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MECCA NORMAL reviews ONLINE:

All Music Guide
salon.com
Portland Mercury
Trouser Press overview
Dusted

Mecca Normal's "The Observer" (Kill Rock Stars; 2006)
A concept album about online dating written by a feminist experimental semi-riot-grrl art-rock band with no drummer, this might sound a really bad idea or a really good one. Your judgment may be influenced by whether you're a deadbeat man or a cynical and single woman.

Mecca Normal was formed in 1984 in Vancouver by vocalist Jean Smith and guitarist David Lester. Smith has also had a few novels published by small presses, and both she and Lester are visual artists. Their early recordings had an influence both on riot grrl and on the Olympia, Washington twee scene centred around Calvin Johnson. They are frequently of low sonic quality, and make little attempt at writing songs - it's more like someone thinking aloud while someone else tunes up their guitar. This makes The Observer stand out with its mix of catchy pop songs and epic spoken word tracks.

The album starts as fairly conventional alt-rock. "I'm Not Into Being The Woman You're With While You're Looking For The Woman You Want" is self-explanatory, about a man who's looking for "a like-minded woman" but apparently hasn't succeeded. It's an upbeat and catchy opener, with constantly shifting guitars, by turns crunchy and melodic, and succinct summings up of the dating game like the title and: "He says he hasn't found what he's looking for yet. After he's met me."

And there are plenty more failures to meet like-minded people. In "Attraction Is Ephemeral" she describes her time with a seductive and wealthy man, a successful architect: "He says, I love a woman who adorns herself with jewellery. I like a woman who has variation in her wardrobe. ... He suggests I visit a website of Austrian designed underwear. It's expensive but it's beautiful, he says. I stand there by the stove in my slutty outfit the total of which probably cost me $15 including my $1 panties."

She contrasts his worldly sophistication with her own skill at finding discount vegetables: "I don't buy crackers and cheese and pickles and cookies because they're too expensive, and I know the prices of almost everything in the little shops, and if oranges are 50 cents a pound here and 49 cents a pound across the street I will cross the street to save whatever it is, a pound, on my oranges, and brag about it." "He says he'll bring his grand piano out of storage", and all the time she's wondering if they've really connected or if everything he says is "just another line".

"Attraction Is Ephemeral" also introduces sex. "I lie there under him. 230 lb. 'Am I crushing you?' he says. 'Sort of,' I say." Maybe that's why she seems so underwhelmed. "I'll Call You" starts "I want cold impersonal sex during which I'll pretend I'm with someone else." For all the cynicism of its what-people-are-really-thinking lyrics, it's one of the songs you could more easily imagine being played on the radio, along with "To Avoid Pain" with its "Hey hey" refrain.
Some of the later tracks are weaker and break the theme. "The Caribou and the Oil Pipeline" is worthy and dull environmentalism. "The Message" has the rawness and tunelessness of the band's earlier material.

"1922" isn't about dating but is much better: Smith is reflective, outwardly nostalgic but inwardly sad, with lyrical guitars from Lester. "Nothing's automatic, nothing's precise", she says, describing old pictures, thinking about the simple life: "The museums are for men. We know this. Men need history. We need it. We are men. We need to remind ourselves of this." It's funny but always with a harshness in her voice, sometimes barely hidden, sometimes out front, and that links it with the rest of the album.

The album's centrepiece is the twelve-and-three-quarter minute long "Fallen Skier". Over an endlessly repeating riff she describes a first date with a man who arouses both pity and contempt in her, though nothing like love. As you do on a first date, they swap life stories, and she offers a detailed biography of him, a life that never quite took off. He's a "fallen skier, waiter, party guy" - a man aged 47, who had dropped out of school to be a ski bum, later waiting tables at a Greek restaurant "where the staff were encouraged to drink half price on arriving for work", an addict, and is now at college, planning to backpack around Europe. "I don't think he realises it yet but his life has gotten away from him."

She also enumerates his reactions to her, and hers to him, in a series of quotable lines. "No one moves to skid row to get clean." "Will I be playing the part of the woman helping him get his life on track?" "He asks me about this music of mine, is it ever all-out punk? I stand a middle-aged woman in a fantastically subtle silk jacket all the way from Japan, Hush Puppies, curly hair flowing in the wind, and this guy's fretting over the possibility that I'm actually Henry Rollins." All in her fantastic delivery, turning on a dime from dry and throwaway, to indignant or tragic.

