David Lester’s new book is out! Under the Banner of King Death: Pirates of the Atlantic, A Graphic Novel (Beacon Press) Pirates! Class struggle on the high seas!
LISTEN: David Lester in conversation with Marcus Rediker about the new book
catching up!
UPDATE on David Lester
2020 DOCUMENTARY FILM on David Lester
“In this video made by filmmaker Rami Katz, you’ll see David Lester take you through his intricate process of illustrating this notable protest and the challenge of depicting historic figures and events with contemporary urgency.” — CBCArts
Soon to be published! Prophet Against Slavery (Beacon Press, Nov. 2, 2021)
“David Lester’s raw, expressive visual approach perfectly delivers. Prophet Against Slavery is a crucial account of abolitionism’s religious framework, its courage and moral clarity often recast as sin or insanity, and the necessity of taking outside risks in pursuit of justice and equality.” —Nate Powell, National Book Award–winning artist of the March trilogy about US congressman John Lewis
UPDATE on Jean Smith
Kevin Chong interviewed me for a piece in the Tyee in May, 2020.
“Last year (2019), the New York Times name-dropped the legendary 1980s Vancouver duo Mecca Normal as an influence on the Riot Grrrl movement. Earlier in 2019, the critically acclaimed FX comedy Better Things featured the band’s feminist anthem “I Walk Alone” in an episode.
But street cred doesn’t pay the bills for Mecca Normal’s vocalist Jean Smith. To make a living, she turned to her skills as a painter. Since 2016, the multifaceted artist, who has also written two novels, has made a living selling her paintings on Facebook for US$100 a pop.
Her work consists primarily of portraits of women of varying skin tones and features, sometimes in hats and various accessories, like Elizabethan collars and scuba gear.” – Kevin Chong, The Tyee
In August of 2020, writer Nick Marino emailed me out of the blue asking if I’d tell him my story for a New York Times Magazine article.
New York Times Magazine online January 5, 2021
New York Times Magazine, January 10, 2021
In a column called Letter of Recommendation, writer Nick Marino delves into my history with Mecca Normal, my $100 USD paintings with a mention of the Free Artist Residency for Progressive Social Change.
“Unlike most portraits, especially the ones men tend to paint of women, these were not made to be looked upon. The subjects were equal partners in the looking. You stared at them and they stared back. Smith’s women seemed to have rich interior lives and sometimes wore uniforms to indicate what they were doing before you, the viewer, so rudely interrupted.” – Nick Marino, New York Times Magazine, January 10, 2021
CBC National Radio interview aired September 11, 2020 with the online story appearing the day before.
Bikini Kill shows! Art show! Graphic novel news!
Rescheduled for 2022]Mecca Normal is thrilled to be opening three Bikini Kill shows in March – Olympia, Seattle, Victoria. We’re doing a “sea legs” show in Vancouver on Feb. 29th. Jean will have paintings at all shows.
Live in Montreal 1996 released 2019
Canceled Jean Smith solo painting show at Land Gallery in Portland May 9 to June 7, featuring the $100 USD (11 x 14″) series. Mecca Normal will perform at the opening May 9.
900+ SOLD – mostly from Jean Smith’s regular FaceBook page
Sales started going through the roof after The Jealous Curator mini review in 2017.
Interview with Jean about selling her paintings to raise money for the Free Artist Residency for Progressive Social Change.
“All sales above my $1000 USD monthly expenses go towards buying property and opening the facility which will be legally bequeathed to an activist art group yet to be named. Friend me on FaceBook to see new paintings almost daily. Lately I’ve been selling up to 50 paintings a month.”
David Lester is becoming the go-to artist for historical graphic novels. His remarkable, world-class style is being praised by reviewers for its ability to enliven meaningful narratives that often serve as cautionary tales.
1919: A Graphic History of the Winnipeg Strike (Between the Lines, 2019) by The Graphic History Collective and David Lester has been short-listed for the Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature. The book has been translated into French and German.
David is currently working on graphic novels that illuminate the lives of radical abolitionist Benjamin Lay and Emma Goldman.
Mecca Normal Press Kit
Mecca Normal. Photo by Sean Raggett
Jean Smith – vocals
David Lester – guitar
In 2019, “I Walk Alone” was featured on Better Things and it was on the New York Times “Riot Grrrl United Feminism and Punk” list of “25 songs that fueled a rock revolution”
13 or so albums on K Records, Kill Rock Stars and Matador
Irritated by the standard four-guys-on-stage scene in the early 1980s, Mecca Normal – Jean Smith and David Lester – formed their voice-and-guitar duo with one thing on their mind. Changing the world. Weirdly, they succeeded.
