Tuesday, June 4, 2019

Books: "Frame of Mind" On The DC Punk Music Scene




Frame of Mind
By Antonia Tricario
Akashic Books, Brooklyn, NY; hardcover, 176 pages; $32.95; available today, June 4

In the late 1990s in Washington, DC, a seminal era in underground music was born, and photographer Antonia Tricario was steeped in it.


Tricario chronicled its musicians, women and men alike, with her powerful and evocative photos, which are collected here in Frame of Mind.


Antonio Tricario.
Bands like Fugazi, Branch Manager, the Make-Up, Deep Lust, Quix*o*tic, Lungfish, Spirit Caravan, Scaramouche, Stinking Lizaveta, and many more were active in and around the underground music scene in Washington, DC.

While those bands went on a hiatus or dissolved over the years, others inspired by them have formed, including Dead Meadow, Motorcycle Wars, the Evens, and Weird War. In Frame of Mind, all of these groups appear in over 200 powerful and evocative photos by Antonia Tricarico.

In addition to DC’s homegrown offerings, Frame of Mind also features photos of other seminal and like-minded groups that passed through the city, such as the Melvins, the Ex (from the Netherlands), Uzeda (from Italy), Joan Jett, Shellac, Babes in Toyland, the Julie Ruin, L7, and Alice Bag.

Frame of Mind captures underground music through both photos and essays. While the photos include musicians of all genders, the essays are all written by women: Joan Jett, Amy Farina, Tara Jane O’Neil, Alice Bag, Allison Wolfe, Donita Sparks, Lori Barbero, and more.

If women are seen as the underground of the underground, let this book be a wake-up call for future generations to start their own inspiring bands.

About Antonia Tricario: She has been taking photographs for more than two decades. In recent years she has worked as an archivist for Pulitzer Prize–winning Washington Post photographer Lucian Perkins, and has collaborated with Dischord Records, Kill Rock Stars, Tolotta Records, and Youth Action Research Group. Her work has been exhibited internationally and can be found in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History and the Special Collections Division of the DC Public Library. Tricarico’s work also appeared in Photo Review from 2006–2013. She is currently at work on her second book, which explores the art of political protests. She lives in DC with her musician husband, their bilingual daughter, and two authoritative cats.

National Events With Antonia Tricario:
Saturday June 15 - 7:00-9:00 PM in Washington, DC at Lost Origins Gallery - 3110 Mt Pleasant St NW - This is the launch for Frame of Mind with a photo exhibition and signing; cosponsored by the Smithsonian Folklife Festival

Sunday, June 16 - 3:00 PM in Washington, DC at Politics & Prose - 5015 Connecticut Avenue NW - this is the bookstore launch event for Frame of Mind, with Lely Constantinople and Natalie Avery

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