- Penelope Houston
Penelope Houston (born
December 17 ,1958 inLos Angeles ,California ) is an Americansinger-songwriter and singer for theSan Francisco -basedpunk rock band The Avengers. She was born in L.A. and raised in Seattle. In the mid-1970s she attended Fairhaven College in Bellingham, Washington.Fact|date=August 2007 In 1977, Houston moved to San Francisco, attended the San Francisco Art Institute and shortly thereafter became the lead singer and songwriter for the Avengers. The Avengers released only one posthumous album, their eponymous debut in 1983. The album is now out of print, although two retrospective collections have been released.Following the group's demise in 1979,
Houston moved first toLos Angeles to work in film and video withThe Screamers and directorRene Daalder , then to England where she collaborated withHoward Devoto on his post-Magazine projects. In the mid 1980's, she returned to San Francisco and helped originate the west coast neo-folk movement. By 1996 she had toured Europe extensively, signed with WEA Germany (Warner Brothers) and earned numerous awards with the dozen albums, which blended influences of punk, folk, rock, blues and Americana into her dark unique acoustic sound.Her first full-length album was "Birdboys" which came out in 1987. Her most recent album is 2004's "The Pale Green Girl".
Shortly after the release of "Pale Green Girl", Houston and original guitarist Greg Ingraham recreated the Avengers, adding bassist Joel Reader (formerly of
The Mr. T Experience , and the Plus Ones) and drummer Luis Illades (ofPansy Division , formerly also of the Plus Ones) to round out the lineup. Since the spring of 2004 she has toured the U.S. and Europe with this lineup. She continues to play her solo material, mainly in the San Francisco area.Discography
External links
* [http://www.penelope.net official Penelope Houston/Avengers site]
* [http://www.myspace.com/penelopehouston Penelope Houston Myspace page]
* [http://www.music-city.org/Penelope-Houston/discography/ Penelope Houston discography]
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