Bulimia Banquet was an American punk band with members from

Downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) is the central business district of the city of Los Angeles. It is part of the Central Los Angeles region and covers a area. As of 2020, it contains over 500,000 jobs and has a population of roughly 85,000 residents ...

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

, Hermosa Beach, and

El Segundo, California El Segundo ( , ; ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located on Santa Monica Bay, it was incorporated on January 18, 1917, and is part of the South Bay Cities Council of Governments. The population was 17,272 as of t ...

, United States. They formed in 1986. Fronted by guitarist Ingrid Baumgart and bassist Jula Bell, the band is regarded as one of the forerunners of the

riot grrrl Riot grrrl is an underground feminist punk movement that began during the early 1990s within the United States in Olympia, Washington, and the greater Pacific Northwest, and has expanded to at least 26 other countries. A subcultural movement ...

movement of the 1990s. The band released two albums and disbanded in 1991.

History

Formation

Bulimia Banquet traces its roots to an earlier band, Minions of Parody, which existed in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

in 1985.Al Kowalewski and Joe Henderson, "Bulimia Banquet," ''Flipside,'' whole no. 52 (Spring 1987), pp. 6-7. The band featured two future members of Bulimia Banquet — bassist and vocalist Jula Bell and guitarist Alan Hansford. Bell, an opera aficionado who studied the musical form at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

and

USC USC may refer to: Education United States * Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, Santurce, Puerto Rico * University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina ** University of South Carolina System, a state university system of South Carolina * ...

, began playing informally with guitarist Ingrid Baumgart. When another guitarist and drummer was needed, the duo called upon Hansford and Greg Cameron (SWA). The band Bulimia Banquet was born in 1986. They then had Nick Passiglia (Nip Drivers) playing drums for a few gigs, until they hired Jason Greenwood to play drums. Greenwood was formerly of the San Francisco band Playing Under the Influence and was only 15 when he joined the band Bulimia Banquet's lyrics were primarily written by its female vocalists, Baumgart and Bell, with all members of the band contributing to the writing of original music.

Musical importance

Bulimia Banquet is recognized for pioneering the

movement of the 1990s, and is featured in a 1995 documentary film by

Lisa Rose Apramian Lisa Rose Apramian (), also known as Dr. Lisa, is an Armenian-American psychologist and filmmaker most notable as the director, writer, and producer of the Documentary film, documentary film ''Not Bad for a Girl''. Career Apramian studied at t ...

, ''

Not Bad for a Girl ''Not Bad for a Girl'' is a documentary on women musicians of the 1990s from the indie rock music genre grunge and riot grrrl and celebrates madness, creativity, and gender play. It was written, directed, produced and shot by rock phenomenologist ...

''. The band played an intense style, which it described in a 1987 '' Flipside'' interview as "silly, fast, rockin', wild." The band was dismissive of all-women bands that took a soft, melodic pop approach, as band leader Jula Bell noted:

"Stupid, feathery girl bands — I hate that. We've seen all of that. I don't want people looking at me for my body, looking at me going, 'Look at that, I want to fuck that.' I'm not up there for that.... It's not right. If we want an egalitarian world you gotta be androgynous.... I'm not talking about the new wave
androgyny Androgyny is the possession of both masculine and feminine characteristics. Androgyny may be expressed with regard to Sex, biological sex or gender expression. When ''androgyny'' refers to mixed biological sex characteristics in humans, it oft ...
, I'm talking girls are tough, and guys...can be feminine. There's a balance."

Other personnel

Mia Ferraro, Dez Cadena, Steve Drojensky, and Travis Johnson were also in the band for a period of time.

Break up and later projects

Bulimia Banquet released two albums, a single, and tracks for compilation albums. The band's final release appeared in 1991. Jula Bell has been featured in a number of other local bands including Nip Drivers, Bobsled, and Marc Spitz Freestyle. She has done punk rock autoharp solo gigs and has also played autoharp in the L.A. based rock group, Miss Derringer. Ingrid Baumgart was in the all female punk band, Raszebrae and Malicious Grind. Bell was featured singing with

Devo Devo is an American new wave band from Akron, Ohio, formed in 1973. Their classic line-up consisted of two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs ( Mark and Bob) and the Casales (Gerald and Bob), along with Alan Myers. The band had a No. 14 ...

in the ''

Tank Girl Tank Girl is a British comic created by Alan Martin (writer), Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett. It first appeared in print in 1988 in the British comics magazine ''Deadline (magazine), Deadline'', and then in the solo comic book series ''Tank Girl' ...

'' film in 1995, in the opening sequence song "

Girl U Want "Girl U Want" is a 1980 single by American new wave band Devo. It was the first single released from their third studio album, ''Freedom of Choice'' (1980). Composition "Girl U Want" was allegedly inspired by the song " My Sharona" by the Knack ...

". Jason Greenwood was also in the T.V.T.V's (Flipside Records) and Punk Rock Vato's with Jamie Pina (Chemical People), Pat Hoed (aka. Adam Bomb), and Rick Agnew (the Adolescents, Christian Death). In June 2018, Greenwood died of a drug overdose at the age of 46.

Discography

Albums

* ''Eat Fats, Die Young'' (1986, Flipside Records) * ''Party My Colon'' (1989, Flipside Records)

7-inch vinyl

* ''Curse Me'' 7" (1991, Piece of Mind)

Compilations

* ''Flipside Vinyl Fanzine'' (1987, Flipside Records) * '' Gabba Gabba Hey - A Tribute to the Ramones'' - (1991,

Triple X Records Triple X Records was a Los Angeles-based record company started by three former employees of the bankrupt Greenworld Distribution: Dean Naleway, Peter Heur and Charley Brown. The label was known for "a fearlessly eclectic catalogue that broke awa ...

) * ''Welcome to our Nightmare"- A Tribute to Alice Cooper -

Videos

Dine or Die

References

External links

Bulimia Banquet
on Last FM
Jula Bell
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bulimia Banquet Punk rock groups from California Musical groups established in 1986 Musical groups disestablished in 1991