“I've heard people say, oh punk is dead, punk is not like it was when I was younger. That's up to us to make it feel like it felt when we were young. And you can do that right here, right now. And you can make it relevant. Because there's always shit that has to be addressed. I'm so honored and so proud to play with so many young people, people of color, women, people from all backgrounds.. and to see how punk as evolved, how punk has come full circle. Because that's where it started. Punk started with all of us. It started as an inclusive scene. And it went around, it went around, and it came back to us.”
- ALICE BAG, 8/19/16 at The Sidebar in Baltimore

“I took big, hungry bites out of life, and I'm still not full.”
-Alice Bag, Violence Girl: East L.A. Rage to Hollywood Stage : a Chicana Punk Story

Alice Bag has a new self titled album out on Don Giovanni Records. Her songs cover themes ranging from a political analysis of the suburbs to the power of saying “no.”

After reading Amanda Palmer’s The Art of Asking, she decided to crowdsource her album as a way of asking for much needed economic resources but also as a way to connect to her audience by including them in the process of making her album possible. She also reached out to Joe Steinhardt of Don Giovanni who was excited to work with the prolific Alice Bag.

Perhaps the reason that we look towards punk isn’t to see an open door but to believe that there is an open door for all of the feelings of loss, anxiety, anger, and longing that we have. There is no one that helps us to see an open door, to ignite a desire, to figure out a path to it, the way Alice Bag does. Because the narrative of history is created by imperfect people and institutions, the path will be imperfect. Alice finds her agency in this imperfection: “I don’t lament what has come after me in punk. Things are cyclical. It does bother me that people have been led to believe that punk is music created for and by white males… Punk’s diverse roots are bound to come to the surface. I will shout it from the rooftops!”

Alice Bag has found various ways to yell from the rooftops. From fronting the Bags starting in 1977 to writing Violence Girl: East L.A. Rage to Hollywood Stage : a Chicana Punk Story, published in 2011, Alice’s voice is integral in understanding the power dynamics of feminism and music. For many musicians, representation will be enough. It is totally enough when people of color are in bands that confront and disrupt the myth that punk belongs to White people or was founded by British White boys. At the same time, it is important to recognize when people and bands go beyond representation, into a new realm, which is creating the veins for the history flow through. Alice has used her music, writing, teaching, and community building to meticulously and fiercely create the foundation of punk.

Perhaps part of Alice Bag’s power is that she does not think of her work in terms of being part of some type of canon of Chicanx artists or musicians because she is constantly part of the relevant roster of working artists. She can’t be historicized because we are still occupied with her future.. . .