Poor Girls video from the Lee Paris/PCHA benefit show – Houston Hall, U of Penn 05/03/86
In 1982, Ricky Lee and an Indiana friend, Kenny O. Williams, founded Poor Girls as an artistic tribal collective, as prolific with paintbrushes as with beatnik punk songwriting. Playing frequently at Tewligans, the Beat clubs and the few other Louisville venues available, Poor Girls became focused as a 4-piece rock outfit, releasing one cassette and one album of unique tunes, recorded at Jeff Carpenter’s Real to Reel studios. In addition to Ricky Lee’s bass and Kenny O.’s vocals, Chuk Baxter (that’s me) played guitar and Barry Stucker drummed. Other occasional participants in the noise included Roea Wallace on pots, pans & kitchen chairs, and Pierre Vendette on sax. The group moved to Philadelphia in 1985 seeking East Coast opportunities and an eventual chance to go play Amsterdam. The band shared stages with groups as diverse as the quirky Violent Femmes and the hard-rocking UK Subs and Big Black. Unfortunately, Poor Girls left another recording project unfinished and unmixed in Philly when they broke up in late 1986. From Louisville Music News site
For a few years I was working on this Philly Punk gigography covering the years 1977-1987. I cut off at 1987 because the music diversified so much after that that I thought it would be too much plus, I moved in one direction while others moved in another direction even though all the music could be considered Punk in some form at least. I haven’t been able to finish it because of Covid and the library being closed for a while and also, I wasn’t able to pay for newspapers.com the last several years. Most of what I have listed is from old flyer, fanzines, websites and newspapers. I only did newspaper research for Hot Club and other venues up to summer 1978. So, there is two years of research needed between summer 1978 and 1980. And, then for Omni’s and Ripley’s in the early 1980s. I also added the pre-Punk stuff from Stooges, MC5, New York Dolls, Velvet Underground/Lou Reed, Patti Smith and a few choice others like Hawkwind with Lemmy and Roxy Music that I thought were good influences for Punk.
Please feel free to use it and add to it for the good of all and the history of Philadelphia. If you have any additions, corrections, etc please edit this shared google doc version or email FreedomHasNoNounds@gmail.com.
Caterpillar was one of my favorite local bands in the 90s – I was hooked after hearing the title track off the Bus 6 7 inch. This is a demo tape without a lot of info on it but I assume it was before that 7inch and the previous one Velvet Ears.
The lineup of the band was:
Bass – Brenda DeFeo
Drums – Jack McInerney
Guitar – Dennis Davis
Guitar, Vocals – Mike Lenert
The Eddie Beinlich tapes. Eddie thinks the LMNOP (who later became Doctor Bombay) tape is from their first ever practice. The Deliriants practice is one of their early ones probably before they played any shows and even decided on a band name. The Bill + Mark tape is a mystery. Eddie cannot remember why he has it and doesn’t play on it as far as he remembers. It’s on the a-side of the Deliriants practice tape and I think it is really good.
To the best of my knowledge all of the music links are for recordings that are out of print but if you enjoy what you hear, buy other records and support the artist(s) and/or labels: if you don't approve of having your material displayed and would like to have it down...
Email Me @