August, 1990

Janis and I have plans to go out tonight, but first we want to get this "interview" out of the way. We're blasting a Heart album and lying on her bed. At least I think it's her bed...maybe it's just a heap of clothing. The walls of her room are plastered with rock and roll mementos - flyers for gigs gone by, photographs of friends, and weird artwork that I think Janis did.
What I like best about Janis is that she can comment and talk for hours on any topic. We talk about European bondage and discipline films like Story of O and The Cruel Woman, and then we talk about motorcycles. Janis tells me she's originally from a town in southern California called Long Beach, and nonchalantly corrects me every time I say "L.A." instead. She took guitar lessons from a then unknown guitar player named Melissa Etheridge. She tells me how much she loves Paula Pierce's band the Pandoras - so much that she helped form a band called The Paulas, which covers Pandoras songs! Janis has lots of stories, lots of charm, and she laughs a lot too.

Janis' boyfriend surprises us by coming home early...

Me: Is the show over already?
Erik: No.
Janis: You didn't want to stay and see 4 Non Blondes?
Erik: I did see 4 Non Blondes.
Janis: We were gonna go see them! We thought they went on after midnight.
Me: Were they good?
Erik: Yeah. And it IS after midnight...
Janis: We wanted to go just to get out of doing this interview!
Me: I haven't seen the band yet.

[The recorder accidentally gets shut off. When it's turned on again we're talking about the appeal of 4 Non Blondes.]

Janis: ...They play their own thing, and by chance are pleasing a lot of people. But if they wanted to aim somewhere between that sub-crowd and the masses, then that's what they would do. Maybe they don't want to aim anywhere, and just want to play what they want.
Me: 4 Non Blondes just seem too unconventional to get noticed outside of San Francisco. They'll have to be pushed or pulled outta here.

While the Heart album is still playing, Janis wants to show me the pictures inside the album - Dreamboat Annie, I think.

Janis: They're wearing these long dresses. But look at him! He's wearing these pants AND a tie...
Me: It's gotta be '75 or '76...
Janis: I gotta get a halter top. Look at these, I love shirts that tie in front...
Me: I still do that to my shirts cuz it's so tacky, like a teen idol from the '70s.
Janis: I love that!

Janis: That's Jay from the Rhythm Pigs. That's Jeanie with my guitar. That's Soul Asylum at the Mab.
Me: I saw that show. I did their lights. I used to do lights at The Mab.
Erik: Really?
Janis: See, that's Karmela and Jeanie. And me and George Harrison...
Me: Hey, there's that chick...
Janis: Who? Oh. Jorjee.
Me: I've seen her before...at some party we went to...
Janis: She was the singer of Stone Fox.
Me: Really?! Where is she now?
Janis: Here are the pictures of Pagen Babies. That's Kat Bjelland of Babes in Toyland. Deidra, the drummer. And that's [radio edit]. She's the singer in $@!# now.
Me: Which one is [radio edit] ?
Janis: This is the band that I answered their ad - they were looking for a bass player and a drummer and I lied and said I play both. And I ended up as the bass player, so then I had to buy a bass and learn to play it! The songs were really good, really poppy. Kat was an amazing guitarist, and Diedra was a pretty innovative drummer. And [radio edit] was a good vocalist. But all of us trying to figure out what we all wanted - we kind of clashed. I wanted to do more thrasher stuff. And so [radio edit] left the band.
Erik: That's so ironic because that's the type of music she's doing now...
Me: What's her name again?
Janis: It's [radio edit]. Do you know her? She's rather infamous. I mean, famous! Actually, she's both. No, there's a lotta good things to be said about [radio edit]. I liked hanging out with her most of the time...She used to live here in San Francisco. She used to sing in Faith No More.
Erik: She was in that movie Straight To Hell with Joe Strummer.
Janis: She was?

