See Also: - Dan Fong's previously unpublished rock photos on display - MasterMind: Sarah Slater, founder, Titwrench - Wax Trax celebrating 33 1/3 birthday in April
The BagsServing as the world's introduction to Alice Bag, The Bags made its debut at The Masque in Hollywood in1977. Co-founded by friend Pat Bag (Patricia Rainone, later Patricia Morrison of Sisters of Mercy, The Damned and The Gun Club), the women took gender completely out of the performance equation by playing with paper bags over their heads. The Bags would go on to make music together for less than half a decade, but Alice persevered in bands like Castration Squad, The Boneheads, Alarma, Cambridge Apostles, Swing Set, Cholita -- the Female Menudo, Las Tres, Goddess 13 and Stay At Home Bomb.
In Penelope Spheeris' 1981 documentary The Decline of Western Civilization, The Bags stand out as not only one of the few female-incorporating acts of the era, but possibly the most fearless in the pursuit of creating a well-informed ruckus.
Educator and Chicana activist Growing up in a Spanish-only speaking household, Bag would encounter resistance and discrimination from an English-only education system in Los Angeles. The experience not only informed Bag's later work as a bilingual instructor, but placed her at the forefront of the Chicana punk movement. To this day, Bag continues to be a voice for Mexican-Americans and their roles in the formation of the modern music story.
