Portland punk rock nonprofit Volume Bomb launches UnMuted program to highlight queer and female-led bands

The punk organization Volume Bomb has been around in one form or another for the last 10 years. It’s been organizing and promoting local punk bands ever since it began — with one neighborhood block party. Volume Bomb’s mission has gradually evolved since then, says co-founder Jason Rocksmore. Last year, they incorporated as a 501(c)(3) to better fulfill their goals of supporting local punk bands. The nonprofit aims to not only organize shows, but also to pay the musicians.

This weekend, Volume Bomb is launching its newest program called UnMuted, highlighting queer and female-led punk bands. Some of those Unmuted bands will be performing this weekend at the first annual Pride at Full Volume show in downtown Portland. Rocksmore joins us, along with UnMuted program director Jamie Lynne Powell-Herbold, to share more about how the organization has grown and what they hope the next 10 years bring.

Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.

Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. The punk organization Volume Bomb has been around in one form or another for about 10 years. It’s been promoting local punk bands from the beginning, but its mission has gradually evolved over the decade. Last year, it was incorporated as a nonprofit. This weekend, it’s launching its newest program. It’s called UnMuted. It’s highlighting queer and female-led punk bands. Some of those bands are performing at the first Pride at Full Volume show in downtown Portland on Saturday.

Jason Rocksmore is a co-founder and the executive director of Volume Bomb. Jamie Lynne Powell-Herbold is the program director of UnMuted. They both join us now. It’s great to have both of you on the show.

Jamie Lynne Powell-Herbold: Thank you.

Jason Rocksmore: Thank you very much. It’s great to be here.

Miller: Jason, first – so as I understand it, this whole operation started with a block party that you and your friends threw in Southeast Portland 10-plus years ago. What was that first party like?

Rocksmore: It was incredible. We basically wanted to throw a show where all of our bands played together and then it kind of grew until we had 20 bands all playing on Foster.

Miller: Was the idea, let’s just have a fun day of music? Or, let’s create a movement?

Rocksmore: It was really just let’s have a fun day of music. Yeah. It was really let’s just get together, have a great time. We all played at disparate venues, but we all wanted to play together and just kind of have a party. So we did.

Miller: How do you go from that to what Volume Bomb has become?

Rocksmore: Man, it’s been a road. I mean, we had so much fun that first year that we decided we wanted to try and do it again the following year. It just grew and got bigger and bigger. Now, the current block party, which is on Hawthorne, is 50 bands on five stages in one day. It’s so much fun. We all look forward to it so much. It’s like punk rock Christmas for us at the end of August every year.

Miller: Jamie Lynne, you’re nodding. What does punk mean to you?

Powell-Herbold: Punk is a very large umbrella, right? Punk is as much an ethos and a cultural movement as anything else. I will go on this rant about how punk is folk music, same with hip hop and rap. It is the music of a people, it is the music of a feeling. Certainly at Volume Bomb, and [for] me in particular, that punk is a big umbrella, right? Yeah, we could list a whole bunch of things that we consider to be punk.

Miller: Jason, what are some of the big ones for you? What falls, for you, under the umbrella?

Rocksmore: It kind of starts with a DIY attitude, right? It’s just, get out there and make the thing happen. Punk rock music has always been that way. It was, “oh, I saw some people who played this amazing music using three chords and volume knobs.”

Miller: Famously, and maybe this has changed now and when genres have become less of prisons, but a response to disco too?

Rocksmore: Oh yeah, totally. Absolutely. To disco and to that whole kind of excessive culture of the ‘70s.

Miller: Glammy rock.

Rocksmore: Yeah, totally long songs. Very, very self-indulgent. I guess all music is self-indulgent to some extent, but it was definitely a response to that.

Miller: Let’s listen to a track from one of the bands that’s going to be playing at a show this Saturday. Then we can hear more about this new project. We’re going to hear a song called “UFO” from the band Creature Party.

[“UFO” by Creature Party playing]

Miller: This is “UFO” by Creature Party. Jamie Lynne, what can you tell us about Creature Party?