Janis plays some demos of Pagen Babies. It's some amazing stuff. Sounds nothing like the aggro stuff that the bands Babes In Toyland and $@!# ended up being. I mean, [radio edit] is actually singing in a very pretty voice, which I never would have guessed was in her ability. I've only heard her scream and shout her lyrics.

Janis: She's one of those people, she kept telling me - 'Y'know, my voice is really good, it's just that I've had a cold' and blah blah blah. She had all these excuses why she didn't sound good, and why she wasn't hitting the notes. So one day we brought in a tape recorder, then we played it back and she sounded really hot! You turn that mic on and she just is ON. Some people just need that extra incentive to produce. It's really impressive.
Me: I bought the new $@!# single a couple months ago. It's on the Sympathy For The Record Industry label. I really like it.
Janis: Last time I saw her she said something about a new band, so it gave her access to be a little snotty to me...
Me: What was the deal with Stone Fox?
Janis: I was hanging out once when they were practicing. I just thought they were so great. I just had to be in that band. I wanted to try playing guitar and this was the perfect band cuz they were young musicians. They didn't play very well, and they didn't care! It was an atmosphere where you could do what you want...They already had two guitar players, but I was adamant about it.

So, in a nutshell, here is what Janis did. She swapped her then-boyfriend for the band's then-bassist. Huh? That means the chick bass player left Stone Fox to be with Janis' boyfriend, and then Janis got to be the bass player for Stone Fox. This is San Francisco, don't worry.

Janis: Did you ever see Stone Fox play?
Me: No. By the time I got around to it, the band had broken up. But I've seen that chick Jorjee before. I went looking for you one day at Backseat Betty and found her instead. I asked if you were there and she just kinda stared at me.
Janis: I was still playing with the Jackson Saints when I joined Stone Fox. I never thought Stone Fox would get out of the living room! But then, we started doing all these shows. I was shocked.
Me: Everybody kept telling me to go see you guys, but I guess I was being stuck up. How long was Stone Fox together?
Janis: Six months. And it was the fastest moving band I'd ever been in. We played our first show in a month, and then we played as many shows as the Jackson Saints has done all year! We had a better draw most of the time too.
Me: Why'd it break up?

Janis attempts to give an answer. She starts and stops a few times. She giggles and finally says she doesn't know.

I lost track of Janis for a year or so. And then, one day in 1993 I got a post card in the mail from her. She was in Toronto or Chicago or Georgia...some far off place. She scored a gig touring with some band. I was impressed, but also wondered if I'd ever see my friend again. And then, Stone Fox reunited in 1994. I was determined NOT to miss the band this time around. As I walked into the club I was greeted by Janis, who seemed surprised to see me at the show. Janis introduced me to her singer. Jorjee smiled and said something like, "You're the one that writes for Bitch Magazine..." I remember being a little tongue-tied and star struck and everything else, so I just sorta smiled as I watched Jorjee continue on her way to the bar. I turned to say something to Janis, but she was gone now too. I walked further into the club and some chick with long blondish hair almost whacked me on the head as she tried to twirl a drumstick between her fingers. A few minutes later that chick got up onstage and messed around with an amp and guitar. It was Stone Fox guitar player Kim. As the band played their set I stood on Janis' side of the stage. Linda Perry walked up and stood beside me. She said something to the guitarist with short black hair. Yvette dutifully adjusted something on her amp. Linda Perry stared me down for a minute, and then disappeared into the dark again. The band did a funny version of The Runaways' "Dead End Justice". I fell in love with Stone Fox that night. And that's when I became a superstar groupie.

