Housecoat Project

Bio:

San Francisco-based Housecoat Project toured the USA several times in 1987-89 and released the Wide Eye Doo Dat album on Subterranean Records in 1987. There is a full album of unreleased material in the Subterranean vaults that hopefully will see the light of day soon.

The band was started in 1984 by Meri St. Mary and Eric Rad (guitar) and played its first gig at the Mab in December 1984. A year later, Eric died mid-song while playing on the very same stage. Meri, Michel and Erol decided to keep the band going and Jay Crawford of Bomb was brought in on guitar. Bob joined in on sax after sitting in on a few songs at a Chatterbox show in 86 or 87. (Kenny Kearney from Assassins of God and Pluto filled in on guitar for a short West Coast tour while Jay was on the road with Bomb.) Lemon D'George mixed live sound expertly and played harmonica. Mike Reject did most of our posters. Mick Freeman handled tour bookings. Steve Tupper still runs Subterranean Records.

We played many shows in San Francisco at places like the Farm, Mab, On Broadway, 16th Note, SF Music Works, Firehouse, Albion, Sound of Music, I-Beam and our home base at the Chatterbox. We played with some great bands: Sister Double Happiness, Flipper, Mutants, Camper Van Beethoven, Pop-O-Pies, Helios Creed, American Music Club, Sea Hags, Coffin Break, Frightwig and many more.

from http://www.sfweekly.com/Issues/1998-06-03/music/music2.html :

In the mid-1980s Meri St. Mary was the full-lipped punk siren to drive the prepubescent San Francisco anarchists wild. She was beautiful and crazy-eyed, as feral as a foul-mouthed alley cat, with a voice like Patti Smith and an attitude straight out of an Aqua Net can. As an L.A. freak, she had sung with the Road Hogs and Toe Jam, but here with the Housecoat Project -- Bomb guitarist Jay Crawford, ex-Scavenger saxman Bob Bartosik, Elvin Bishop drummer Michael Schorro, and bluegrass-punk bassist Erol Cengis -- she found her asylum, her husband (Flipper's Bruce Loose), and her son. She claimed San Francisco as her own with the Housecoat's Why Eye Doo Dat, a punk album with surprising jazz flourishes that portrayed this city as a place where a man will "shoot up his brother/ Probably sell his mother/ To get some dough, to buy some drugs/ To get laid," and where "wild wimmin don't die/ They just dye their hair/ And get out of town." Between Housecoat shows, she sang with the Skankin' Babylonians (you remember them -- members of the Residents and Club Foot Orchestra), starred in some underground punk documentaries, and plastered her lovely mug on the cover of every zine in town. She was everywhere at once. Then in 1991, she disappeared. People thought her dead. A strung-out mom whose hubby had signed to Warner Bros. and hit the road, she had to hide out, clean up, and take care of her kid -- and herself.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

2006 update:

Meri is in Nevada City, CA doing acoustic coffee house shows. She also appears as a guest singer with various bands occasionally. She is clean and sober.

Meri is a broadcaster at KVMR and won an award for Rookie of the Year 2007 for her show Underground Sound. Meri has been playing solo shows in SF and LA. Releasing first solo CD called "I'm Back". Housecoat Project has re-formed and will release 20-year-old album ("Girl Fiend") on Subterranean Records this year (2009).

Jay and Michel play a little music once in a while and both work for Miele. Jay has played in several bands since HP broke up.

Erol plays in various musical settings in Arizona.

Bob is a TV sound man in San Diego and plays jazz on the side. He has played on a few film soundtracks and is releasing an album in 2007.

Member Since:

August 20, 2006

Members:

Meri St. Mary - Vocals

Jay Crawford - Guitars

Erol Cengis - Bass

Michel Schorro - Drums

Bob Bartosik - Sax

Influences:

mom singing, playing piano and folk music on guitar, serbian music, am radio (a plethora of sounds),protest songs, soul soul soul music, glam music in england then states, punk rock from england, nyc, and la, reggae, early rap, sf punk rock, art, poetry, gospel church music,funk, street art/music, noise, blues, music from around the world, college radio/community radio. there are too many to mention, i would like to mention three people who are no longer with us who i learned from musically: chuck wagon, little dee, eric rad yuncker. there are countless others who inspired both personally and from afar whose influences are felt profoundly.

Sounds Like:

Patti Smith, X-Ray Specs, Fetchin' Bones, Billie Holiday...

Record Label:

Subterranean Records