Chalk Circle were an American punk rock band formed in 1981 in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
Their raw, rhythmic, minimal sound had more in common with
post-punk
Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-roc ...
or
art punk
Art punk is a subgenre of punk rock in which artists go beyond the genre's rudimentary garage rock and are considered more sophisticated than their peers. These groups still generated punk's aesthetic of being simple, offensive, and free-spirit ...
than D.C. hardcore, a community they initially helped pioneer. Guitarist/vocalist
Sharon Cheslow
Sharon Cheslow (born October 5, 1961) is an American musician, composer, artist, writer, photographer, educator, and archivist. In 1981, she formed Chalk Circle, Washington, D.C.'s first all-female punk band. She has since become an accomplishe ...
and drummer Anne Bonafede were joined by guitarist/vocalist Mary Green and alternating bassists Jan Pumphrey, Tamera Lyndsay, and Chris Niblack before the group disbanded in 1983.
History
Anne Bonafede and Sharon Cheslow began playing music in 1980, after developing friendships through the
Bad Brains
Bad Brains are an American rock band formed in Washington, D.C. in 1976. Originally a jazz fusion band under the name Mind Power, they are widely regarded as pioneers of hardcore punk, though the band's members have objected to the use of this ...
,
Henry Rollins
Henry Lawrence Garfield (born February 13, 1961), known professionally as Henry Rollins, is an American singer, writer, spoken word artist, actor, and presenter. After performing in the short-lived hardcore punk band State of Alert in 1980, Rolli ...
,
Teen Idles
The Teen Idles were an American hardcore punk band formed in Washington, D.C. in September 1979. Consisting of teenagers Nathan Strejcek, Geordie Grindle, Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson, they recorded two demo sessions and the 1980 '' Minor Distur ...
, and Untouchables. After Cheslow saw a Bad Brains rehearsal with Rollins in March 1980, and then survived
meningitis
Meningitis is acute or chronic inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, collectively called the meninges. The most common symptoms are fever, headache, and neck stiffness. Other symptoms include confusion or ...
that summer, she decided to form a band. Rollins was initially interested in joining the band as singer, before he started his own band S.O.A. in October 1980 and then joined Black Flag in 1981. Bassist Bert Queiroz from the Untouchables rehearsed with Cheslow on guitar and Bonafede on drums in 1980, and Cheryl Celso became vocalist until she was replaced by Mary Green in 1981. Bonafede chose to play drums in the
DIY
"Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use raw and sem ...
punk spirit. She said, "I could be a drummer if I wanted to be. All my
ale
Ale is a Type of beer, type of beer brewed using a Warm fermentation, warm fermentation method, resulting in a sweet, full-bodied and fruity taste. Historically, the term referred to a drink brewed without hops.
As with most beers, ale typicall ...
friends had been playing in bands so I knew I could just do it, that was the punk philosophy. It tied very much into my feminist growth as well."
In March 1981, Chalk Circle had its first rehearsal as an all-women quartet, with Green's friend Jan Pumphrey briefly on bass. They took their band name from
Bertolt Brecht
Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...
's play ''
The Caucasian Chalk Circle
''The Caucasian Chalk Circle'' (german: Der kaukasische Kreidekreis) is a play by the German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht. An example of Brecht's epic theatre, the play is a parable about a peasant girl who rescues a baby and becomes a b ...
'' and the Chinese legend ''
The Chalk Circle
''The Chalk Circle'' (sometimes translated ''The Circle of Chalk''), by Li Qianfu, is a Yuan dynasty (1259–1368) Chinese classical zaju verse play and gong'an crime drama, in four acts with a prologue. The group played their first show in July 1981, opening for
Velvet Monkeys
Donald Gene Fleming (born September 25, 1957) is an American musician and producer. Besides fronting a number of his own bands, ( Velvet Monkeys, B.A.L.L., and Gumball) Fleming has produced Sonic Youth, Screaming Trees, Teenage Fanclub and H ...
and R.E.M. (later Egoslavia), with Sally Ven Yu Berg from the latter group filling in on bass. Berg was then replaced on bass by Tamera Lyndsay – both worked at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C.
Chalk Circle's original sound was energetic, percussive, angular, and minimal, with Bonafede's drumming style sounding primitive and psychedelic. Green's lyrics were existential, feminist, and poetic, and she and Cheslow sometimes sang in unison or
call and response
Call and response is a form of interaction between a speaker and an audience in which the speaker's statements ("calls") are punctuated by responses from the listeners. This form is also used in music, where it falls under the general category of ...