She played stuff like finger cymbals, but her best shows were when she performed "the double tambouriney" - which was how Jorjee would refer to it.
Okay, so Janis and I have been friends for something like 15 years now so I have every right to say what I'm about to say. And I say this with a lot of love...Janis is...well...a brat. She knows it. I know it. We all know it. She likes to get in your head and fuck it all up. Then, she likes to watch you squirm...wearing a Cheshire grin all the while. Here is a very good example of that. A couple years ago Janis made me a copy of a demo of one of her favorite local bands. We listened to it while driving around town. She excitedly asked if I liked the band. I said, Yeah. "Do you like 'em a lot?" Yeah, Jan, they're really cool. "Is it your favorite band now?" Yeah, sure. And then Janis fucked me up by saying: "But what about Stone Fox?" Gotta love her!
Lots of times when me and Janis were hanging out - no matter what neighborhood we were in or what we happened to be doing - people stopped us in our tracks to talk to her. I remember one day in particular we were stopped 3 times in a matter of twenty minutes. I shit you not. Janis likes everybody, and everybody loves Janis.
Now, if I'm remembering correctly, I first met Janis at our favorite rock and roll bar on Valencia Street in San Francisco. It was a place called The Chatterbox - and Johnny Thunders autographed the wall in green paint. Janis lived around the corner on 20th Street. I was sitting at the bar watching Alfie the owner concoct a drink in the microwave called a Snakebite. Janis sidled up and asked if I was in a band. I said, No. Her next question was, Why not? She left me speechless. And, that's Janis.

Part III

Ten Years Later

So I had this brilliant idea. Janis Tanaka - ten years later. I wanted to post the new interview with her last summer. But something went wrong. Our schedules conflicted. Janis was too busy. And then I copped an attitude. But then I got over it. I ended up sending her the questions and told her to record her answers on a boom box. Eventually, she did the self-interview but never sent me the tape. Around December, I pestered her for that tape. She confessed she was drunk when she recorded her answers, so she wanted to do the interview over. She promised to type up her answers this time and send them directly. Around Feburary of 2001, I had a long ass phone conversation with her, but I didn't ask about the interview. I guess I chickened out. In April she FINALLY sent that damn interview back. And this is everything she sent me: the drunk tape, the second version of the interview on paper, lots of pictures, some magazines with her and L7 on the cover. Oh, and to make up for the long ass delay Janis sent me some photos of herself au naturel. "Those are for your eyes only," she said. Sorry everyone! Before she went on the European tour last year with L7 I asked Janis to keep a journal so that I could post some of the pages with the interview. She said OK. Janis is anything but conventional. She kept a 'sketch' journal. Very interesting.

This interview is a combination of both sets of answers Janis gave. I'll leave it up to you to decide which answers were given during a late, drunken night and which answers are from the sober mind of Janis. To be honest, I myself have a hard time detecting which is which. Janis is intriguing - to say the least - in conversation and in thought and in everything else.

Fall, 2000 & Spring, 2001

L7
"Tell me about the events leading up to joining L7" - I was sitting in the bar and Donita came up and asked if I was interested in playing with L7. Suzi and Dee were standing on either side of her and I couldn't tell if they'd all said this in unison like the Fates or if I was in some oddly pleasant and dangerous dream. Well, my answer was so desultory that Donita punched me in the mouth. I jumped behind the bar and began hurling liquor bottles and smashing all the mirrors just for good measure. Everyone was shouting. Chairs were flying through the air. Suzi and Dee grabbed me by the elbows and ran me outside, and said 'So, what do you think?' Well, of course, I said! Sure! [Now the REAL story...] I played with Exene in Auntie Christ, and I guess the L7 people saw me. When Gail Greenwood quit L7, they called me. Told me all the specifics about the tour, and things like that. But all I heard was: 'Hi this is Donita from L7 blah blah blah Do you wanna play with us blah blah blah Tour blah blah blah...' I just heard the basics. I was so excited I couldn't hear anything else! It was pretty much at the last minute. I had a month or so to learn the set before the tour.

