the avengers

11 Things: The Avengers

Thursday, July 24, 2008

We asked Penelope Houston to tell us 11 Things about her band. She sent us 11 short stories about 11 great songs:

1. "Car Crash": "In May of 1977, when Danny Furious, Greg Ingraham and I formed the Avengers, we decided after playing one warehouse party that cover songs weren't going to cut it. We wrote six songs in the week before our first Mabuhay show. 'Car Crash' was a keeper."

2. "I Believe in Me": "Also written in that first week but only with lyrics for the chorus. A few months later, when we recorded a single for Dangerhouse Records, I was still ranting over the verses. The time came to do the real vocal overdubs, but I was too nervous, so you'll hear my scratch vocals on the vinyl. (You will also hear Black Randy and John Doe yelling on the chorus.)"

3. "Teenage Rebel": "You never think about future performing of songs when you write them. But I'm still happy to sing this one, even though I'm in my third or fourth teen age!"

4. "Crazy Homicide": "Inspired by the Golden Dragon Restaurant Massacre of Sept. 1977 where 13 bystanders were shot up by the Joe-Boys in a gang-related assassination attempt."

5. "White N-": "People are always asking! This is about wage slavery, inspired by our original bassist, Jimmy Wilsey, who was working in a restaurant in '77. He went on to guitar greatness."

6. "Second to None": "Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols brought in this song when he produced us in 1978. I rewrote some of the lyrics. He recorded his version years later with the Professionals as '1, 2, 3 Baby.' "

7. "F- You": "The earliest Avengers love song."

8. "Corpus Christi": The only recorded song we wrote with our 1979 guitarist, Brad Kent. It's got some crazy 5/4 or 7/8 rhythm that confounds drummers. Billy Joe Armstrong did a version with me in 1999 that reminded me how good it feels to scream."

9. "End of the World": "A nice apocalyptic vision that we never properly recorded back in the day. I eventually went into the studio with Greg and bassist, Joel Reader, to do a new version for 'The Avengers Died for Your Sins' LP on Lookout. That's how we found our new bass player."

10. "The American in Me": "It's indefensible that after 30 years, with all the technological advancements and opportunities for communication, our country is still fighting pointless wars. Singing this song is one of my main reasons for continuing to perform Avengers shows."

11. "We Are the One": "The first song we'll play on Saturday ..."

The Avengers go on before Flipper and after the Mutants and Negative Trend. Target videos from 1977-1981 will be shown. 8 p.m. Sat. $25 (all ages). The Fillmore, 1805 Geary Blvd., San Francisco. (415) 346-6000. www.penelope.net. www.thefillmore.com.

- Tim Sullivan, tsullivan@sfchronicle.com

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/24/NS5811SK1A.DTL

This article appeared on page G - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle