This is Khalil Sullivan. He played guitar in The Truants, which were kinda the first Oakland band I got into as I got into the scene here. Khalil was getting his Ph.D at UC Berkeley, focusing on queer popular music.

This was a Truants show I saw at a youth-oriented DIY space in SF.

This is Khalil, Johnny Truant (vox and bass for the Truants), and Johnny Lawrie (frontman for the punk band The Tortured).

Johnny Lawrie

Johnny Truant and Colin

This is Aimee who sang for the punk/riot grrl band Quaaludes, talking to Johnny.

This is Eric Yee. I think he’s been in a bunch of punk bands, and he’s an East Bay native who’s been in the scene since the 80’s. I had a professional relationship with Eric for like 4 months before we realized we had music in common, because Eric was my favorite person at my local FedEx Office to pack my fragile pro audio equipment I was frequently shipping. Eric is an expert at that.

This is PDX musician extraordinaire Luz Mendoza. She was about to play a show at The Night Light, which I attended. I’ve recorded Luz a bunch in my studio. Luz has the “celebrity” ability to focus radiant emotional light on people like a laser beam.

This is Luz’s drummer for that night, Oakland resident Geneva Harrison. That night Geneva gave one of the most electrifying drum performances I’ve ever seen.

For awhile this really young cat started spending all of her time on my patio, and I started to think she was a stray and that I should start feeding her. I had kind of a crisis about it because I thought there’s some rule where once you start feeding a stray, it automatically permanently becomes your responsibility. I broke down and bought a bunch of cat food from Trader Joe’s and also a cat brush, and lint rollers. I named the cat “Sarah”, and she was my cat, and then after two months she completely disappeared. I put up “Lost Cat” flyers with her picture all over my neighborhood and also went to the shelter to see if they had her, but she never showed up.

Sarah was sooo pretty.

This is my friend (and recording artist on my label) Nehemiah St-Danger, who used to live in Oakland and was heavily involved in the DIY scene, but whom I knew because he had lived in the NW and was connected to the scene there. This day he was in Oakland to play a house show. I hadn’t seen him in 2.5 years, so it was a good reunion.

I showered Nehemiah with praise that night.

I had first met Brontez Purnell in March of 2015, at an experimental dance show I attended in SF, which he performed at. Immediately he and I got along really well before the show, and he decided to include me in his performance. We became close friends. As I was trying to extract myself from pretty serious depression, Brontez was basically helping me with it more than anyone else.

Brontez recorded a few songs with me.

This is Tim and Eran. I knew Tim from when I lived in Santa Cruz because we were both very involved in the SC indie rock scene. Tim played guitar in the SC band The Menses, which I made a great record for.

Brontez after a Younger Lovers (his punk band) show at The Night Light.

This is Brian Kelly. He is the frontman for the Oakland band Oceanography.

Brontez, I think in the back area of Eli’s Mile High Club.

I don’t remember this guy’s name, but this was I think the very first live music show at Sgraffito. I found out about it because my old friend Aleks’ band Robbery was playing that show.

This was the first time I met Ara Jo, who collected the door money at that show.

Aleks was the drummer for Robbery, but has been frontman for Zulus and Hate Mail Express.

This is Stefanie, who is a writer on culture and a radio DJ. Stefanie’s husband Bean played guitar in Robbery.

This is me at Sgraffito with Adam Neal Gochnauer, who had been a serious documentarian of the Bay Area scene.

This is my old friend Steve, who has worked in record stores his whole life, and knows more about music (all kinds) than possibly anyone I know. Steve was a vital member of the Santa Cruz indie rock scene back when I was in it, and was kind of the wise sage of the scene.

Brontez with Jen, who is also Santa Cruz indie rock alumni.

This might have been the first show I filmed with my old video camera, seen here being modeled by Adam. I had previously been using my pocket camera to film shows.

This is Oakland poet, musician, and professor Chris Stroffolino. Chris has tons of accomplishments, and I think his most famous music record is ‘American Water’ by the Silver Jews, which he was the keyboardist for.

I believe this was the first time I met Josie, at a Sgraffito show.

I think Brontez was dressed this way that night because it was the filming of a Younger Lovers music video, being filmed in his house’s garage.

This is Heather, who is a civil rights lawyer and punk musician.

Jon Lady had this annual “Crazy Cat Lady Calendar” project, where in the calendar was studio portraits of him posing with cats.

This is poet, standup comedian, and author Bucky Sinister, who was soon to leave his longtime home of Oakland for LA. Bucky had recently published his first novel, “Black Hole”. Bucky was the first artist I signed to my record label when I got serious with it when I lived in Austin, TX. I recorded and released a 12″ vinyl spoken word record (“Sensitive Badass”) of Bucky reading his best poems.

Khalil came by to hear some recordings of mine.