Jean Smith turned her zine Smarten UP! – A How to Change the World Publication – into a record label to release the first Mecca Normal LP in 1986.
“I Walk Alone” from the first LP (1986, Smarten UP! re-released by K Records)
Frequently cited as an inspiration to the co-founders of Riot Grrrl, Smith regularly spoke from the stage between songs in the 80s and 90s, encouraging women in the audience to form bands of their own, and a few key figures did just that. “Jean Smith was really poetic and had feminist ideas at the core of a lot of her songs and she wasn’t ashamed of it. And when I saw her, I was just like, that’s it. I’m done. I’m sold.” Kathleen Hanna, Bikini Kill (The Fader, 2010)
In 2016, Mecca Normal opened three shows for The Julie Ruin (two Bikini Kill members) at which Kathleen Hanna said from the stage: “Their music is still as relevant as it was 25 years ago when I first saw them. It makes me happy that their music is still relevant because they’re doing it better than ever. And their new songs are so fucking great and hilarious.”
“I Am Here” opening for The Julie Ruin, 2016
Mecca Normal’s most recent album LIVE in Montreal 1996 was released in March of 2019 on Toronto-based Artoffact Records.
Jean and David’s incredible creative partnership continues, but its focus is currently visual art. David is working on a graphic novel about Emma Goldman and Jean is selling her 11 x 14″ $100 USD paintings on FaceBook. Money from sales (above her expenses) is going towards opening the Free Artist Residency for Progressive Social Change in western Canada. 800+ paintings have sold so far.
Jean Smith’s paintings on the LP insert for LIVE in Montreal 1996
Guitar player David Lester is the author / illustrator of “The Listener” graphic novel (Arbeiter Ring Publishing, 2011) and the illustrator of “1919: A Graphic History of the Winnipeg General Strike” (Between the Lines, 2019)
Illustration by David Lester from “1919. A Graphic History of the Winnipeg General Strike”
“Arguably the greatest rock band without a rhythm section ever, the duo of acid-voiced singer Jean Smith and guitar hero David Lester must be seen to be believed.” – Douglas Wolk
Most recent studio LP produced by KRAMER, “Empathy for the Evil” (2014, M’lady’s Records)
In April 2009, Mecca Normal celebrated its 25th anniversary with 25 shows in 25 days, including university and high school presentations of “How Art & Music Can Change the World” – an event intending to inspire audiences to consider adding political content to their creative self-expression.
As part of the regional D-I-Y scene in the 1980s, Mecca Normal co-founded the Black Wedge – anti-authoritarian poets and minimalist musicians “setting wild hearts free, spreading the damn difficult word of how to combine poetry with activist resistance culture”. At the Black Wedge show in Olympia (1986) Jean and Calvin met and traded LPs – Mecca Normal’s first album for the first beat happening record.
CONTACT: meccanormal@hotmail.com
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/MeccaNormal
WEBSITE: https://meccanormal.wordpress.com
Business Opportunity
It’s not just business. It’s everything we’ve worked on for the past 35 years wrapped up in a location where other artists can come and stay for free while they work on projects that intend to change the world. I’m nearly ready to buy the property and open the Free Artist Residency for Progressive Social Change, but I’m taking a last minute chance and offering 5% of my net profit from my painting income in exchange for a $100K USD investment to get a place that functions as accommodation, an artist residency program and an art gallery as opposed to the lowest price house in the region and all that implies.
$100 USD paintings (11 x 14″) 800+ SOLD
contact: meccanormal@hotmail.com
35th Anniversary Micro Tour
Vancouver, July 13
photos by Bob Hanham
Seattle, July 18
Olympia, July 19
Anacortes, July 20
David Lester Interview
North by Northwest (CBC Radio) interviews illustrator David Lester about “1919: A Graphic History of the Winnipeg General Strike”
Jean Smith Interview
Jean talks about raising funds to open the Free Artist Residency for Progressive Social Change by selling her $100 USD painting series on FaceBook.
“No Hat #347″ (11 x 14”) SOLD
“No Hat #348″ (11 x 14”) SOLD
“I Walk Alone” on Better Things
Better Things with “I Walk Alone” by Mecca Normal (original studio version, 1986).