Powell-Herbold: What can’t I tell you about Creature Party? [Laughter] I love them very, very much. They actually played at our gala about a month ago that we had to fundraise for this event. They are incredibly colorful. Like, bright patterns on the shirts.

Miller: Literally colorful.

Powell-Herbold: Yes. They have a keytar featured prominently. Just like a little bit of a surf garage feel, but also a little bit of like girl-group, ‘70s, doo-wop feel a little bit. I love them so much.

Miller: Jason, when I was asking you each a little bit about punk, obviously we could spend hours talking about punk, but both of you emphasize that it’s not just about music, that it’s a culture. It’s an ethos, it’s DIY. It’s also sort of anti-establishment that’s about sticking it to the man in some ways. When I think about punk, the first thing I think about is not creating an organization, seeking 501c3 status or becoming sort of official. What have the challenges been over the last 10 years in making an organization around and for groups that are sometimes anti-organization?

Rocksmore: Most of that time we were very much a guerrilla operation. It was just a group of folks kind of throwing these shows together, not really asking a lot of permission, getting venues to give us buy-in … or actually, a lot of the places that we put these shows on aren’t actual venues. They’re just bars.

Miller: So you were acting like punks for most of your existence.

Rocksmore: Oh yeah, totally.

Miller: OK, you can still do that when you’re a 501c3, and you’re an executive director, there’s a nonprofit board – all that stuff which seems so not punk to me.

Rocksmore: I will tell you this, that every time I’m looking at a spreadsheet, it feels the least punk thing I’ve ever thought of in my life. But when I’m on the ground at, for instance, block party, and there’s just all of the faces around everywhere and there’s music blasting from all sides, every face has a smile on it. People are laughing, hugging … it’s just, the feeling is palpable. That’s what it is. That’s what the community is.

Miller: And that’s what makes the spreadsheets worth it.

Rocksmore: That’s what makes it worth it, 100%.

Miller: Jamie Lynne, can you describe the program that you now run? What is UnMuted?

Powell-Herbold: UnMuted is new program for Volume Bomb. Like I said, we had the gala for it a month ago, but our first event is this weekend. An elevator pitch is we are focusing on queer and women-led punk bands in the Pacific Northwest.

Rocksmore: Raising the visibility for…

Powell-Herbold: … and exposure of … And this is part of Volume Bomb’s mission, but while paying them. If we can, like the show on Saturday is outdoors, so it’s free and it’s all ages. So getting not only exposure for the band, but getting access to those bands to as many people as possible. Representation is important, it turns out. So getting both of those things together is the goal both of Volume Bomb and specifically UnMuted.

Miller: Jason, one of the things Jamie Lynne said there is not just representation but also paying them. Ridiculous question to ask, but why is that important?

Rocksmore: Well, so that goes back to kind of the beginning of us doing this. When we first put it together, and the reason we kind of decided to become a 501c3, is because we realized that what we were doing was we’d put on a show. Charge as little as possible at the door so that we could get as many people able to come as possible. Take that money, pay all of the bands. For instance, if you have 20, 30, 50 bands, usually on one bill you’re not getting paid at all. You’re just there to be part of the thing, which is great…

Miller: Because if the audience is not paying that much and you divide not much by 50, you have very, very little.

Rocksmore: Yeah. But we luckily have had enough people at these shows to where we’re able to pay the bands well. And that became part of the whole thing, because bands play often for no money or they spend money to play a show. I mean, we did that just recently. So that was definitely a big part of what we want to do is make sure that artists are getting paid fairly for what they’re doing.

Miller: Let’s listen to part of another song from one of the bands that’s gonna be playing on Saturday at Ankeny Alley Plaza in Portland. We’re gonna hear part of “Get Sick of Me” by the band New Here.

[“Get Sick of Me” by New Here playing]

I know you’ll be done with me

Eventually

I always lose my luster

You deserve a love song

But I’m way too anxious

I’m too self centered

And these days you look at me so much

And I can’t just let myself enjoy a [beep] crush…

I say your eyes look sad

You say they always have…

[Song fades]

Miller: This is “Get Sick of Me” by the punk band New Here. They’re performing this Saturday in downtown Portland as part of Volume Bomb’s new UnMuted program, highlighting the work of queer and female-led bands. Jamie Lynne, who is New Here?