Time and again she contrasts her own intellectual and creative life with the poverty of his existence: "Carefully I ask if he does anything he might call creative. He thinks for a minute and says he doesn't make music or paint if that's what I mean but he does watch TV. Free cable. I can only half think about being so grey and dispassionate to call watching TV creative."

Although harsh, her lyricism does something to justify this. "Standing on the pier half-watching the sun go down. A cloud of mist is giving great definition to the trees which should have been flat and invisible. I'm thinking of saying something about how the mist is making things clear, but I decide to keep that thought to myself."

How listeners respond to the record will depend heavily on what they make of Smith. She is frequently condescending, particularly in "Fallen Skier", and when she discusses her own faults it is often to boast about them: meanness becomes frugality. But the intensity of her examinating gaze, the brilliance of her lyrics makes up for this. She comprehensively fails to be the observer; like everyone who is dating, sifting through the deadbeats to find a partner, she is the judge. -- Mall Project blog (UK) http://mallproject.blogspot.com/


March 22, 2006
INFO DESK
With trepidation built on sad-fear, and with eager resolve in equal measure, I am making my way slowly through two art-works who are on a same-same: The new Mecca Normal album that is a narrative about Jean Smith's internet dating history and Louise Gluck's new poetry book Averno. Both, I feel are about being an older woman, sure of herself and not very sure about the men around her. Or maybe sure about some pretty grim things about those men; beds being left cold, bitter truths you can hardly be upset over, being older and how that sometimes is. I like Jean's version a better than Louise's, as Louise's sounds like the swell of divorce hitting it's shore, Jean's is about being a poor artist and a single woman at 46. Louise's version says this is it. in a reserved, nuanced way and Jean's says THIS IS IT?!. Their "it's" being flipsided versions of "being alone". I am not sure which is more unsettling, but both do the job, and eviserate quickly. It's not a shock, but it feels more like a velvet curtain has been pulled back, in and the story is not magical, it is so plain, it is like I have never heard it; both feel like an anti-heroine, I do not want to identify with the complexity of what their alone means. -- Jessica, TinyLucky

Genius aka the Unicorn’s Tear blog, 2006

"The Observer" and "Family Swan" CDs

College Music Journal
The Observer
KIll Rock Stars


Mecca Normal isn't just a band, it's a long-running musical institution. For the past twenty years, Jean Smith and David Lester have released some interesting, fascinating, stimulating, and often humorous albums, and The Observer is no exception. This record is a concept album, built around Jean Smith's experiences in the world of online dating. Smith's singing is raw, the music is minimalist, but somehow, these things work. It's not an easy listen; Smith puts her heart on the line, and sometimes, things don't work out right. But that's what a good artist does—they put their emotions and feelings out for the world to see, regardless of what might happen next. Mostly, though, Smith is an excellent story-teller; her narrative style is quite compelling, and songs like "Attraction is Ephemeral" and "The Fallen Skier" aren't so much songs as they are mini-movies, and they quickly capture your attention, as she sings of her exploits and her feelings. Though some of the things she has to say are quite challenging and rather winsome--especially the harsh reality of "I'll Call You" and the painfully self-aware title track--she still manages to add a bit of humor to her work; one can't help but smile when hearing the lines "In bed he tires to put the condom on. He curses. I try to see what he's doing, but I'm pinned under him. I hear him stretching the condom like he's making a balloon animal." Her observations are fascinating, and while it might not be the easiest listen for some people, The Observer is nevertheless a complex album by a duo who have never been anything but complex.–Mundane Sounds (2006)

July 1, 2007
Ten Famous Canadians
Canada's best-kept secrets in the arts
Globe & Mail -- Canada's national newspaper



The Observer CD
on KIll Rock Stars, 2006





“Musically, Jean Smith and guitarist David Lester have grown far beyond their punk rock beginnings; now their instruments wheel and dip around each other with the dizzying grace of swallows.” -- Bill Meyer, Chicago Tribune

“After turning their talents to other pursuits - painting and writing - Jean Smith and David Lester are back in full acerbic force on "The Observer," one of their best albums.” -- Evelyn McDonnell, Miami Herald

“Smith is a writer of supremely fresh poetic skills and has a keen, keen eye for the basic incredibilities of our most mundane daily rituals and heartbreaks.” -- John Payne, LA Weekly