. Besides punk and hardcore, their music was influenced by 1960s/70s
rock music
Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States an ...
,
funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...
,
go-go
Go-go is a music subgenre, subgenre of funk music with an emphasis on specific rhythmic patterns, and live audience Call and response (music), call and response.
Go-go was originated by African-American musicians in the Washington, D.C. area du ...
, and
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
. Green and Cheslow collaborated on songwriting, with Green writing most of the lyrics and Cheslow writing most of the music.
When the D.C. hardcore scene became more macho and male-dominated, Chalk Circle were put down for being all girls. But they got support from
art punk
Art punk is a subgenre of punk rock in which artists go beyond the genre's rudimentary garage rock and are considered more sophisticated than their peers. These groups still generated punk's aesthetic of being simple, offensive, and free-spirit ...
bands such as Velvet Monkeys and
Half Japanese
Half Japanese is an American art punk band formed by brothers Jad and David Fair around 1975, sometime after the family's relocation to Uniontown, Maryland. Their original instrumentation included a small drum set, which they took turns playi ...
. Cheslow said, "Our goal was never to sound like one of the all-boy hardcore bands. We had our own sound, based on lots of different music we listened to." The group played only four shows, which could have had something to do with the way their post-punk sound didn't align with the uniform thrashing of their peers;
Dischord Records
Dischord Records is a Washington, D.C.-based independent record label specializing in punk rock. The label is co-owned by Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson, who founded Dischord in 1980 to release ''Minor Disturbance'' by their band The Teen Idles. ...
decided Chalk Circle didn't fit in with their roster. That didn't deter the band, however. In a 1982 interview, Cheslow said, "It was kinda hard being girls. But look, if men can do it, so can women, and we said, 'Who cares? We're gonna do it.'" Green added, "We want to be taken seriously. We want to be taken for people." Cheslow later said, "I wanted to create my own culture. That's what punk had taught me, that I should be free to create as a girl."
The group did their first studio demo in early 1982, with Lyndsay on bass, at
Inner Ear Studios
Inner Ear Studios is a recording studio founded in Arlington County, Virginia, Arlington, Virginia that has been in operation since the late 1970s. Originally started in founder Don Zientara's basement, the studio spent many years on South Oakla ...
with
Don Zientara
Don Zientara ( ) is an American record producer and musician. He owns and runs Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, Virginia, located just outside Washington D.C., and is most widely known for his production work with Fugazi, Minor Threat and various ...
and Howard Wuelfing (
Slickee Boys
The Slickee Boys were a Washington, D.C. area punk-psychedelic-garage rock band whose most-remembered lineup consisted of guitarist Marshall Keith, guitarist Kim Kane, singer Mark Noone and drummer Dan Palenski. The group was named after a GI sl ...
, Nurses,
Half Japanese
Half Japanese is an American art punk band formed by brothers Jad and David Fair around 1975, sometime after the family's relocation to Uniontown, Maryland. Their original instrumentation included a small drum set, which they took turns playi ...
). Their sound became more noisy and experimental as they progressed, while retaining a sense of melody. They recorded a second Inner Ear session with Chris Niblack on bass, and released two of those songs on the Outside Records LP compilation ''Mixed Nuts Don't Crack.''
WGNS Recordings
WGNS Recordings releases music recorded by WGNS Studios.
History
WGNS was initially started by Gray Matter's Geoff Turner in Maryland in the early 1980s as a cassette label. WGNS stood for "We Gots No Station." Initial recordings were mastered ...
released Chalk Circle songs on
cassette
Cassette may refer to:
Technology
* Cassette tape (or ''musicassette'', ''audio cassette'', ''cassette tape'', or ''tape''), a worldwide standard for analog audio recording and playback
** Cassette single (or "Cassingle"), a music single in th ...
compilations between 1982–84. Although the group later slipped through the cracks of D.C. punk history, except as a sidenote in
riot grrrl
Riot grrrl is an underground feminist punk movement that began during the early 1990s within the United States in Olympia, Washington and the greater Pacific Northwest and has expanded to at least 26 other countries. Riot grrrl is a subcultur ...
histories, at the time they were part of the national/international punk community.
