Enter Naomi – SST, L.A. And All That… – Joe Carducci

Redoubt Press, P.O. Box 276, Centennial, Wyoming 82055, Usa

To say I knew Naomi would be wrong, if I remember correctly I met her very brief in the early eighties in Munich and probably again 1990 in the same city „Saw Tomasso and went up and said Hi to him and some other guy who remembered me but I didn’t really remember him.“ – from her European Travel Journal, documented as facsimile in the book.

The author, Joe Carducci, might still be known to some folks when he was working for the label ssT Records in Los Angeles. Naomi Petersen was also working there but is mostly known for her band photographs (Mike Watt, Henry Rollins, Bad Brains, Screaming Trees, Nirvana to just name a few). As most other people, Joe found only out about her death in May 2005, when the word spread at the premiere of the Minutemen documentary „We Jam Econo“ that Naomi died 2 years earlier in a D.C. area motel room.

His planned e-mail death notice turned into this book, which places her life, from the birth in Yokohama to her death 38 years later, in the context of those wreckless punk years. The + 250 pages (paperback) are mainly storys about her, Los Angeles and ssT Records, it is quiet a rollercoaster ride you get: names and places are thrown in and around – for „outsiders“ it might be a bit hard to follow or even understand. But it gives a very good picture of the scene back then and of course of the life of Naomi. Carducci digs deep in his research about her and manages to portrait her very well for people who did not know her.

And while the main focus, or the motivation behind the book is clearly on Petersen, it is not only about her. The reader learns a lot about the West Coast Music World in the years 1976 to 1986 and beyond. The book also features (not enough) photos that Naomi did as well as photos of her and her friends/family plus personal letters from her and bits and pieces from friends. It is a well researched documentation of Naomi, ssT, L.A. and all that.. (dolf)

24,95 $

Isbn 978-0-9627612-3-2

[Trust # 131 August 2008]