Punkhouse Oakland, the Podcast is an outgrowth of the instagram Elizabeth Whitney started during the pandemic, sharing photos of the many people she'd lived with in 20 years in a punkhouse. She invited everyone to share their photos, one tag led to another, and before long there were 6,000 followers and a huge backlog of photos to share.
This podcast is a series of conversations with people in, and adjacent to, the punk scene in the Bay Area in the 80s and 90s. We explore the stories behind those photos, and dive deeper into who we were, how we found each other, and what it means in our current lives.
Elizabeth Whitney - Producer, Interviewer. Erin Yanke - Editor.
Episode Six: Nickie Tilsner
Nickie grew up in San Francisco and spent most of her teen years in the East Bay in the 90s. Shes a mom to a rad 19 year old, a nurse, harm reductionist, and community based researcher. Shes been living in Portland for the last several years and is so stoked to be moving back to Oakland in April to be closer to her chosen family and the community that shaped her.
Episode Seven: Nick Popovic
Hi My name is Nicki Popovic
I am 58 years old and have lived in the Bay area for most of my life. I’ve lived in the east Bay since 1988. I lived in the house on the street of 57 & Genoa. Now the house Is a Dom house called the Gates.
I lived in many Punk House holds I Hold dearly to my Heart. I would never ask different of my life style all the Spiritual Knowledge & wisdom I have learned from living in Punk Houses amongst beautiful friends & people that came & gone That are alive with us & Now Gone Past away I hold Deeply those charities moments to my Heart & Spirit
Something that was so special in the 90s in The East Bay Punk Houses scene I am ever so Great full to have been so much apart of growing up from my teens to my adult hood now in my 50s I am 58 going Strong healthier then I ever was been Sober no Alcohol for 7 years I still dabble in psychedelics in Spiritual practice.
We were so alive with everyone & everything it was all like the Energy of ecstasy of the extrema of creativity & Loving Each other & Sharing the loving Bond that we had for Each other & there Growths making sure we were all Alive & doing Ok In our House holds & The Eastbay Punk community
Now I am a spiritual practitioner in the Pagan community I still Live Love & thrive for that Wild nature in The Magical Pagan community. More the Same but Healthier environment.
I still live in the East Bay & go to shows see Friends on a daily basis just different we are all grown up Made families different paths Spiritually & raising children in there families.
The Best times of my Life. Would not ask for anything different.
Episode Six: Chiyo Nukaga
Chiyo Nukaga played drums in Noothgrush and had a weekly radio show on 89.7fm KFJC called The Dark Side with Leia Organa when she moved into The Compound. She started to do art modeling at the Academy of Art in SF in February, 1998. She enjoyed her time at the Compound a lot but later got an apartment in Berkeley in 1999 on Ashby Ave with George Rice who was in High on Fire at the time. They had some good parties there and had some good friends’ bands stay there on their tours as well. She got a second job at the Berkeley Bowl to supplement the art modeling income and met her husband Rick from the Enemies there.
She really enjoyed her time at the various punk house/apartments and feel lucky to have had such nice roommates. It was always fun to cook and clean with them as well as party and relax. She always felt like they were family. To this day she is still in contact with almost all of her former roommates.
The way we lived in the 90’s shaped who she is today and how she still lives her life. She still lives in Oakland and near Mac Arthur Blvd & every time she sees the street sign she thinks of the Compound and she loves it.
Episode Five: Ben Sizemore
Ben Sizemore moved from Little Rock to Oakland in 1989 with his band, Econochrist, and other friends. This pack of new arrivals established Little Arkansas, an infamous punk house that was around for many years. Ben also lived at 3240 Adeline Street in South Berkeley, a grimy multi-apartment punk compound that featured a revolving cast of characters, including members of Neurosis, Rancid, Dead and Gone, Alkaline Trio, El Dopa, Born Against, and a grumpy old man named Stan.
He has worked for many years as a union organizer and representative. He lives in Oakland and still goes to an inordinate number of punk shows
Episode Four: Ravi Durbeej
Ravi Durbeej was born in Georgetown, Guyana, grew up in Queens, NYC, and went to high school in Ft. Lauderdale before moving to Berkeley, Ca. the summer of 1995.
The first record he bought was the 'Heart of Glass' single by Blondie in first grade and after buying the 'Let's Go Crazy' single by Prince in fourth grade, he proudly told his parents he was going to play Rock and Roll. As confused first-generation Indian immigrants, they acquiesced and enrolled him in clarinet lessons and math team later that year.
In Oakland he lived at the Chevron Station on 55th & MLK, the M&A Laundromat, the garage of the 54th St. House, and the Vallejo St. House to name a few.
He currently lives in San Francisco and plays music every day.
Episode Three: Janelle Blarg
Janelle Blarg (also known as Janelle Hessig) is a Bay Area writer, cartoonist, and multimedia humorist.
In 1990, while other bad kids were making secret bongs in her high school Crafts class, she made her first publication, Tales of Blarg, which became a definitive and influential East Bay punk fanzine.
Her writing and mostly-autobiographical comics can be found in numerous periodicals and comics anthologies published by Three Rivers Press, Silver Sprocket, KQED, Popula, Maximum RocknRoll, and Vice, though she always holds a special place for the xeroxed and ephemeral.
She’s been a touring drummer, a pop culture journalist, the subject of a seminal riot grrrl album, and the Marketing Director for San Francisco publisher Last Gasp.
She currently lives in Oakland.
Episode Two: Anna Brown
Anna Brown, Berkeley Punk from way back, has lived in many punk houses including Fairview and The Grimple House.
She recently edited a book of Murray Bowles’ photography called Hail Murry.
Episode One: Zebediah Gammack
Zeb was born on a hippy commune in the mountains of Colorado and grew up all over the country. He started playing in punk bands his senior year. His first real band was Cirrhosis in Minneapolis in 1993 where he moved after high school.
Within about a year he went traveling and met Mikey Matusio and the two formed Black Maggot in Oakland in 1994. The Maggot House was their house on Harper Street in Berkeley. Black Maggot had a few line up changes and then morphed into Skaven in 1995. That year they toured with Dystopia and recorded and released the Skaven/Dystopia split LP. The Compound was born in 1996 and Zeb lived there until 1997. With the break up of Skaven he moved to Berkeley with his girlfriend and out of punk houses for the moment. Also the beginning of an opiate addiction. He moved across the bay to San Francisco in 1999 and then to Bozeman Montana in 2002. He played in several bands in Montana, culminating in forming DemonSteed and playing with them until 2008. They played a reunion show on Halloween Night 2018.
Zeb moved back to Oakland in 2012/13 and met his wife Megan that year. They were married in 2015. Since moving back to Oakland he played in Skarz and now with Vermidax.
He continues to be incredibly good looking and a 100% Rock'n'Roll Werewolf.