Vaginal Davis

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Goddesses

Vaginal Davis
Photo by Kevin Abosch In a town filled with Eve Harringtons lurking behind every shrub, it’s so rare to come across a musical group that is pure, innocent and unspoiled. That’s why the Ditty Bops — Amanda Barrett (mandolin and dulcimer) and Abby DeWald (guitar) — stand out. The Bops......
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Beyond Ghetto Fabulous

Vaginal Davis
Photos by Julie Pavlowksi I remember when ghetto fabulous wasn’t so fabulous, it was just plain ghetto. I lived it, enduring roach-infested apartments in the Ramona Gardens housing project in East L.A. and Jordan Downs in Watts. My mother, three sisters and I felt downright upscale when we moved to......

What Would Genet Do?

Vaginal Davis
Would my patron Saint Genet get married? I seriously doubt he’d hightail it to Gananoque with one of the giant Palestinian or Black Panther penii he was prone to imbibe back in the 1960s. Of course, it didn’t matter that he feigned support of their causes. Genet was a legendary......
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Sensible Shoes for Swing Kids

Vaginal Davis
Re-Mix is the mother goddamn most beautiful store in all of Los Angeles. It sits all poised and major Ms. Gorgeous on the Pan Pacific corridor of Beverly Boulevard between Fairfax and La Brea, right next to the Authentic Cafe. For over eight years, it‘s been the city’s best-kept secret......
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Golden Grrrls

Vaginal Davis
Caught up with the New York--based musical girl gang and tragic mulattos Le Tigre -- Kathleen Hanna, Johanna Fateman and lovesexy J.D. Samson (founding member Sadie Benning is on hiatus at the moment) -- right before they left town (razor blades in hair) for a whirlwind Japanese tour. Two years......
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Home on Deranged

Vaginal Davis
Photos by Roe Etheridge Enlarge image Fischerspooner, the highfalutin high-art grifters from New York City, are invading Los Angeles, and they’re determined to rip us a new asshole. What is Fischerspooner, you ask? That’s a hard one. They aren’t really a rock band in any traditional sense; the only groups......
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Boy Toys

Vaginal Davis
Mel Roberts‘ documentary-style photo book California Boys: Photographs From the 1960s and 1970s -- with its period-piece assortment of little-boy art whores on parade, captured in all their radiant youth -- is an absolute gay treasure. Roberts, who started off as a filmmaker (he worked on the blacklisted film Salt......
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Femmes on Flames

Vaginal Davis
The Butchies Tammy Rae carland I’m sitting in the L.A. Weekly conference room getting all wet and fidgety interviewing what must be the hottest bulldagger band on the planet, the Butchies: gorgeous Kaia Wilson, vocals, guitar and keyboard; demure Nubian womanchild Alison Martlew, vocals, bass; and rambunctious sister Piscean Melissa......
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A Whimper From Venus

Vaginal Davis
I‘m patterning my life after Claudia Gonson. Claudia is the vocalistpiano player, drummermanager, co-conspirator and female husband to the great composer Stephin Merritt (spelled almost the same way as Steppin Fetchit, but pronounced Steven) of the miraculous New York City--based musical ensemble the Magnetic Fields. Claudia reminds me of a......
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Barn, Baby, Barn

Vaginal Davis
L.A.‘s the Acres have come a long way from playing private hootenannies in Hollywood kitchens and Echo Park back yards. Now they’re selling out Saturday-night shows at McCabe‘s with their down-to-earth, earnest sounds. When I finally caught up with this new-jack old-school country group, we were torn between dining at......