ivy room presentsSATURDAY JUNE 22ND(a part of the ivy riot concert series)—TEAM DRESCHOCEANATORTHE HOMOBILESALLISON WOLFE(dj set)—Doors 7:00pm / Show 8:00pm$24 Advance / $24 Day of Show—IVY ROOM860 San Pablo Ave, Albany • 21+IVY RIOT—IVY RIOT! will be a Queer focused, month long wellness and development program which includes but not limited to, LGBTQIA+ live music events, comedy shows, activist panels, job fairs and mental health support workshops. Ivy Room’s program will be held in and around the month of June 2024 in celebration of Pride. We wholeheartedly desire to be the hub for the LGBTQIA+ community in the Bay Area and strongly believe in the necessity of having a safe open space to belong to. For more information about the series and our calendar, please visit the series page.TEAM DRESCH—To say Team Dresch were/are a political band is to miss the point. As they reminded in their great 1996 epistolary anthem “To the Enemies of Political Rock,” not singing about causes is a political statement, of acceptance of the status quo. In “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” America, Team Dresch did not have the luxury of complacency if they wanted to sing about the most basic of lyrical themes: Love. For four young women who love other women, choosing whether to sing their hearts out “can feel like a choice between pleasure and existence,” as Jody Bleyle evocatively expressed in “Political Rock.” Or, as they sang a little less politely in the same song: “Just own it you little slacker fuck.”Listening to Team Dresch’s 1990s albums and singles two decades later, I’m struck by the way in which they’ve gained, not lost, power. Combining the brazenness of Riot Grrrl with the angst dirge of grunge, Team Dresch didn’t just raise the stakes of queercore: They created two near-perfect albums about longing, freedom, and belonging over guitar riffs as epic and intense as Bleyle and Kaia Wilson’s poetic couplets. In the hands of Janis Ian or k.d. lang, or Tegan and Sara, songs like “She’s Crushing My Mind” and “Yes I am Too But Who Am I Really?” might have been ballads. Inspired by punk and metal, Team Dresch played them as bone crushers.Beginning with their self-naming, Team Dresch celebrated singularity and camaraderie. Guitarist and bassist Donna Dresch was the indie-rock legend (Screaming Trees, Dinosaur Jr., Fifth Column, etc.) under whose ax they united, but they carried the ball down the field together, passing lines, leads and instruments back and forth. They were all experienced musicians – Jody drummed for Hazel, Kaia had been in Adickdid, Marcéo Martinez in Calamity Jane – and brought a level of serious musicianship to the primitivism of Olympia’s DIY scene. On their 1995 debut, Personal Best (named after the movie starring Mariel Hemingway), they raged against the Christian right and small towns, then kissed their girlfriends on the mouth. Dresch, Bleyle, and Wilson played ferocious, intricate riffs fast while Martinez hit the drums hard. Their lyrics cited the Smiths and Sinead O’Connor, patron saints of sorrow and suffering. To paraphrase their own song, they were amazing; their words saved us.Melissa York replaced Martinez on Captain My Captain, pounding the skins even harder – and adding a level of NYC showmanship to the quintessentially Northwestern, T-shirted live act. “Uncle Phranc” kicked out the jams this time. The band was finding and creating community, elevating and becoming dykons. Already Team Dresch commanded a level of assurance and confidence, staying true to the underground’s autonomous spirit and dispensing useful advice, such as “Don’t Try Suicide.” They released their records on indie labels, mostly ones they ran themselves, Chainsaw and Candyass. “Remember who you are, Make up who you are,” they roared over the noise of busted closets. Punk rock would never be the same.Team Dresch broke up suddenly, its members going off in singles and pairs to other projects: The Butchies, the Vegas Beat. They reunited in 2004 and have played occasionally since, because music this honest never gets old. 2019 marks the first time they are flirting with the idea of being an active band again, look for more from Team Dresch as the year unfurls!OCEANATOR—After a handful of cassette releases, including the Lows EP in 2018, Brooklyn’s Oceanator released their proper debut album, Things I Never Said, in 2020. The album was a clear portrayal of the immense and growing talents of songwriter / multi-instrumentalist Elise Okusami and was immediately praised in the likes of Noisey, Under The Radar, Stereogum, and SPIN, who featured the band on their “20 Most Interesting New Artists of 2020” list. On the band’s sophomore album, Nothing’s Ever Fine, Okusami channels her energetic and adventurous writing style she’s become synonymous with and delivers a batch of riff-heavy songs that sound bigger and bolder than anything she’s done before. Co-produced by Bartees Strange, the album features tracks like “Bad Brain Daze,” which finds Okusami enlisting friend and collaborator Jeff Rosenstock for a bouncy saxophone solo, while “Stuck” features heavy distortion and sludgy riffs. Okusami is no stranger to various genres and playing styles. In addition to her numerous US tours with Oceanator sharing bills with the likes of Jeff Rosenstock, Camp Cope, Pedro The Lion and others, she has previously spent time as a touring member of Bachelor (featuring members of Palehound and Jay Som), Vagabon, and Petal.THE HOMOBILES—The Homobiles — "the Bay's mainstay queer party punk supergroup" (East Bay Express) — combine a raw and unapologetic punk sound, an anti-fascist and anti-racist spirit, and a touch of irreverent fun.Their current lineup features Lynn Breedlove (ex-Tribe 8, he/him) on lead vocals, Fureigh (Middle-Aged Queers, ex-The Shondes, they/them) on guitar and vocals, and powerhouse Blair Switch (she/her) on bass.The Homobiles have been featured at the New York Live Arts Festival (curated by Mx. Justin Vivian Bond), opened for queercore legends like Pansy Division, and been the subjects of a documentary ("Spacecars and Babes," filmed in Austin during their spring 2017 tour). The anti-fascist music video for their song “Homo Safe” has screened at film festivals around the world.ALLISON WOLFE—Born an identical twin in Memphis, Tennessee, Allison Wolfe was raised in an all-female household by a lesbian feminist mother who started the first women’s health clinic in Olympia, Washington. She co-founded a punk fanzine Girl Germs, an all-girl band Bratmobile, and third-wave feminist punk movement riot grrrl. Allison also sang in the bands Cold Cold Hearts, Deep Lust, Partyline, Cool Moms, Sex Stains, Ex-Stains, Cliquey Bitches (Scorpio Scorpio) and Magic Witch Cookbox, along with initiating the non-profit music festival Ladyfest in 1999. She currently lives in Los Angeles where she teaches music journalism at UCLA, hosts and co-produces a podcast “I’m in the Band,” does freelance music journalism, public speaking, teaches ESL/EFL, DJ-ing and sings again in Bratmobile. A University of Southern California Annenberg Fellow, Allison completed a masters in specialized journalism in the arts with a focus on audio storytelling. She is also gradually working on a riot grrrl book and podcast.
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