Jeff Ott

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Jeff Ott is an activist, musician, author, and longtime member of the Berkeley punk community, having fronted such seminal bands as Crimpshrine, and Fifteen.

1 Partial history
2 Songwriting
3 Solo music and books
4 Links and organizations
5 External links

[edit] Partial history

At age 12 he started playing music with his friends Jesse Michaels and Aaron Elliot. At the age of 15 Ott first used a needle to intravenously inject methamphetamine, an addiction that followed him for 9 years. Since releasing his first 7" at the age of 17, he has released 27 albums and 7"s under various names/groups. His most noteworthy groups included Crimpshrine and Fifteen, Phallucide, Phone Bill, The Tescoflex 7. As of the year 2000, Ott has been unwilling to consistently sustain a touring. However, he has toured and performed as a solo artist since then, albeit rarely and for limited durations. He is married and has two children and one granddaughter.

[edit] Songwriting

Ott's lyrics are politically influenced and he writes about such controversial subjects as racism, homophobia, misogyny/male supremacy, classism, drug abuse, needle exchange, and civil rights. Other topics frequently the subject of his lyrics include gender roles, homelessness, addiction, environmentalism, social injustice, and conspiracy.

[edit] Solo music and books

Since becoming a solo artist, Ott has traded punk's tearing guitars and rapid tempos for traditional singer/songwriter fare (i.e. a single acoustic guitar). His lyrical content, charged starkly with his removal of drug-use from his life, shedding metaphor almost completely for very literal meanings. His solo work uses many of the same songs and lyrical themes as his rock-band work. Ott has released two albums under his own name: 1998's Epithysial Union, an album also featuring songs by Amanda Ketchum (billed only as 'Amanda'), and 2003's Will Work For Diapers. The latter, his most recent musical work to date. He also published two books. His first book, 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 are mostly discordant ramblings. His 2005 book Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Real War on Terror (ISBN 0-9677287-1-1), focuses 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 are published by Sub City Records, a sub-label of Hopeless Records.