“…her use of precise language and thoughtful candor creates an unexpectedly mature, graceful tone more reminiscent of a Raymond Carver short story. -- Hannah Levin, The Stranger (Seattle)

“Smith's reflections are smart, funny and -- more often than not -- yoked to music that's spare but inventive.” -- Mark Jenkins, Washington Post

"Attraction Is Ephemeral," which provides the most complete picture of Smith and what she’s about—the way she begins to doubt her own doubts, wondering if she’d be able to spot genuineness in a man even if it were there—is also the most musically moving track on the album. It’s the most romantic too—or rather, it’s most explicitly about romance, or at least the yearning for it—though in typical Mecca Normal fashion, it opens up from there, addressing gender and class inequality, patriarchy, and how they can really ruin a date.” -- Jessica Hopper, Chicago Reader

“The self-explanatory album opener, "I’m Not Into Being the Woman You’re With While You’re Looking for the Woman You Want," is a glowing example of the interplay between her vocals and Lester’s guitar, which is equally distinctive and powerful.” -- Jessica Hopper, Chicago Reader

“…this new CD, full of songs inspired by Smith's online matchmaking experiences, I believe, is incredibly lyrical, musically rich and undeniably fearless." -- Terence Dick, Broken Pencil

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December 27, 2006 letter from J. Free

I've been adding archival content to my website, I came across an old interview I conducted with Jean, during the International Pop Underground convention in Olympia, in 1991: http://sonicarchives.com/TASTE/Pages/npr_meccanormal.htm

Take care, J. Free
http://www.sonicarchives.com/

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Simple Social Graces, NY blog:

From practice I went to the Knitting Factory with Brian to see Mecca Normal play and it was such a treat. Mecca Normal is band of complete inspiration to me. First of all Jean’s truly original voice and style of lyrics writing and presentation of it all, and secondly David’s virtuosity on guitar and the sweetness with which he plays. I hadn’t seen them in years and it was so good to chat and smile and hear about what they are doing and it reminded me so much of the first MN 7” I had where inside Jean wrote something like you can’t be a threat when you are numbed which spoke to me enough that I stopped drinking for 4 years because at that time I wanted to be as much of a threat as possible. For the last 20+ years they have lived mostly outside of the music “business” but always inside of the music and this is important to me. Music for music. Because it’s the best thing in the world.

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2006's most memorable moments:
The year in movies, music, television, visual arts, fashion, performing arts and architecture
BY MIAMI HERALD STAFF
POP MUSIC:
-- Tanya Stephens, Rebelution -- Covering topics from homophobia to religion to Condi Rice to cherry brandy, this reggae singer proved Bob Marley's spirit lives, 25 years after his death.
-- Gnarls Barkley, St. Elsewhere -- Defying genre-ization and politesse, this album captured the explosion when two brilliant minds meet.
-- Dixie Chicks, Taking the Long Way -- The Texas trio knows the price of speaking one's mind -- and that it's worth every penny
-- Lady Sovereign, Public Warning -- A great rap and punk record.
-- The Paybacks, Love, Not Reason -- Wendy Case is a great rock 'n' roll singer, these songs pure bottled energy.
-- Jay-Z, Kingdom Come -- Knew he couldn't stay away from the game; glad he didn't.
-- Morning 40 Federation, Ticonderoga -- When the saints don't come marching in, the sinners will.
-- Mecca Normal, The Observer -- For two decades, Jean Smith has been a wry chronicler of male/female relationships, but rarely has she been so tender and intimate.
-- Prince, 3121 -- This survivor success story is the album that should have been titled Kingdom Come.
-- Bruce Springsteen, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions -- Making a history lesson a party, and visa versa.

-- EVELYN MCDONNELL, Posted on Sun, Dec. 24, 2006

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Guest lists: What 29 of the Boston Phoenix's music critics liked this year

December 21, 2006
Franklin BRUNO
1. Mecca Normal, THE OBSERVER (Kill Rock Stars)
2. Scritti Politti, WHITE BREAD BLACK BEER (Nonesuch)
3. Ornette Coleman, SOUND GRAMMAR (Sound Grammar)
4. Kelis, KELIS WAS HERE (La Face)
5. Mission of Burma, THE OBLITERATI (Matador)
6. Jason Moran, ARTIST IN RESIDENCE (Blue Note)
7. Erase Errata, NIGHTLIFE (Kill Rock Stars)
8. De La Soul, THE IMPOSSIBLE MISSION MIXTAPE (AOI)
9. Wussy, FUNERAL DRESS (Shake It)
10. T
om Verlaine, SONGS AND OTHER THINGS (Thrill Jockey)
-- The Phoenix (Boston), 2006

