The Yeastie Girlz started in 1987 at Gilman Street Project with Cammie, Joyce & Jane. They came up with the name, the concept and the "Yeast Power" lyrics at a Gilman 4th of July barbecue & basketball show, and performed "Yeast Power" there on the spot. The Yeasties then came up with the FCC rap for an appearance on KALX Radio in Berkeley (the original rap started "we're the Yeastie Girlz, and we're on KALX, we wanna talk about our bodies, wanna talk about sex!"... it was later adapted for the 7" so it could be used by other radio stations).
More shows at Gilman followed, the Yeast Power rap was recorded for the "Turn It Around" Gilman comp, and the Yeasties put out a live demo tape from the Gilman recordings. In late 1987, Jane went off to Central America for a few months and Kate joined the YG. Cammie, Joyce & Kate opened for Jello Biafra at a big show in Berkeley, and performed at the 1989 Anarchist Convention in San Francisco (video from Die Yuppie Scum by Scarlot Harlot). Joyce went off to Europe, Jane returned to the Bay Area, and Cammie, Kate & Jane recorded the 7" for Lookout Records, and played a couple more shows.
A few months later Jane went off to travel in Europe; Joyce was living in the Netherlands and Cammie went to Europe and met up with her there, and Cammie & Joyce toured Europe as the Yeastie Girlz, opening for Loveslug. When Cammie couldn't possibly eat any more patat friet, she went back to San Francisco and Kate took her place in Amsterdam, touring with Joyce and the boys of Loveslug. Soon afterwards the Yeasties carried on their separate lives, until around 1992 when Consolidated asked to record a Yeastie song with the girlz. Cammie and Kate were still in the Bay Area at that point and adopted Wendy-O Matik to round out the vocals on the track, "You Suck." (the label misspelled our name as 'Yeasty Girls')
Cammie and Jane both wrote about Gilman Street (and many of Cammie's photos appear) in the book "924 Gilman." In 2004, Cammie performed a YG rap at a Gilman show celebrating the "924 Gilman" book release.
Cammie is a professional freelance photographer based in Iowa, soon to be Portland... Jane lives in NYC, where she played in Growing Up Skipper (1992), Profits of Misery (1997) and now in Joda . Joyce lives in LA... Kate still lives in the Bay Area.... and they all still rock with the power of the Yeast!
Finally made it back to a show at Gilman St. this past spring after... fuck, an 18-year absence. It was completely different... yet oddly, exactly the same in many respects. I counted three people who looked like they might actually be older than me. And one guy surfing the crowd in a banana suit.
