Episode 55: Jackie Stewart (Smegma, The Tenses)

Episode 55 is conversation with "Rock and Roll Jackie" Stewart of legendary west coast noise/experimentalists SMEGMA. She also makes music today as half of The Tenses with her partner and Smegma founder Ric "Ju Suk Reet Meate" Stewart. Jackie joined Smegma in 1983, ten years after the collective was founded in Pasadena, CA. but her west coast underground bone fides stretch back before the 'Summer of Love'. She tells us about seeing the Grateful Dead playing on a flatbed truck in the panhandle of Golden Gate Park in 1966 as a 10 year old.  Her adolescent dreams of coming of age in San Francisco and one day joining the The Cockettes were dashed when her family relocated from the Bay Area to Salem, OR. in the mid 70's. Determined to keep her freak flag flying, she quickly set her sights on Portland and immersed herself in the burgeoning punk rock / new wave scene.  The conversation is a wealth of Portland punk / underground history. We learn about the long gone venues, people and bands that made this place the "Keep Portland Weird" city of today. Even the most dedicated scholars of PDX punk will likely be surprised to learn that Jackie's first band was called Gumby Anti-Christ and featured a teenage Jerry A. of Poison Idea!   Enjoy this conversation. Happy Solstice! SMEGMA/Tenses WEBSITE Jackie's INSTA Oregon Painting Society  TM POD PATREON Music: SMEGMA: 'One Moment'                 'Live at Earth Tavern 7/22/1979' TM POD theme by Jason