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JOAN JETT: Ready for takeoff
from: Jacksonville.com
by JEFF VRABEL, The Times-Union
Femme rock icon to a previous generation will bring a
new audience on board for Warped Tour
The Warped Tour isn't just for the black-clad,
spiky-chain wearing, tousle-haired kids, you know.
Sure, during its 11 years, Warped has secured a
reputation for breaking up-and-coming bands in the
fields of punk, emo, hardcore and emopunkore, all of
which are more or less the same thing.
But it's also been a reliable means for vintage
outfits to re-position themselves in front of a new
demographic. No less punk royalty than the Ramones,
for instance, visited the Warped stage in 1998. And
the 2006 edition will see sets by L.A. punk forebears
the Germs (who sadly won't appear at Jax stop), the
equally influential Buzzcocks and riot girl icon Joan
Jett.
Now for you kids, Jett in the late '70s co-founded the
RUNAWAYS, one of the era's most visible all-girl rock
bands, and she was the first female rocker to launch
her own record label. From there Jett went on to
achieve cultural ubiquity with the BLACKHEARTS, with
whom she recorded the following staples of radio, MTV
and sports arenas: I Love Rock N' Roll, Do You Wanna
Touch Me? and a cover of Tommy James and the
Shondells' Crimson and Clover. And her influence
helped lay down track for everyone from Bikini Kill to
Sleater-Kinney.
Van's Warped Tour
When: 11 a.m. Thursday.
Where: Metropolitan Park, 1410 Gator Bowl Blvd.
Tickets: $27.75.
Info: (904) 353-3309, ticketmaster.com, warpedtour.com
Prohibited items: Beach chairs, umbrellas, ice chests,
weapons.
These days, the 47-year-old Jett remains active
politically, having served as a delegate for Howard
Dean in the 2004 presidential election, as well as
musically. She's just released her first album in 10
years, SINNER, on her own BLACKHEART RECORDS. There's
plenty of girl-power rock involved, but Jett also
steps back for Riddles, a politically charged anthem,
as well as some surprisingly introspective material.
Jett spoke en route to a tour stop in Wisconsin.
Q: How did SINNER come about?
It's taken us close to 10 years to get this record
out. We had a couple of false starts and got very
frustrated, so I put my head down and toured for a
while. Then in the late '90s we pulled out some old
tapes, and I found a lot of songs that felt very
valid.
Q: Did you always have designs on hooking up with
Warped?
No, it was something offered to me. But it's a great
opportunity to get your music out in front of a young
audience, kids that might have heard my name but not
really known too much about me. [Founder] Kevin Lyman
likes to get bands that show the kids where some of
the new music comes from - I know the Ramones and
Green Day have done it, and the Germs and Buzzcocks
are on it this year. Maybe that ties it in, with the
RUNAWAYS being one of the few women rock 'n' rollers.
Q: Given your work with Dean, do you find politics
working its way into your live sets these days?
Unless some event happens in our day-to-day lives that
I feel like I must comment on, I don't really use the
stage as that sort of platform beyond what the music
is saying. But with this album, I have a couple of
songs that branch out farther than I have before. My
subject matter is usually love and relationships and
sex, but on the [new] song Riddles, every sentence can
reflect something going on - tax cuts, the Katrina
response, the war, the lack of jobs, the deficit, the
environment. It's not done in a derogatory way, it's
in a more spiritual way. It's more about changing the
world to whatever degree that you can.
We each live in our subjective worlds, but if you can
always be a light to people that you meet, that's
changing the world, just maybe not on as grand a
scale.
Q: Your image has always been one of punk, one of
power. Do you find yourself writing more in that sort
of spiritual, optimistic viewpoint?
That's an interesting question. I think, yeah, it's
probably more in the songs now. I'm not saying it
wasn't present in some of the older songs, but I'm
just more aware of these things now. I think there was
probably some hesitation about getting these songs
done, a level of writer's block, some figuring out how
you write about spirituality and politics without
being corny or preachy. It's really about being able
to convey something bigger than yourself - that's the
goal. I don't know if I did it, but I'm happy with
what we've done.
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