John Tkacik

John Tkacik (born April 15, 1961 in Worcester, MA) was an experimental artist, writer, and musician best known as the bass player for the American skatecore band Crash Course. A pioneer and singular influence in the New England underground music scene, Tkacik (pronounced kay-sick) was the bass player of several early hardcore punk bands, including Pig Iron in 1983, and Crash Course in 1984 on Cape Cod, MA. Briefly sponsored by Zorlac/Airwalk, the band was promoted by a local skateboard shop who funded the recording of their 27-track debut. The band played frequently for years, touring in a borrowed school bus or their renovated 1960s ambulance, including epics shows with The Freeze, The F.U.s, Beefeater, Gang Green, Lost Prophets, Verbal Assault, The Outpatients, Th’Inbred, Vicious Circle, Toxic Reasons, Seizure, Strange Flesh, The Loud Ones, and many others at classic N.E. punk venues like The Channel, The Living Room, The Rat, Lupo’s, Club Rocket, the Cage, Anthrax, and Laconia Bike Week. Crash Course released three cassettes on guitarist John Santos’ Hellcore/Landlubber Records: “Pilgrimage to Hell” 1995, “The End” 1986, and “Live” in 1991, selling most via mail order through reviews and ads in zines like Maximum Rock n Roll and Suburban Voice. The Whore Moans catalog is comprised of a series of five cassette releases, plus an interim album titled Psychedelia Vapor Christ or P.V.C. During a prolific 10 year creative outburst, Tkacik wrote and recorded hundreds of songs in a broad range of styles, and played many shows, including a regular slot at Providence art space AS220 in the late 80s. He independently published their music in a cassette series recorded and produced with drummer David Silver, with hand-painted labels created after nightly band practice, and was creator the fanzine “American Defense of Justice”, printing and distributing several issues with reviews and interviews of regional punk bands and art by underground alternative artists. His writing turned toward political folk music during the 1990s, under multiple band names including Beautiful Child and Rack. In the early-90s, Tkacik came out as transgender and gender fluid, at times changing her name to Jana, continuing to write acoustic guitar music and working at a San Francisco clinic as an activist and advocate for HIV patients in need to medical marijuana before it was legalized. In 1993-94, Tkacik reunited with Pig Iron members John and Pete Santos (Antibodies) and returned to playing bass for the punk rock band Glass Cross, which sadly was never released. An avid traveller, Tkacik spent time between Cape Cod, Boston, Los Angeles, and New Mexico and spent a number of years in San Francisco. She died suddenly in S.F., CA on Saturday, October 29, 2005. Tkacik is survived by family members in MA and many friends and fans in the area.