"Did you eat all that funky foreign food, or did you look for a McDonald's while in Europe?" - I LOVE FOOD. The cheeses were amazing. The breads too. We ate octopus and crepes and drank Port in Portugal, a Danish in Denmark, French fries in France, and Swedish meatballs in Sweden. Really! And the Scandinavian orgasmic, salty & hard anise candies!!! I HAD to have fish and chips in London - twice a day. The weirdest thing, though, was one of our crew had a McDonald's Big Mac and I had a bite and the weirdest thing of all was that hamburger in Italy tasted exactly like one in California. Creeeepy!

"Did you know the L7 girls before joining the band?" - No. We'd only been in a couple fights but I didn't know them...

"I'd seen the girls of L7 at more than a few Stone Fox gigs over the years. I think they were coveting you! But how do the fans like you? Becuz Jennifer Finch was loved so much while in L7..." Oh, they love Jennifer. And, actually, they love Gail Greenwood too. The fans were very kick-ass for me as well. L7 fans are really fun. They'd come up to me and just be totally stoked, and I loved it. At one show - I forget where we were - the audience wasn't moving cuz it was way too bright. But I could tell they were really diggin' the show. And I just wanted to push them a little bit. The solo was coming up and I thought that'd be the perfect time. It's four bars, and maybe nobody would notice if I left the stage. So, when the solo hit I threw the bass off. I jumped off stage and ran through the crowd. I was pushin' people to get them to move a little. Then I got back onstage. Later a guy came up to me and thanked me for moshing with him in the Pit!

"What's going on with you and L7 these days?" - L7 is working on a new record. We're behind schedule. I'm gonna see them next week. We're gonna have a masquerade meeting so that we can talk nonchalantly and anonymously about the prospects of the future. That's how we do things in L7.

EXENE CERVENKOVA
"How did you end up playing in Exene's band?" - I played in Auntie Christ [1996] when Matt Freeman had to go on tour [with his other band, Rancid]. John Roecker - the infamous and wonderful John Roecker - hooked me up. Exene asked if I wanted to do the tour and I said, Fucken aye! Of course! I loved playing with Auntie Christ. Exene's new band right now is called Original Sinners and they're fantastic!

"What is Exene's poetry like?" - It's a breath of fresh air that hits you like a black jack in the chest and pops your eyes open. Exene is a brilliant writer. I've gone to hear her read too. She's such a Goddess. Haven't you read any of her writing?! What's wrong with you! Okay, you HAVE to read some of Exene's poetry...I can't believe you....

"Exene seems a bit reclusive...is she?" - Um, I guess she is a bit reclusive. She's the kind of person that you NEVER know what her reply will be... She's always thinking, and it's always really deep. The things she says I think about for a long time afterwards. She's a very unique person. I adore her. I just bought her some socks for her birthday that have 'Naughty Goddess' embroidered on them. She needs things like that - socks.

STONE FOX
"Stone Fox opened for the Runaways' semi-reunion in 1994, with Cherie and Jackie and Sandy. Tell me how that gig came about. And, I don't remember if you played 'Dead End Justice' that night..." - Oooh! That was fantastic. That was a John Roecker night! It was some kind of Joe Boxer promotional thing. John was using Joe Boxer to have a Runaways reunion show! I think I made out with Sandy. We all watched Cherie do the box-thing [where she pretends she's a mime stuck inside a box!!] and we almost DIED!! They were really nice. I have a picture of them somewhere...Yes, we played 'Dead End Justice'. That was a Stone Fox dream come true.

"Did you write the song 'Innerds' on the self-titled record?" - Yes. And you could tell I really don't, I mean, as much as I like to feel I'm an open book it's hard for me to write songs. Y'know, you're really opening up your heart and soul when you write a song. I have a hard time writing lyrics 'cause I'll couch them in some kind of metaphor. My lyrics are kind of vague 'cause I don't trust the world. When I wrote the song people were asking what it was about and I said it was about something stupid. I said that 'cause I was trying to get them off my back! I didn't want to tell anyone what it was about. It's about, um...I was completely enchanted with a person at the time. And I was misbehaving. I was doing things that I knew were wrong. I couldn't stop, but wanted to. 'Innerds' was a song - a spell - to cast out this enchantment. To make it so this person had no more passionate hold on me...So, 'Innerds' is a disenchantment spell.

