey shithead joe kiethly ken jensen alternative tentacles karin gembus spitboy

March 23, 2012

SEATTLE PUNK: ASHBY 1982

I got wind of punk rock when I was 11 or 12 in 1980-81. I saw my first handful of shows when I was 13 in 1982. I split my time between my dad’s house in the suburbs north of Seattle and my mom’s house in Tacoma. Whenever I could I would make my way to University Avenue to hang out, go to record stores and meet other punks/freaks.

Since I was very young and the world of punk was so mysterious, totally underground, and more than a little bit edgy, even dangerous, pretty much everybody I met was older, more experienced. and wiser about the streets and world than me. This dynamic between myself and my new acquaintances made them all seem impossibly sophisticated, interesting and cool. Most of them smoked, drank, and did drugs. Some of them were homeless street kids and even hustlers. Some were kids more like me from homes of various levels of disintegration and harmony who were into aggressive, intense music, had a personal style with some flair, were looking for something exciting to call their own. and had found it in punk rock.

Ashby, pictured here about to stage dive at the Eagles Hippodrome was one of the kids I thought was especially cool. He probably barely noticed me hanging around. He was at every show I went to, was always on The Ave. too. He wore a trench coat, army surplus spats over his combat boots, had a shaved head, wore a beret sometimes and seemed to know everyone in the scene. He was probably only three or four years older than I was but that made a lot of difference at the time.

The guy over Ashby’s shoulder is Jello Biafra of Dead Kennedys who, it just so happens, would be my employer in S.F. about five years after this shot was taken. Small world huh?

I’ll write about more of these “older, wiser” characters in future posts. Photo by Mike Leach

6:44pm | URL: http://tmblr.co/Zl8DhvISs5z4

(Notes: 5)

Filed under: Ashby eagles hippodrome hardcore punk seattle university avenue jello biafra dead kennedys

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