Season 3, Episode 2: Holding
March 7, 10:00 p.m. (EST), FX channel
“Because it’s my right to walk alone in any city at any time of day wearing whatever I want to — I walk alone.” – Jean Smith
Buy I Walk Alone on BandCamp
We’ve played “I Walk Alone” at a ton of shows since 1985. I think we gave it a rest for some time in the late 90s, but it’s in our current set list. Here’s a snippet of the LIVE version at Horses Records a few years ago.
“I Walk Alone” is also on the New Album: LIVE in Montreal, 1996 (Artoffact Records, 2019) — part of a three- song ‘medley’ with “Man Thinks Woman” and “Strong White Male”. Pre-Order // Limited Edition
NEW Live Album (1996)
Mecca Normal live in Montreal, 1996
LP, CD, download (extra tracks on BandCamp)
Jean Smith – vocals
David Lester – guitar
Peter Jefferies – drums
Release: March 22, 2019
Irritated by the standard four-guys-on-stage scene in the early 1980s, Mecca Normal – Jean Smith and David Lester – formed their voice-and-guitar duo with one thing on their mind. Changing the world. Weirdly, they succeeded. Frequently cited as an inspiration to the co-founders of Riot Grrrl, Smith regularly spoke from the stage between songs in the 80s and 90s, encouraging women in the audience to form bands of their own, and a few key figures did just that. “Jean Smith was really poetic and had feminist ideas at the core of a lot of her songs and she wasn’t ashamed of it. And when I saw her, I was just like, that’s it. I’m done. I’m sold.” Kathleen Hanna, Bikini Kill (The Fader, 2010)
For a few years in the 90s, Vancouver’s Mecca Normal headlined (and sometimes sold out) shows on the west coast and in the Northeastern USA, yet, until now, there hasn’t been a live album. For a brief time in the mid-90s, New Zealander Peter Jefferies (Nocturnal Projections) was on drums. Known for the intensity of their live shows, this one borders on incendiary. Recorded at The Cabaret, a beautiful little theatre in Montréal, Québec on April 16, 1996 for later broadcast on CBC’s Brave New Waves, Smith’s unparalleled delivery of songs about injustice is viscerally enmeshed with Lester’s furious guitar. As for the drums… while there is wisdom in not allowing romantic partners in a band, that tension had been intensified after the couple in question started a new band (2 Foot Flame on Matador) while living in New Zealand. “Maybe it’s just me, but I figure the guitar and the drums are both trying to get the last word, while I felt I needed to elevate my performance to justify the drama,” Smith recently divulged about the show.
In 2016, Mecca Normal opened three shows for The Julie Ruin (Bikini Kill members) at which Kathleen Hanna said from the stage: “Their music is still as relevant as it was 25 years ago when I first saw them. It makes me happy that their music is still relevant because they’re doing it better than ever. And their new songs are so fucking great and hilarious.”
Jean and David’s incredible creative partnership continues, but its focus is currently visual art. Lester’s graphic novel about the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 is out now, and Smith has sold over 600 of her ‘$100 USD brand’ paintings on FaceBook.
Mecca Normal’s long-running association with the CBC’s Brave New Waves included many interviews as well as songs recorded by Kevin Komoda at DNA Studios in Montréal. Mecca Normal’s Brave New Waves session is released on vinyl, CD, and digital formats. The digipak CD comes with a short interview with Brent Bambury, as well as bonus cuts from the CBC archive. Released on Toronto-based Artoffact Records.
Limited edition 12″ vinyl on see-thru green wax with insert of Jean Smith’s $100 USD paintings
1. Water Cuts My Hands
2. Prize Arm
3. Don’t Shoot
4. Tower Island
5. Revival of Cruelty
6. The Dogs
7. Drive At / Peach-a-Vanilla
8. Ribbon
9. Man Thinks Woman / Strong White Male / I Walk Alone
10. Armchairs Fit through Doorways
11. Are You Hungry Joe?
Limited edition digipak CD with bonus tracks
1. Water Cuts My Hands
2. Prize Arm
3. Don’t Shoot
4. Tower Island
5. Revival of Cruelty
6. The Dogs
7. Drive At / Peach-a-Vanilla
8. Ribbon
9. Man Thinks Woman / Strong White Male / I Walk Alone
10. Armchairs Fit through Doorways
11. Are You Hungry Joe?
12. Crimson Dragnet
13. Brave New Waves CBC interview, 1986
14. You’ll Never Know
15. Black Star
16. Hideous
17. Alibi
Peter Jefferies, Jean Smith, Patti Schmidt (Brave New Waves host), David Lester
photo: Robert Karpa
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