The Avon Ladies Bear (Logo Power #8)

It's certainly been a minute since I've posted one of these, so without any more "ado" let's get to discussing a band who, for my money, should've gotten a lot more hype than they did. Actually...we're just going to discuss that little bear up there.

I'm sure other artists have meddled with the idea of Jerry Garcia's psychedelic peace-bears, trying to toss their whole rose-colored ideology on its head. Maybe they've placed a joint or crack pipe into their furry, out-stretched paws or carved a swazi into their foreheads. (60's shit = Manson shit, funny story. The only time my Mom ever asked me to turn my music off was once when I was in high school. I was listening to Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit." She burst through the door, told me she didn't like it because it reminded her of all the worst parts of 60's culture and shut the door again.)

I'm not saying the A-Ladies were the first in their class to mess with the 'Dead bear. I am saying that I fell in love with them when I first saw their 7" cover of their Guns and Gold 7", which featured these cute little guys carrying machine guns and just looking badass. This is actually from an ad in Bloody Ways fanzine, posted for my own joy in seeing the machine gun that's been replaced by the ever-more-comical stick o' dynamite. This bear absolutely doesn't care about you or your commie political movement or your effort to rid the internet of (buzzword)-phobia. He's been around the block for far longer than you have. He knows rock n' roll. He was probably at altamont, gleefully cackling when a parkful of unknowing saps played witness to a hellish gangland murder as Mick n' Keith warbled on about banging prepubescents and such. When Sid n' Johnny cursed on Bill Grundy's TV show, he was feeding them their lines and when the last quivering vestige of anything remotely resembling a real-deal guitar GAWD got shot in the face at an Ohio rock club (Dimebag, RIP) this guy wasn't crying.

The guns are gone, only to be replaced by cartoonish explosives, rudimentary in design, but still indicative of one immediate truth: this is a suicide mission. Rock n' roll has been munching on its tail since Dylan went electric and there's no more sand in this etch-a-sketch.

(Editor's note: The Avon Ladies are [by my estimation] broken up. Thank jah for an internet that keeps every stinking thing around. There's a demo tape, a 7" a split with Tempe SS and some other bits and pieces floating around.)