Broken Pencil
"In the past I've liked the idea of Mecca Normal a bit more than I've liked their music. That said, I would never turn down an invitation to see them live. Watching singer Jean Smith stalk the stage and guitarist David Lester dance (and I mean dance) his manic guitaristics, you quickly realize how little it takes to make impassioned rock'n'roll and how few bands manage to do it. On record, however, I miss the presentness of it. That said, this new CD, full of songs inspired by Smith's online matchmaking experiences, I believe, is incredibly lyrical, musically rich and undeniably fearless." --Terence Dick




The Family Swan -- Kill Rock Stars

"The compositions of this Vancouver duo include enough literary references, linguistic artistic expression and avant-garde free verse to satisfy the synapses of both highbrow scholars and social outcasts, yet seem earthy and accessible while still maintaining intensity."
--New City (Chicago)

"They devote the entire canvas to Jean Smith's provocative, subversive, deliriously intense vocals balanced by David Lester's sublime guitar work, hypnotic and electrifying in equal measures.What About The Boy? on which Smith gives a refined performance as a one-woman art ensemble, assuming the roles of half a dozen characters, telling a story of thwarted potential and quashed individuality."
--Salon.com

The Family Swan -- critic's pick as one of the best albums of 2002
"Vancouver's Jean Smith and David Lester have produced yet another masterpiece with their 10th album in 18 years. Smith's distinctive vocals and haunting lyrics, combine with Lester's intuitive guitar accompaniment, forge a sound that transcends genre and gives the album a timeless quality."
--Georgia Straight (Vancouver)

"Mecca Normal is the duo of Jean Smith, who has one of the most searing voices in rock, and David Lester, who plays his guitar like he's at war with it."
--Village Voice

"…an amazing place with a mature, perfected sound that can only be Mecca Normal. It's a solid album through and through, and a good introduction for new fans to the arty sound that is Mecca Normal."
--BUST magazine

"Musically, The Family Swan keeps with the formula Smith and guitarist David Lester established nine albums ago, but that's no slur. His ruminative playing ably suits her unusual, nearly tactile vocals. These songs are abstracts, condensed from singer Jean Smith's upcoming third novel, Living On Egg Shells."
--MOJO Magazine"

"Mecca Normal's Jean Smith, who is also a novelist, has stories to tell and the instantly arresting means to get them across. In a sense, she's a bit like Sleater-Kinney's Corin Tucker, only with more of an edge."
--Tablet (Seattle)

"An unbending advocate of thoughtful indie culture for almost two decades now, the Vancouver guitar-and-vocal twosome doesn't just make demanding music: It also makes books, paintings, photos, cartoons, among other things."
--San Francisco Chronicle

"The Family Swan upholds a long tradition, unleashing one oceanic mass of sound from one single guitar and one lone voice. In the end, the force and fury of The Family Swan implores us not to beat and bully beauty into conformity; acknowledge it for what it is."
--Stylus Magazine

"Is there anything Jean Smith and David Lester, a.k.a. Mecca Normal, don't do?"
--Willamette Week (Portland)

"Listening to David Lester's excellent guitar work against Jean Smith's dramatics is simply cathARTic. She (Jean) certainly could join a pantheon between PJ Harvey and Diamanda Galas here."
--Buzz (Olympia)

"The Family Swan features some of the richest compositions and rewarding arrangements Mecca Normal has yet to offer."
--Splended E-Zine

"The duo has created a career that constantly blurs the lines of visual and musical art since 1985."
--CU Cityview (Urbana, IL)

"Hummable and rockin'--Rockbites loves this record."
--Rockbites

"On "What About The Boy?", Smith manipulates syllables and phrases with expert ease; shaping spoken/sneered sounds, and the images they convey, into expressive pirouettes that circle Lester's cyclical rhythmic patterns; this being a perfect example of the way Mecca Normal's songs often 'gather' over their tenure, picking up momentum and sentiments and expression along the way."
--Gravity Girl

"Mecca Normal makes interesting music. If it helps bring together people to create art in defiance of corporate hegemony--well, that's cool, too."
--The Oregonian