Powell-Herbold: New Here is a bit new to me, but I get to see them on Saturday and I’m very, very excited. Especially the intro of the song that we just heard is much more of an indie rock vibe than a punk vibe. But you can kind of hear it under us, but it gets a little more hard and definitely some of their aesthetic on their other songs is more punk even though they might be acoustic. One of my favorite things about them is that they self-describe as “queer and sincere.”

Miller: Jason, we’ve had a whole series of conversations this week – and we’re going to continue them tomorrow – about the 250th anniversary, the birth of our country. This big concert is happening on July 4th. What does it mean to you to have this concert on that particular day?

Rocksmore: This may be a less than satisfying answer, but it really doesn’t.

Miller: It means nothing to you?

Rocksmore: It really doesn’t. This for us exists kind of outside of that. In fact, we really were trying to kind of separate from the idea of “the 4th of July.” Generally, when we talk about it, [we] talk about it as just on July 4th.

Miller: This is not programming or counterprogramming. This exists in an alternate universe where July 4th is not July 4th.

Rocksmore: A little bit. I mean, again, most of these musicians and most of these songs, the subject matter is pretty anti-government, anti-establishment. Again, with everything going on and some of the things that you were talking about with your previous guests, we’re honestly really not trying to celebrate in that way.

Miller: We’re gonna hear a little bit of one more song. It’s from Altar Girl. It’s called “Anthropocene.” Jamie Lynne, what should we know about Altar Girl?

Powell-Herbold: Oh, this one’s Jason’s.

Rocksmore. Well, we love Altar Girl. Apparently Portland loves Altar Girl. They were Willamette Week’s number one new band in Portland last month, which is pretty rad. Four amazingly talented women that play just really, really awesome rock and roll.

Miller: Let’s have a listen. This is “Anthropocene.”

[“Anthroprocene” by Altar Girl playing]

flames lick the heels of

the forests where we used to play

so still and so serene,

now it’s ashes to the breeze

no time for alarm.

fan the flames to make the rent

salvation will be handed down

from a gilded room with

a monied man, who will catch us in

his diamond hands

with his piss drinking frown,

we all fall down

you can’t just stand there holding your breath,

as the soil’s falling over our heads…

[Song fades]

Miller: This is “Anthropocene” by Altar Girl, one of the bands performing this weekend. Jamie Lynne, how would you like to see Volume Bomb expand over the next 10 years?

Powell-Herbold: My background is theater. So I come from nonprofits. I come from, you can’t pay for the show with the tickets that you sell, that kind of thing. I actually think that there are a few things more punk rock than nonprofits. If we have to live in the system, we might as well work the system to our advantage.

I am dreaming big and I feel a little bit like I’m teaching Jason to dream big. I want an education program. I want workshops where people learn how to comport themselves well at a show. How to repair drum kits for very little money. Anything to increase access of young or old musicians that want to get into the punk scene.

And sure, UnMuted is focusing on the queer and the women, but I wouldn’t mind seeing all of that for Volume Bomb. I have dreams that we might one day own rehearsal space, because rehearsal space in this town is so hard to find and we could charge very little money, yeah.

Miller: Jamie Lynne Powell-Herbold and Jason Rocksmore, thanks so much for coming in.

Rocksmore: Thank you very much. It’s been great.

Powell-Herbold: Thank you.

Miller: Jason Rocksmore is the co-founder, now executive director of the nonprofit Volume Bomb. Jamie Lynne Powell-Herbold is the program director of one of Volume Bomb’s new programs – it’s called UnMuted. Again, they’re having a concert in Portland, Ankeny Alley this weekend on Saturday.

“Think Out Loud®” broadcasts live at noon every day and rebroadcasts at 8 p.m.

If you’d like to comment on any of the topics in this show or suggest a topic of your own, please get in touch with us on Facebook, send an email to thinkoutloud@opb.org, or you can leave a voicemail for us at 503-293-1983.