Legacy
A twelve-song collection of Chalk Circle's early 1980s studio material and some live recordings was released on the ''Reflection'' LP in 2011, with liner notes by Don Fleming. "Reflection" was a joint effort by Mississippi Records and Post Present Medium, the label headed by Dean Spunt of
No Age
No Age is an American noise rock duo consisting of guitarist Randy Randall and drummer/vocalist Dean Allen Spunt. The band is based in Los Angeles, California, and was signed to Sub Pop records from 2008 to 2013. No Age's fourth studio album, ''S ...
. During Chalk Circle's short existence in the heydey of D.C.'s first golden era of hardcore, the group broke through musical and gender barriers to create a sound that captured the joyful excitement of forgoing standard structures.
The group were notable as the first all-women band to emerge from D.C.'s punk scene. Other than vocal girl groups, Chalk Circle were the first all-female group to record and perform in D.C. since the
International Sweethearts of Rhythm
The International Sweethearts of Rhythm was the first integrated all-women's band in the United States. During the 1940s the band featured some of the best female musicians of the day. They played swing and jazz on a national circuit that incl ...
in the 1940s.
Sally Berg and Tamera Lyndsay moved to New York and formed SHE with Laura Kennedy (
Bush Tetras
Bush Tetras are an American post-punk band from New York City, formed in 1979. They are best known for the 1980 song "Too Many Creeps", which exemplified the band's sound of "jagged rhythms, slicing guitars, and sniping vocals".Contortions, Bloods), Lesley Woods (
Au Pairs
The Au Pairs were a British post-punk band that formed in Birmingham in 1978 and continued until 1983. They produced two studio albums and three singles. Their songs were said to have "contempt for the cliches of contemporary sexual politics ...
), Barbara Gogan ( The Passions), and Clare Hirst ( Belle Stars). Lyndsay then became a shoe and accessories designer, whose work was seen on ''
The L Word
''The L Word'' is a television drama that aired on Showtime from January 18, 2004 to March 8, 2009. The series follows the lives of a group of lesbian and bisexual women who live in West Hollywood, California. The premise originated with Ilene Ch ...
's'' fourth season. After Chalk Circle disbanded, Sharon Cheslow joined
Bloody Mannequin Orchestra Bloody Mannequin Orchestra were an influential early 1980s punk band from Bethesda, MD. They formed around a small, but active, scene at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School and were part of the larger D.C hardcore community.Andersen & Jenkins 2001 p. ...
, co-authored Cynthia Connolly's and Leslie Clague's 1988 book ''Banned in DC: Photos and Anecdotes From the DC Punk Underground (79–85)'', collaborated with various musicians including
Kathleen Hanna
Kathleen Hanna (born November 12, 1968) is an American singer, musician, artist, feminist activist, pioneer of the feminist punk riot grrrl movement, and punk zine writer. In the early-to-mid-1990s she was the lead singer of feminist punk band B ...
in Suture, published ''Interrobang?!,'' and formed Coterie Exchange. Anne Bonafede wrote for ''Shattered Wig Review''. Chris Niblack toured with
No Trend
''No Trend'' was an American noise rock and hardcore punk group from Ashton, Maryland, formed in 1982. They were considered anti-hardcore, with the members, especially guitarist and lyricist Frank Price, vehement about their abhorrence towards th ...
.
Members
* Mary Green – vocals, guitar (1981–1983)
*
Sharon Cheslow
Sharon Cheslow (born October 5, 1961) is an American musician, composer, artist, writer, photographer, educator, and archivist. In 1981, she formed Chalk Circle, Washington, D.C.'s first all-female punk band. She has since become an accomplishe ...
– guitar, vocals (1981–1983)
* Anne Bonafede – drums (1981–1983)
* Jan Pumphrey – bass (1981)
* Tamera Lyndsay – bass (1981-1982)
* Chris Niblack – bass (1982-1983)
Discography
Albums
* 2011 - ''Reflection'' - Mississippi Records/Post Present Medium
Tracks on compilations
* 1983 - "The Slap" and "Subversive Pleasure" on ''Mixed Nuts Don't Crack'' - Outside Records
* 1983 - "We Got the Beat" (as Crayon Square) on ''The Christmas Cassette'' - WGNS cassettes
* 1983 - "Uneasy Friend," "Reflection," "Easy Escapes" on ''Timeclock Equals Hole in Head'' - WGNS cassettes
* 1984 - "Sister Superior," "Scrambled" on ''We Gots No Station'' - WGNS cassettes
* 2003 - "The Slap," "Subversive Pleasure" on ''Homework #9: DIY/punkwave '77-'86'' - Hyped to Death