"I highly recommend checking the show out when it comes to your town."
--Dave Doughman, Swearing At Motorists (after seeing Mecca Normal's art exhibit)

"What little I had heard of Mecca Normal previously I haven't particularly enjoyed, but this CD (The Family Swan) is an incredibly thoughtful and enjoyable experience."
--Squeaky

"Mecca Normal has proven over their many years and albums that minimalism can be a powerful thing."
--Epitonic

"Ultimately, The Family Swan is the most enjoyable Mecca Normal CD in many a year."
--Chart Magazine (Canada)

"The Family Swan" CD -- first new full-length by the Canadian duo of Jean Smith and David Lester in several years, and it's possibly their best. The two have fully incorporated the free form elements that marked both Smith's 2000 solo release and her 2 Foot Flame collaborations (with Michael Morley (Dead C) and Peter Jefferies) to great effect, letting the guitar rest in humming drones and vocally stretching out to recall both Patty Waters and Phil Minton. And their more traditional songs (of which there are many) are as lyrically brutal and dynamic as ever. Highly recommended."
--Sound Exchange Houston, TX

"Mecca Normal still has their touch and it's great that they're still around making music. They haven't mellowed out like most bands tend to after so many records. The first song, "Is This You?" has a very suspenseful tone to it. Jean Smith's voice really pulls you in. I can't describe what it is about her voice, but it's almost magical. David Lester's beautiful guitar playing really accents her voice and the lyrics, which are always very thought provoking. This album really makes you want to sit back, relax, open up a book, and forget about the world around you for the moment."
--Kitty Magik

"Mecca Normal challenge and deflect, annoy and fascinate. They seem intent on exploding what they've built, starting again using nothing but the fragments."
--Broken Pencil (Canada)

"Mecca Normal seems to be much more like a highly conceptual art-rock project than 'just a band.' But not in a pretentious way at all."
--Punk Planet

"The effect is lovely and poignant, and you don't have to be a social activist to appreciate it (The Family Swan).
--Vancouver Sun

"Mecca Normal really is one of the most original and amazing bands ever to come out of Canada."
--Discorder (Vancouver)

"Every word Smith pens, every note Lester plays, is a reflection of their belief in experimentation and change."
--Impact Weekly (Dayton, Ohio)

"The set was largely drawn from their excellent new The Family Swan, a harrowing collection about the horrors of, well, family."
--LA Weekly

"This Mecca Normal show…is a breeze and a joy to look at in that you retain the strikingness of the images and stories they tell."
--Terminal City Weekly (Vancouver)

"The Family Swan is richer and more engaging than the agitprop that made the band an early influence on any number of riot grrrls. Mecca Normal's questioning spirit and on-stage forcefulness remain unchanged.
--Boston Phoenix

"Mecca Normal is a great, vital band. We need them, and bands like them. That without bands like Mecca Normal, we'd all be poorer. Plus their music is just plain excellent." --The Indy (Normal, IL)

"She (Jean Smith) still writes about defiance and revolution, but with a greater sense of compassion and ambiguity:
--Chicago Reader

"The duo continues to break all the rules of art and noise with an unforgettable fiery wrath of lyrical blood, spit and gore that is simultaneously disturbing and enlightening."
--Pulp (Pittsburgh)

"Smith continues to investigate the black holes of communication between men and women. With so fertile a subject, she'll never run out of things to say."
--Philadelphia City Paper

"Mecca Normal kicked things off with an artist's talk and Q&A session before returning with a gutsy -- and, yes, startlingly musical presentation of songs from its new CD, The Family Swan."
--Georgia Straight (Vancouver)

"[Mecca Normal] has consistently cut a swath across the history of indie rock, and done so in a way that is artful, challenging and compelling.
--Philadelphia Weekly

"The whole mess is quite bold and intelligent -- both Smith and Lester are accomplished authors/publishers."
--CU CityView (Urbana, IL)

"The pair's minimal-but-mighty dynamic may not read like much, but anyone who's ever seen Smith stare down a crowd while Lester executes a pas de deux with his Guild will swear differently."
--LA Weekly

"Lately the dynamic duo has been hard on the road taking a full-on show from town to town with art works of all kinds in tow and of course that legendary show. Brother, I'm glad they're back."
--Terminal City Weekly (Vancouver)

"Hanging some of their original paintings and playing music from their new album, The Family Swan, the veteran duo Mecca Normal headlines a downtown underground blow-out."
--Los Angeles Times

