Punkhouse Oakland, the Podcast

Elizabeth Whitney
  • 5.0 (35)
  • Society & Culture
  • Updated Bimonthly

This podcast is an outgrowth of the instagram I started during the pandemic, sharing photos of the many people I'd lived with in my 20 years in a punkhouse. I invited everyone to share their photos, one tag led to another, and before I knew it there were 6,000 followers and a huge backlog of photos to share. This podcast is a series of conversations with people in, and adjacent to, the punk scene in the Bay Area in the 80s and 90s. We explore the stories behind those photos, and dive deeper into who we were, how we found each other, and what it means in our current lives. Photo by Forest Love

  1. 1d ago

    Wendy-O Matik

    Wendy-O Matik is a poet, writer, activist, and the author of Love Like Rage and Redefining Our Relationships. Back in the 90s, she could be found doing spoken word in the Bay Area punk scene and touring with various bands in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Today, she lives in Santa Rosa, CA, where she has coauthored eleven mindfulness meditation books, blogs on social justice topics, and still dabbles in poetry from time to time.

    Wendy-O Matik

  2. Aug 7

    Robert Eggplant

    Eggplant says Wow. What a rare chance to be involved with this cool project of these testimonies of our East Bay punk houses. So good to have this space that highlights examples of how people can make different living arrangements than what agents of society have proscribed. This is badly needed in 2026. i feel that the forces that drive many people into punk, or into dangerous living and self harm are a malevolent threat. We are expending enormous energy and precious time in opposition and very little on making a beautiful future. Issues that made me want to rebel; war, sexism, homophobia, malevolent gender roles, racism, plastic alien mainstream culture, environmental destruction, bullshitting politicians, teachers and media heads, homelessness, mental health surges, police abuse and wealth inequality are as pernicious now as when i ran to my first shows in 1986.i am not a graduate of a prestigious university, i am not an author of a best selling anything, i am not married, i don't have any kids or cute domesticated animals. i don't have a smart phone, a gun, driver's license nor a car. i do bicycle around town. i do have a bunch of records, demo tapes, fliers and underground papers because i value the things we make while dreaming out loud. i find a lot of things in free boxes and utilize them. i relish having a few quiet hours reading deeply in library stacks then getting the rowdy hours of seeing live music amongst a free & freaky people. I eat mainly a diet of Food Not Bombs and even get hungry at 3pm when it is served at People's Park. Lately i've begin to value the night sky as the moon wanes.

    Robert Eggplant

  3. Jul 24

    Kate Knox

    Kate Knox became a punk rocker in 1978 at the age of 14, and the punk rock community has been her touchstone ever since. After moving to the East Bay from Chico, CA in 1982, she quickly became involved in the local punk scene as show organizer, tour mom, and all-around supporter of East Bay punk. She is a co-founder of BOB Fest, an international punk gathering, which she still helps organize three decades later. She was also a co-founder of the Maxi Pad, a notorious Oakland punk house of the 1990s where the first Thanks for Nothin' happened. For twenty years, she hosted the November celebration of the East Bay punk community in her various backyards. That same punk ethos carries into her life's work at Holden High School, an alternative non-profit school for rebellious teens who have been failed by the public school system, where she serves as a co-director. When she isn’t organizing BOB Fest or running a school, Kate is an avid traveler, reader, and gardener.

    Kate Knox

  4. Jul 10 ·  Bonus

    Jake Filth Part Two

    Jake Filth answers follow up questions. Jake Filth was born in Oakland, California in 1970; in the month of February. Jake Filth moved out of his family home in 1988 or 1989 to a house on MLK JR. Blvd in Oakland with friends Jessie and Lennie. This supreme punk house was The Ashtray (see: Ashtray by Screeching Weasel). They lived there about a year and then moved on. He has lived in many houses in Oakland, Tucson, Austin and Santa Fe. He now lives in Alameda, CA. He hates it there.  He now spends most of his time reading books and saving money for traveling abroad. Jake is now 56 years old. He intends to retire in Pudacherry, India or Bratislava, Slovakia.