"Is Stone Fox in or out of your life?" - The last time I spoke to one of the girls she asked me if I was gonna two-time her with those wenches from L7. I'm not thrall to the likes of you, I said. So, she punched me in the mouth and I jumped behind the bar and began hurling bottles...But, I don't think we've broken up. I think we're doing the lesbo thing where, y'know, we don't really break up. And then down the line we have 'ex-girlfriend sex'. And then, we get a couple of dogs, and build a deck on the house. And then, we paint....We didn't really break up. I doubt that 7-headed dragon will ever die. I'm actually enjoying listening to the records a lot more now. Actually, I've always liked our recordings a lot. And I just read your Yvette article. I read the one with Jorjee too. I didn't know you were so 'hot' for Jorjee. Well, anyway...

OTHER BAND PROJECTS
"You've been in so many bands over the years, and are still juggling like 4 working bands right now! Is it cuz you have a hard time saying NO when people beg you to join their band? Or, do you need all these bands to satisfy your musical needs?" - My gawd, Danise, I've been in like 25 + bands. When a couple of musicians or people that I admire say that they would like to get together with me to make beautiful music of the XXX kind - which is an intriguing kind to me - how can I say NO?! I obviously like a lot of different kinds of music. I am insatiable. Stone Fox was fun 'cause in one song we'd have different styles and different emotions going on...It makes you think, and have to change gears. I love that. I love having all facilities engaged.

"When you went on tour with Bash n Pop, was that your exclusive band at the time?" I was also in Stone Fox, and I think maybe Jackson Saints too. I might have also been in Bad Dog Play Dead with Shaunna Hall...I'd get off work and either go to two practices or a show. I was moving so fast all the time I broke my windshield throwing my combo bass rig in the car.

"And between 1994 and 1997 when you were in Stone Fox full time you were also in Big Meat Combo, a bluegrass band. Did you record with that band at all?" - Actually, we recorded half of our last show. I played guitar and saw [Yes, a 'saw' - like the kind in your tool shed.] in Big Meat Combo. And I sang a couple songs solo, so that everybody else in the band could take a pee break. We played 'boozegrass', so a pee break was necessary. I sang 'Long Black Veil' (but) we just accidentally erased the recording of that song. But, heck, I'll come over to anyone's bathroom on request and sing it to ya Big Meat Combo, actually, broke up just this year...After Stone Fox liquidated I had a barrage of band possibilities and I said yes to all of them, thinking I would see which ones started having fun first. Well, they were all dormant for a few months, then at the same time they all began working. I found myself in 7 bands that were practicing, writing songs and playing little shows. I'd get off work and practice the set for one band (that was on tape), and then go to the practice. Then, sit in the car and practice the next band's set, and then go to THEIR practice....I would sometimes play 4 or 5 shows in a week - and this was on top of working forty to sixty hours a week. I don't think I was going to school [SF State University] at that point...

"And in the last part of the '90s you were in two San Francisco-based bands. One was called Our Lady of Napalm..." - a GTO style band in that we're all of similar gender and we're doing it just to get together. But it's outrageous. The music is punk, or stoner rock. Simple anthems full of anger and drugs. Our Lady of Napalm aka OLON is me, Ivy McClellan [drums] of Los Canadians and Miami, and Erika Stolz [bass] of Lost Goat and Amber Asylum. I think we have a record coming out. We have an MP3 up. You can hear about four of our songs... [Janis plays guitar in this band.]