"Besides playing their strange and beautiful music, they'll be exhibiting art (Lester's political posters, Smith's paintings and self-portraits), selling Smith's novels, and putting on a workshop entitled, "How Art and Music Can Change the World."
--Portland Mercury (Portland Oregon)

"All branches of the Mecca Normal tree are characterized by their dedication to the D.I.Y. aesthetic, as shown in the unvarnished emotional nature for example of Smith's writing or Lester's agit-prop poster art.
--Willamette Week (Portland)

"Mecca Normal's music is focused on the art of expression. The message is what matters. Smith's strong and unsettling voice may be off-putting at first, but the honesty and depth in her words and expressions will captivate you."
--CU Cityview (Urbana, IL)

"Smith and Lester enjoy performing in venues where they can make eye contact with people in the audience during the show and talk to them afterward."
--Chicago Reader

"At each venue, Lester and vocalist Jean Smith will display artwork and books they've created."
--The Olympian (Olympia, Washington)

"Mecca Normal have long challenged traditional notions of what we should see, particularly in a rock act."
--Seattle Weekly

"Now in their 40s, it would be easy to drop the activism and settle down, but neither Smith nor Lester show any signs of mellowing."
--Impact Weekly (Dayton, Ohio)

"While on tour, Smith and Lester will display their visual art in Flywheel's gallery space. Smith showcases "Pint Glass", a conceptual series of paintings designed to disrupt the basic tenets of art and value, and Lester exhibits "Inspired Agitators" & Drawings, a collection of posters inspired by the possibility of social change as embodied by the anti-WTO, World Bank and IMF protests."
--The Valley Advocate (Easthampton, MA)


Mecca Normal at What the Heck Fest 2005, photo by Thomas Boettner




a reference David saw somewhere online...
I once gave no never mind to Mecca Normal. I had bought their record from Ajax amongst others at one point because of a review I had read about them, listened to it a few times, but never really connected with it. THEN I saw them play a show at Lounge Ax in maybe '92? '93? Nobody was there, maybe 25 people. The show was incredible. They displayed a joy and energy and played the songs as if they had never played them before. It was raw and fun and everyone was smiling. They were for that moment the greatest band in the world. I have not been to many shows in my life that were as surprising and life affirming at the same time. It was totally out of left field. The whole crowd seemed to agree. We all came a way a bit dazed as I remember. --2004


"I would agree with the description of the band as indie, literary, punk... I would add abstract, raw, spontaneous, intricate yet very precise and melodic. Definitely way off the mainstream, which is one reason why I like it." -- Jim Welk (CPA and MBA)


BEST SHOWS of 2002:

"Mecca Normal unleashing their return at the Pic with a fire and purpose and melodiousness that captivated and moved and rocked with poetry and dance of simply guitar and voice."
--Terminal City Weekly (Vancouver)

BOOK REVIEWS 2002 :

The Family Swan
by Jean Smith

"The lyrics are lovely and often startling. I think this would be a super cool book to buy after seeing Mecca Normal in concert."
--Emily Pohl-Weary, Broken Penicl (Canada)

"A beautiful little pink and sepia-toned chapbook with wood carvings interspersed throughout."
--Broken Pencil (Canada)

Gruesome Acts of Capitalism
by David Lester
On tour with the BOOK MOBILE.

I Talk So Fast My Words Lose Context & Meaning
by David Lester
"David Lester gives us a beautifully presented collection of his surprising, subtle drawings. This is a provocative collection that explores the mental environment of mass culture without becoming preachy."
--Hal Niedzviecki, Broken Pencil (Canada)

"A new protest song is blowin' in the wind" -- "In January" is number 7 on Carl Wilson's list in the Globe & mail -- Canada's national daily newspaper.

MECCA NORMAL reviews ONLINE:

Kitty Magik
All Music Guide
Dusted
salon.com
Portland Mercury
Trouser Press overview

Interview 12/06/04
Mecca Normal celebrates 20 years of working in music and art and writing as activists with a tour of the BC interior. They'll present an art show and workshops titled How Art and Music Can Change the World. CBC radio with Sheryl MacKay

2001 eye -- Toronto preview, September 20, 2001

2000 Mecca Normal opens for Godspeed You Black Emperor! Seattle, 2000, The Stranger previews the show. (10/26/00)

JEAN SMITH solo CD reviews: Splendid e zine