    Jake Filth Part Two

  5. Jul 3

    Jake Filth

    Jake Filth was born in Oakland, California in 1970; in the month of February. He spent his first fours years living at the University Village in Albany, CA, and a house near the North Berkeley Public Library, on The Alameda. Jake, along with his two older brothers, Mark and Greg, and older sister Nina, moved to El Sobrante, Ca, in 1975. They all lived there with their parents, Vivian and Tom. Jake started attending Berkeley schools in the 5th grade. This is because El Sobrante schools were shit and full of racist, backward hicks. Also, he was too f*****g smart for that town. Brother Greg, while attending UC Davis, made Jake a mix tape. Included on this tape were “Catholic Boy” by CH3, “No Values” from Black Flag and an Agent Orange song, maybe “Bloodstains”. He loved it all, especially the Black Flag. And that is how his life began. The first punk show Jake went to was at the Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco, the summer before 9th grade. 1984. It was a MRR curfew show featuring The Emetics, Dicks and NOTA. Jake Filth moved out of his family home in 1988 or 1989 to a house on MLK JR. Blvd in Oakland with friends Jessie and Lennie. This supreme punk house was The Ashtray (see: Ashtray by Screeching Weasel). They lived there about a year and then moved on. Jake has been in many punk bands,  including Filth, Wild Dog Gods and Awesome. He has lived in many houses in Oakland, Tucson, Austin and Santa Fe. He now lives in Alameda, CA. He hates it there. He now spends most of his time reading books and saving money for traveling abroad. Jake came to his love of travel late in life, and it is now very important to him. His most loved cities are: Uppsala, Berlin, Tbilisi, CDMX,  and Varanasi. But, he really loves everywhere he goes. Except Belgrade. Jake is now 56 years old. He intends to retire in Pudacherry, India or Bratislava, Slovakia.

    Jake Filth

  6. May 8

    Candy Stubborn

    Candy (AKA Candy Stubborn, AKA Chuckles the Clown) is a punk, artist, musician, photographer, gardener, bartender, and animal lover. She grew up in an intolerant small town in Idaho, where as a kid she discovered punk through her older sister Sonia, local college radio show Mutant Pop, and her first time seeing ShaNaNa on TV.  The first punk show Candy went to, high on cough syrup, was Youth of Today in 1986 (or maybe it was Government Issue?) Candy moved to Eastern Washington in 1987, Olympia in 1988, and then to the East Bay in 1992 (or was it ‘93?) where she lived, squatted, and couch surfed several punk houses. She met her soul mate, Justin, in 1996 and a year later moved to Bellingham, WA to start a band, a life, and yes, a new punk house, together. After a few fun years ripping shit up together they moved to Portland, where they have been living and playing music together ever since. They finally tied the knot in 2011. Candy has performed, toured, and recorded in such bands as The Flatulence, Annie and Candy Clutz, Gimmie Pigs, Transplants 86ed, Candy and the Hot Dice, the Problems, Triggers, Sleepwalkers R.I.P., Dark/Light, and Era Bleak.  She has been clean and sober for 8 years this March.

    Candy Stubborn

  7. Apr 24

    Steve List

    I'm Steve List. My resume is a mix of everything from delivering furniture for my dad’s shop and pipe fitting at a Richmond refinery to computer system administration and even some strategic dumpster diving in Silicon Valley.My obsession with the local music scene hit in my 30s. While running an Atari computer store, I met a young Mike Montano and his friends, who introduced me to the raw energy of Suicidal Tendencies and Primus.In 1990, I started "The List." What began as a personal UNIX text file to track upcoming shows eventually became a physical flyer I’d hand out at gigs. Though I no longer print paper versions, I’ve sent out a weekly email for over 30 years.These days, you’ll still find me at shows around the Bay, though I’ve traded my 6-night-a-week habit for a slightly more relaxed pace in Richmond.

    Steve List

  8. Apr 10

    Nickie Tilsner

    Nickie grew up in San Francisco and spent most of her teen years in the East Bay in the 90s. She's a mom to a rad 19 year old, a nurse, harm reductionist, and community based researcher. Shes been living in Portland for the last several years and is so stoked to be moving back to Oakland in April to be closer to her chosen family and the community that shaped her.

    Nickie Tilsner
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
35 Ratings

About

This podcast is an outgrowth of the instagram I started during the pandemic, sharing photos of the many people I'd lived with in my 20 years in a punkhouse. I invited everyone to share their photos, one tag led to another, and before I knew it there were 6,000 followers and a huge backlog of photos to share. This podcast is a series of conversations with people in, and adjacent to, the punk scene in the Bay Area in the 80s and 90s. We explore the stories behind those photos, and dive deeper into who we were, how we found each other, and what it means in our current lives. Photo by Forest Love

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