Frank Gutch Jr, April 2013
They are school teachers by day and wenches and bitches by night. Their words, not mine. Wenches and Bitches is indeed the leadoff track to their recent EP titled Dear Youth and you can bet if the kids could hear it, they would petition to be transferred en masse to any one of these three ladies’ home rooms. A teacher who rocks out? No-brainer!
My connection to these ladies took root a number of years ago when I discovered The Lisa Parade and, to me, a mind-blowing album titled Finding Flora. I was on a quest to find the best and most buried music out there and while this may not have been the most buried, it certainly qualified as among the best. The band teetered on the edge of breaking out at the time, having scored the theme for a short-lived TV sitcom called Miss Guided (I didn’t miss an episode, though I believe there were only five or six and the network played russian roulette in their scheduling of it). Had Miss Guided succeeded, there is that possibility that The Lisa Parade might have succeeded also and then where would we have been? Probably not talking about No Small Children.
The Lisa Parade was fronted by Lisa Parade, by happenstance, and I made contact with her and waited for her to become a star (she could easily have been) and found that she had played with an all-girl rock band called Heidi a few years previously and that they, too, had flirted with success, having recorded a demo for Warner Brothers Records (things didn’t work out). Lisa, through the Net, introduced me to Jilly Blackstone and Jilly and I struck up a conversation about Heidi and her musical works in progress and her hopes for a future as a composer and performer. The contact was off and on with long periods of silence and it was a long time before Jilly told me of her illness. She had cancer. She lived between what must have been bouts of pure hell but, Goddamn, she loved her music and a few times, out of the blue, I would get a message saying that she was sorry but she just hadn’t felt up to doing much and then would try to update her musical doings. Jilly finally lost her battle. I found out when Lisa posted a message, which between the lines told me that Jilly B was no longer walking among us. It was a shock. (Band members as shown in the photo are, L-R: Janet King, Lisa P, Jilly B, and Susan Lutin)
Heidi, as far as I can tell, had a chance but as it happens all too often, their biggest supporter at Warner Brothers was removed at a critical moment and the project was dropped. The band hung on for awhile but nothing was happening and eventually they all went their separate ways. Lisa’s was toward the Parade and while she kept contact with Jilly, outside of occasional reunions, they worked separately.
Lisa put out two albums with The Lisa Parade, both testaments to her depth of talent. The first, Out of the Funbox, is an exercise in Power Pop and Pop, the songs riding waves of melody and harmony way beyond what I’ve come to expect, even from the best. Finding Flora takes another step forward, beat and hip hop spicing up Lisa’s mostly upbeat and melodic creations. I have no idea how either sold but I can tell you that they did not sell enough. Certainly nowhere near the numbers they deserved.
Since then (Finding Flora— click here to listen— was released in May of 2009), Lisa has been dabbling here and there, probably trying to find direction. That direction comes in the shape of No Small Children, a three-piece band of no small consequence. The Pop is still there but now it is couched in stacked amps and attitude. Even the name emphasizes the change. No Small Children is reference to the freedom one has when children are not the center of life. These chicks ain’t kids anymore. They even put it in song. Check out the chorus of Wenches and Bitches:
“Women delivering rhythm from our souls
Some people say that we’re wenches, we’re bitches
Livin’ the life even though we’re kind of old
It might be true that we’re wenches, we’re bitches”
Stack a few Marshalls behind these dames, turn it up and you have The Lisa Parade honed down and on steroids. Track by track, they rock out and punk out and even anthem out (Mystical, written by Jilly Blackstone and recorded here as a tribute— and what a magnificent tribute it is). They sing of being cranky (I’m Irritated) and being hungry (Salad) and getting older (Dear Youth). They rock and shuffle and dance. They freakin’ make me laugh with their wall-of-sound rhythms and vocal harmonies and their view of life. And make me tear up with as near perfect a version of Mystical as will ever be recorded.
I could go on and on about how they’re working in the studio right now (I can hardly wait) and how cool is Lisa’s husband, Bob Marlette, who twists knobs but knows to stay out of the way because you can hear in her music that Lisa needs that freedom to create. I could give you a more complete history of Heidi and The Lisa Parade and might in the near future. Right now, though, is not the time. Now, you should listen. To a couple of tracks off of The Lisa Parade‘s Out of the Funbox album (follow this link and click on Can’t Speak and Girl). To the full Finding Flora album (link two paragraphs above). To No Small Children’s Dear Youth EP (click here).
‘Nuff said. But you’ll be hearing more about these ladies. Lots more. Guaranteed.