Introducing…. a PUNKAST limited series...

Adobe Punk: the concert, Mini-Session Interviews

The PUNKAST team is delighted to release this 'back to school' special, an eight-episode limited series that has been half a year in the making (and, well worth it)! 

Whether you are already familiar with Adobe Punk--theaterwork and the concert--or not, this limited series will introduce you to the groundbreaking production that harnesses the vibrant DIY culture of punk to amplify a range of critical issues and social processes that we grapple with today: identity, community, concepts of land-as-property (rights, theft), intercultural solidarities, cultural clashes, notions of inheritance --what we choose to keep and what we decide we need to break with (and why), and ways to attune ourselves to the spirited grounds and structures of our existence. Here's a more concrete excerpt from Adobe Punk's official website:

"Adobe Punk is set in the early 1980s in working-class Bell Gardens where punk music finds life in one of L.A.’s oldest adobe homes. Inspired by the bands X, the Minutemen, and the Bags, a punk trio builds its songbook as they define their artistic identity and find their place in the musical, and early California, landscape of L.A." 

The episode, "Introducing," provides context for the interviews. In it, Jessica Schwartz (Punkast host/producer) and Theresa Chavez (About Productions, Adobe Punk co-creator) discuss their unique collaboration that produced mini-session conversations with punk trailblazers about their formative contributions and ongoing vital roles in the dynamic subculture. These conversations between Schwartz and each guest (see list below) were recorded live before each performance of Adobe Punk: the concert. Chavez locates Adobe Punk: the concert as a musical extension of the theaterwork she co-created with Gabriel Garza, and we are treated to some music, which Chavez co-composed with Nina Diaz (Girl in a Coma). Situating the issues explored in the mini-session conversations within the larger aims of the March 2024 musical performances, Chavez touches on the importance of topical threads, such as the meaning and evolution of punk, punk ethos and artistic freedom, L.A. punk geography, squatting, and punk feminism, that animate Adobe Punk and position its energetic songs and stories amidst the broader history of punk and the people who live(d) it. 

Adobe Punk: the concert took place in front of live audiences at the Frida Kahlo Theater (Los Angeles) from March 15-17, 2024 and the Lineage Performing Arts Center (Pasadena) from March 22-24, 2024. Each night, after a brief introduction by Chavez, these one-on-one conversations kicked off the concert by offering distinct punk perspectives from: Nina Diaz, Jesse Velo (Los Illegals), Mike Watt (The Minutemen, The Missingmen), Lisa Fancher (Frontier Records), Teresa Covarrubias (The Brat), and Jimmy Alvarado (Razorcake, La Tuya, Eastside Punks video series).*

*in order of episode and nightly appearance

For more information: https://www.aboutpd.org/adobe-punk

Song Samples:

(0:00-0:51) Theresa Chavez and Nina Diaz, “Not to Scale”, Adobe Punk, About…Productions, 2022.

Episode Transcript: https://sonix.ai/share/ZSnCCzcUAUozUwZs9rogyvyp

E0, "Introducing," was recorded over Zoom. 

Bella Gerard edited the audio, transcripts, and time-stamped song citations.