by Gene Mahoney

May 2003 - You may remember that I started a Silicon Valley edition of the Herald a year ago and it died a pretty quick death. I guess I was inspired by Easter last month and decided to give a monthly paper for the Palo Alto/San Jose/Santa Cruz crowd a resurrection. So howdy to all of you readers in the South Bay....

Manic D Press sent me a copy of their runaway smash hit book, The Underground Guide to San Francisco. It’s an entertaining and informative book of what to find in everyone’s favorite city, including housing, employment, health and well-being, detox and rehab, fashion, cheap eats, watering holes, poetry open mikes, movies, theater, dance, art, music, the Tenderloin bar crawl, etc. Available at bookstores everywhere.

CD’s I got in the mail: It’s deadline time as I type this, so I haven’t been able to give any of them a full listening to, but I’m so far behind in this department that I figure a little plug is better than no plug at all for these artists. After all, I am one of the most sought after critics of pop music in the world today. Martina Sorbara seems to be making a name for herself lately. Our favorite publicist Ken Phillips sent me a copy of her CD The Cure for Bad Deeds. Kind of Tori Amos meets Joni Mitchell meets Avril Morrisette Carlton Branch Edwards Glover. The first song Bonnie and Clyde is very good, I must confess. (nettwerkamerica.com).

Okay. I just put a much different kind of offering in my CD player. It’s from an English punk band called The Leeches and the name of the album is The Leeches Suck. The first 2 tracks have played since I typed those previous 2 sentences (they’re short songs) and right now I’m listening to the third song, Trailer Trash. After that we’ll have Slice Up, Obedience, Fuck It, Hey, Flash, Dangling Man, and the big finale will be a ditty called Worms. No song seems to be grabbing me. They’re not bad, but they’re not good either. It reminds me of the early punk/new wave sound circa 1979 or ‘80, like it was recorded in somebody’s garage.

Now Obedience is on . This song sounds like something the old new wave/punk band X-Ray Specs would have played, except the lead singer for that band, Poly Styrene, seemed to have (or attempted to have) a wider vocal range. I remember, over 20 years ago, an old friend from Long Island played a song called Identity by them off their Germfree Adolescents album and I remember him telling me that she sings of slashing her wrists and that she went on to do it in real life. I just searched for that on the Web and wasn’t able to come up with anything (thank God). I hope she didn’t do anything like that and my old pal was just misinformed (or knowing him, just full of shit).

Actually, I found a site with an article from ‘95 that stated she was planning on a then-new solo release. It also said that she was a Hare Krishna devotee and that a lot of hardcore punk bands from the Lower East Side of Manhattan like the Bad Brains were devoted Krishnas! I had never heard of that. That sure is coming a long way from passing out flowers in airports and George Harrison, eh? Who knows. Don’t quote me on any of this stuff. I’m just going by what people tell me and the Internet. Two really reliable sources. Okay, Obedience is over. Not bad. Not good. What song is playing now? Oh. Fuck It. Good idea. (theleeches.com). Hey! The next song Hey by The Leeches is pretty good. Sort of like Patti Smith meets Concrete Blond. Maybe I was too hard on these guys (and the cute gal lead singer). I can’t listen anymore, though. I’ve got some important things to get to....

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