"And the other SF band is called Hammers of Misfortune..." - THIS is the metal rock opera I told you about. It's what I call 'gray metal'. Hammers of Misfortune used to be called Unholy Cadaver. I play bass and sing like a banshee. The album just came out on Tumult Records. It's called The Bastard. It's really fucken fantastic. It's got all the elements: the hero, the ax, the Goddess, the murder, the fire, dragons, chaos, evil vocals, musical mastery and mayhem.

"Will you ever record a solo album of music and lyrics you've written and will sing all alone? And when can I get one?" - That sounds very lonely. It would be a very sad record. Do you like sad records? But I do a lot of solo singing on the Hammers of Misfortune CD.

"So, right now at this moment as we speak today your rock and roll life consists of being a member of L7, Hammers of Misfortune, OLON and possibly Stone Fox?" Yes. OLON is just for fun. And, I'm doing a few shows with Fireball Ministry too...

FILM CREDITS
"You did a movie with Selene from 7 Year Bitch in 1995 or something. How'd you get involved with that project? Was it a good experience?" - Oh! That was fun! The movie was called The Year of My Japanese Cousin. The director was looking for an Asian female who could actually play guitar. They looked all over Seattle, and then they heard about me and my rock and roll ways... It was a completely different medium. I was all eyes and ears. I learned a lot about that medium, and I learned a lot about myself. I just threw myself into something I didn't know how to do...At that point in my life I was working really hard and playing in a zillion bands, and I never had any personal time. So, I went up to Seattle for a month and a half, and I was ONLY doing the movie. You kind of sit around a lot, so I actually had a lot of 'alone' time, which I wasn't used to. It was like a forced vacation. It was really refreshing...

"In a nutshell, what was that movie about?" - It was about a disgruntled, fussy, lazy and downright rude local musician [Selene] who's talented cousin from Japan [Janis] pops up and inadvertently takes over the important things in her life. Is that what the movie was about?

"What was fun about making your first film?" - Watching the movie being made. The shots discussed. The techs moving lights and equipment. Meeting the people and watching them work. (Acting) nice and sweet and talented and foreign, and (how) everyone has a crush on me.

me. At first I thought she was going to dub my character's voice. But, then she got me this coach - a woman from Japan who had NO accent! So we were both pretending to have accents as she coached me...I grew up in a traditional Japanese neighborhood in Long Beach, so I was able to pull from that memory. Also, I'd worked in a Sushi bar, so I pulled from my memory of those days as well.
"How can people get a copy of this flick?" -It's not being distributed anymore, and you can't buy it. There seems to be copies circulating among L7 fans, and friends of mine. So people just have to kind of come across one. That's all I can tell ya.

"Any other movies in your future?" - I play a drunk girl in a movie called Down and Out With The Dolls. It's just about to come out, I think. Me and Inger Lorre play these really wasted girls at a party. We have that girl-together-pee-in-the-bathtub thing. Then, we barge in on the set up equipment and we play for a while until we get kicked off. Then Inger Lorre punches me in the mouth and I jump behind the bar and start breaking bottles...But, my part is so miniscule. I might have ended up on the cutting room floor. I don't know....

OTHER TALK
"Do you remember how me and you met? You asked if I was in a band..." - Ooooh! I DO remember. And I said 'why not!' Didn't we have a big smooch and grope fest as well? And I saw you at quite a few shows after that, including the Papa Wheelie show. I remember we watched Betsy [the singer] pick up change off the floor after the show. And I remember you wrote about that [in Bitch Mag]. Y'know, after the shows ya gotta scan the front of the stage for treasures and change! And whenever I pick up change I think about Betsy, and I think about you too. I actually thought about you in Spain. I saw some coins, and I jumped off the stage to pick 'em up. And I thought of you. I also remember some OTHER nice things about you...

"Do you wanna talk about Melissa Etheridge?" - I took my first guitar lessons from Melissa Etheridge. She was my second guitar teacher. Very nice, but very strict. She wanted me to do things like practice all the time. And 'really' play the G chord, not cheat. I had decided that I could transpose any old 1-4-5 song to A-E-D. I never wanted to play that stupid G chord. It felt like the Spanish Inquisition Twister for my hand. I'd take the lessons at her girlfriend's house, which is where my friend Jill also lived. The house with the redwood deck. We'd sit around and write poetry.

