the song that made rock history

the song that made rock history

This past Thursday 09 july 2009, at the Eagle Tavern a band from San Francisco’s illustrious punk rock history past played a live show for the first time in 20 years. That band was Housecoat Project, led by vocalist/provocateur/punk rock diva Meri St. Mary who formed the band in 1984 with guitarist Eric Rad. In 1985 while playing a gig at the famous Mabuhay Gardens, Eric Rad was electrocuted and died mid song onstage. After this tragic loss, Meri, Erol Cengis on bass, and drummer Michel Schorro decided to keep Housecoat Project going and they recruited guitarist Jay Crawford from another legendary and amazing local band Bomb. Later Bob Bartosik on saxophone joined as well, completing the line-up. This band recorded the album Wide Eye Doo Dat on Subterranean Records in 1987, which was a promising and interesting release that garnered a fair amount of attention and good reviews with its unusual punk rock-collides-into-blues-and-abstract-jazz stylings and the tough-living city girl lyrics and vocals of SF punk siren Meri St. Mary. It was a great record with amazing cover art featuring a Van Gogh-esque painting or self portrait of Van Gogh holding his severed ear with the discs title emblazoned across the top. I also learned that there is a whole album worth of unreleased HP music soon to be put out by Subterranean, who’ve had it in their vaults for 20 years.