The Nuns

Few people in San Francisco were aware of the term “punk rock” when the NUNS formed in the mid ‘70s. Jeff Olener and Alejandro Escovedo were both working on a student film about an inept rock musician while attending the College of Marin. They had no money to pay anyone to portray his band, so they decided to do it themselves. Olener and Escovedo came up with songs influenced by the STOOGES, the ROLLING STONES, and the VELVET UNDERGROUND and kept at it when they liked the results. Eighteen-year-old Jennifer Miro soon joined the band as their keyboardist. She discovered this strange new band practicing their weird songs at the same rehearsal space she went to and promptly walked out on the Top 40 cover band she had been playing in, which Miro once described as “one of the worst experiences of my life.”

They began playing live in January of 1976, but had difficulty finding regular places to play.

San Francisco’s glory days had passed, leaving a stagnant music scene and scant venues that were open to new bands. One show was booked at McGowan’s Tavern in Fisherman’s Wharf, but the bar staff had the NUNS ejected before they had a chance to play. Olener noticed fliers for a burlesque event happening at a Filipino nightclub in San Francisco’s North Beach district and talked the owner into allowing the NUNS to put on a show there—the first punk show at the Mabuhay Gardens in December of 1976. They quickly made a name for themselves as a new band with a unique sound and image, a different kind of rock ‘n’ roll than the older-era bands walking a well-worn path. Other new bands with similarly interesting ideas like CRIME and the AVENGERS also began playing at the Mabuhay, inspiring what became the Bay Area punk rock scene.

CBS briefly showed interest in the NUNS, sending them into the studio for a demo session in 1977. Although CBS inexplicably failed to see the mainstream appeal of songs like “Child Molester” and “Decadent Jew,” the studio time produced what is arguably their best recording. Alejandro’s guitar sounds particularly raw and nasty here. Individual tracks circulated throughout tape trader circles for years until a bootleg LP surfaced in 2017 documenting the entire 13-song session.

The Nuns at the Winterland Ballroom, January 14, 1978

Bill Graham also took notice of the NUNS, including them in the opening lineup when booking the SEX PISTOLS to play at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom in January of 1978. Although the NUNS had been around longer and were a bigger local draw, Graham scheduled them to play before the AVENGERS. NUNS bassist Pat Ryan described the show as “an ugly night” while Jeff Olener said that it was the most fun show he had ever played. 1978 also saw the NUNS make their vinyl debut with a three-song EP recorded live at the Keystone in Palo Alto, attracting Bill Graham’s attention once again. This time it was because Graham found the song “Decadent Jew” so offensive that he ordered hundreds of copies of the single purchased and destroyed before attempting to have the NUNS banned from playing anywhere in San Francisco. Despite Graham’s smear campaign, his reach did not extend to the Mabuhay where the NUNS reigned supreme as one of the punk scene’s top draws.

"The Nazis gassed me; burnt me too. Sterilized me, beat me black and blue 'cause I'm a Decadent Jew! Own all the projects on 101st Avenue; I hate the niggers and the Puerto Ricans too 'cause I'm a Decadent Jew! Hey, you Israelites! This Jew ain't about to fight! Screw you, 'cause I'm a Decadent Jew! The Nazis gassed me; burnt me too. Crucified me, beat me black and blue 'cause I'm a Decadent Jew!"

However, the NUNS would call it quits while on a 1979 tour in New York City. Alejandro Escovedo decided to stay in the Big Apple and move into the infamous Chelsea Hotel; eventually relocating to Austin and starting the cowpunk outfit RANK & FILE with Chip & Tony Kinman of the DILS. Everyone else went back to San Francisco, hastily reassembling themselves for long enough to record their LP in 1980. Pat Ryan handles the guitar duty in Alejandro’s place, which lacks the raw rock ‘n’ roll edge of the CBS demos. Robbie Fields’ production allows Jennifer Miro’s electric organ to drive the songs instead, making the NUNS sound like a much different band than what the Mabuhay faithful would have expected. That said; it is still a very good album when taken on its own synth punk/proto-death rock merits.

Subsequent NUNS reunions saw the band go in a more goth/industrial direction as members departed to leave only Miro and Jeff Olener remaining from the original lineup by the early ‘90s. Their final release, 2003’s New York Vampires CD, concludes with an industrialized cover of the KISS classic “Christine Sixteen.” Would the NUNS have entertained that notion back in 1978?