"What is there to know that people don't already know about you?" - Well, everyone knows that I'm the nicest asshole you could meet...Maybe they DON'T know that I'm an asshole. I'm a total asshole. You better believe it bitch.

"If you're cranky what gets you in a better mood?" - Nothing. If I'm in a cranky mood you better fucken get out of my way 'cause I'm gonna yell at you and scream at you and kick you in the eye.

"How do you get out of bed without hitting your head?"* - Well, as you know, I live in a room so small that I had to build a 'lowft' (a very low loft that only I can sit up in) in it to make any living space at all. Under this, my bed and the things I love and want to sleep with can stay. It's a lot like a glorified tour bus bunk. Because I hit my head all the time on the wooden beams they are padded with a #2 Tea-Imbued Renaissance Quilting made by Anne Kirk Textiles.

"What is your favorite article of clothing?"** - The magick cape my niece made for me, and the new p.j. bottoms my other niece gave me. And the long blue velvet dress that I can toss in the corner and it'll always look fabulous.

"When's the best time to eat cold cereal and what kind?" - In the car with your hands out of a zip-lock bag. Grape Nuts, which are way too crunchy if you don't have anything liquid to put on them.

"Would you rather eat Brussel Sprouts or a peanut butter sandwich without jelly?" - Brussel Sprouts! I LOVE Brussel Sprouts...I just bought some today. Brussel Sprouts and Brocolli - I used to love to eat as a kid 'cause then you could pretend you were a giant eating tiny trees. And I used to love these things called Yam noodles, which were clear and you could pretend they were worms!

"I know you to have an unhealthy interest in parasites and such. Have you read the book Biography of a Germ?" - No! I wanna read it! I love parasites...I like viruses. I like dieases. I'm very interested in stuff like rabies. I just discovered my older sister and I both wanted to have flatworms as pets to teach them tricks. I must have gotten this unhealthy interest from her. Although I've always wanted to see a tapeworm peek out of somebody, and I don't think she would giggle as much as I would at this. Tapeworms have always interested me. I heard the most interesting story about how they used to get rid of tapeworms in, like, the 1700s or 1800s. And it's so gross!

"How do you solve a problem like Tanaka?"** - You tease it with verbal quips or wise insights. Put the pedal to the metal, divide it by 13.5 and hope that it is small enough to throttle.

"Which do you love more: your bass guitar or my website?" - Both, equally. And with all my heart!

POST SCRIPT
After working on this interview I spoke with Janis on the phone. I asked her about some of her comments, and I giggled like a 13-year-old boy when I expressed many thanks for the pretty pretty photographs in her birthday suit. We cracked up at one of her interpretations of what it's like to be onstage. She thinks she worded it wrong. I told her I didn't know what she meant anyway. She patiently explained it without making me feel dumb. I told her not to worry cuz everyone probably got what she meant, and, I told her, they'll understand that she was pretty drunk at that point in the interview.

I told her that I hate brussel sprouts and the only way I can eat 'em is if I dip 'em in mustard. And she said, "Why do you eat things you don't like?" I was speechless.

And, that's Janis.

Here are some websites where you can be kept updated on all things JJJJJANIS:

www.smelll7.com (the official L7 site)
www.imusic.com (search: Stone Fox, for their message board!)
www.geocities.com/stonefox_index (a cool fan site!)
www.hammersofmisfortune.com
www.tumult.net (record label for Hammers of Misfortune)
www.fireballministry.com

to hear Our Lady of Napalm:
www.mp3.com (search Our Lady of Napalm) DUH!


*question devised by Sean of Impaled
**question devised by Yvette 'YY' Douglass of Stone Fox fame!