Sneha Girap (Editor)

Jeff Ott

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Instruments
  
Guitar, vocals

Role
  
Musician

Labels
  
Lookout!

Genres
  

Record label
  
Lookout Records

Name
  
Jeff Ott

Jeff Ott wwwpunknewsorgimagesbandsjeffott1354901686jpg

Born
  
June 18, 1970 (age 53) Berkeley, California (
1970-06-18
)

Occupation(s)
  
Singer, author, activist, musician

People also search for
  
Aaron Cometbus, Pete Rypins, Amanda Ketchum, Mark Moreno, Paul Curran, Tom Moreno

Albums
  
Epithysial Union, The Choice of a New Generation, Swain's First Bike Ride, The Sound of a New World Bei, Duct Tape Soup

Associated acts
  
Music groups
  
Fifteen, Crimpshrine

Jeff ott and lucky dog 1992 acoustic demos full


Jeff Ott (born June 24, 1970) is an activist, musician, author, and longtime member of the Berkeley punk community, best known for playing guitar and singing in the bands Crimpshrine, and Fifteen.

Contents

Jeff Ott Interview Jeff Ott Fifteen Crimpshine talks life punk

Fifteen jeff ott and lucky dog petroleum distillation acoustic


Early life

Jeff Ott Jeff Ott quotFucked Up Kidquot YouTube

Ott was born on 1970 in Berkeley, California and began playing music at the age of four. He was physically and sexually abused as a child and ran away from home at the age of 13. Ott became a gutter punk, living on the streets of Berkeley for 11 years.

Crimpshrine: 1982-1989

Ott joined his first band, S.A.G., in 1982 at age 12. His 13-year-old friends Aaron Cometbus and Jesse Michaels (later of Operation Ivy) played guitar and sang. Ott started out on drums but soon swapped instruments with Cometbus. Michaels described Ott as "twenty times better than us", and Ott admits that he "didn't know any chords, so I played with my thumb." When Michaels left the group in 1984 Ott took up vocals and the band changed its name to Crimpshrine, derived from a nickname for a girl they knew who had "bleached-blond, burned, crimped hair." As the group developed, Ott began experimenting with playing synthesizer and piano, until joined by bassist Pete Rypins in October 1986 and began gigging locally. Ott was often asked if he was a fan of early Belfast punk group Stiff Little Fingers because of his rough vocal style, but neither he nor the other members of Crimpshrine had heard the Northern Irish band until after the ongoing comparisons.

Jeff Ott Jeff Ott quotFood Not Bombsquot YouTube

In 1987 Crimpshrine made a demo tape, contributed songs to Maximumrocknroll's Turn It Around!compilation, and recorded their debut EP Sleep, What's That?, released in early 1988 on the newly founded label Lookout! Records. The album Lame Gig Contest followed, released in Europe on Germany's Musical Tragedies label. Though unreleased in the U.S., L.A. Weekly would name it one of the top five top albums of pre-vommercial pop punk.

Jeff Ott Will Work for Diapers Jeff Ott Of FifteenJeff Ott

In the fall of 88 Crimpshrine embarked on their sole U.S. tour. Halfway through, Bryant and Rypins left, stranding Ott and Cometbus in Florida. Members of Screeching Weasel drove out from Chicago to help them finish their tour. When Crimprshrine returned to the Bay Area, Paul Curran joined on bass and they recorded one final EP before disbanding in 1989.

Fifteen: 1989-2000

With Curran, Ott formed a new group called Fifteen, who went on to record two LPs for Lookout! Records and several more on a few smaller labels. For Fifteen, Ott changed his singing style drastically in order to save his voice. The group went through many lineup changes before breaking up in 1996, and then reformed in 1997, only to break up again in 2000.

Solo career and after: 2000-present

Toward the end of Fifteen, Ott released the 1998 solo acoustic album, Epithysial Union, which also featured songs by Amanda Ketchum (billed only as "Amanda'"). In 2000 Ott sold everything he had to buy a house and support his children. He pursued a solo career for several years, releasing the double album, Will Work for Diapers in 2003. In 2003 he entered nursing school and went on to train as a nurse practitioner. In 2007 he stopped recording music in order to devote more time to his studies. In December 2011 his band Fifteen reunited to play two Bay Area benefit shows. He now is a nurse and is helping drug addicts.

Writing

Ott's politically charged lyrics tackle issues such as racism, homophobia, misogyny, classism, drug abuse, needle exchange, civil rights, gender roles, homelessness, addiction, environmentalism, social injustice, political conspiracy, and rape. His solo work uses many of the same songs and lyrical themes as his rock-band work.

He has also published two books: 2000's My World: Ramblings of an Aging Gutter Punk (ISBN 0-9677287-0-3) consists of excerpts from his self-published zine of the same name, and 2005's Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Real War on Terror (ISBN 0-9677287-1-1), focusing on domestic violence, police brutality, sexual abuse, and how he sees these issues as more urgent and credible than the War on Terror. Both books were published by Sub City Records.

References

Jeff Ott Wikipedia