The late Margaret Moser did this excellent interview with Austin-based artist Jean Caffeine for the Austin Chronicle twenty years ago that your Austin Music Minute host had way too much fun revisiting. Seriously, just to be a fly on the wall to soak in the awesome conversation between these two badasses would have been ridiculously cool.
The chat dives into Caffeine’s (Jean Leider) life experiences expanding those “punk rock horizons” as a curious teen, jolted awake by the power of live music (The Rolling Stones‘ 1975 It’s Only Rock & Roll tour, to be exact – and DAMN…), and discovering that punk was not only about the music, but a way of life – and creating. Though Caffeine will tell you straight up: She didn’t discover punk rock, it discovered her. That was the blow-torch flame igniting the eternal creative burn that’s been fueling her ever since, from playing in bands to making art and writing, from punk to punked-up country – before cowpunk or alt.-country was a thing with different labels.
Just recently, Caffeine and label Modern Harmonic rereleased the self-titled LP by post-punk bass and percussion outfit Pulsallama, which Caffeine drummed for back in the ‘80s in New York City (a band that opened for The Clash, FYI). Swing by Jean Caffeine’s Bandcamp to check out the gleeful cacophonous din. Fierce and fun. And make sure you catch Jean on her livestream show, I Always Cry On Thursday, occurring every other week. The next show’s coming up at 7 p.m. (Central) Thursday, September 10, on Facebook Live.
-Photo courtesy of the artist.
