nosmallchildren

“Dear Youth”
by No Small Children
I remember the first time I listened to Punk. I liked it. I really did. It exposed me to a new element of musical and artistic appreciation that I hadn’t experienced yet. No Small Children from beat one, grabbed me, threw me on the floor in front of the Marshall half stack, just close enough to the kick drum, opposite the SVT and told me to stay there. That moment was about to happen again. Lisa Parade is a master of her craft. Her songs are honed, heroic and translate with ease. I hope to one day tune into the world of melody she hears on a daily basis. It seems effortless with Nicola B and Joanie Pimentel behind her. Their driving grooves pound the pavement at Bebop like tempos making the trio a force to deal with. “Dear Youth” is fine music made by fine human beings. -JMC 1/3/13 - Jeremy Moses Curtis

No Small Children…..

You gotta love a band which bitch slaps you into submission and No Small Children does just that and more. Lisa Parade emerges from the cloud of smoke better than ever and I could not be more thrilled. Who is this Lisa Parade, you ask? She is in reality one Lisa Joy Pimentel and is former drummer with the legendary all-girl group Heidi which had a shot at major label fame but were tossed aside for one reason or another (like major labels ever need a real reason, the bastards). Not long after that group split, Lisa ended up on the West Coast with a band of her own— The Lisa Parade, a name she adopted as her own. Two excellent albums later— and I do mean excellent— and in spite of the exposure afforded her by placing Beautiful Possibility as the theme for the short-lived Miss Guided TV sitcom, Lisa applied herself to everyday life for a short time before hitting the clubs for the occasional gig with friends and family. Which eventually led to No Small Children.

They are loud and proud, sports fans, and prefer to rawk rather than rock but do both with elan. I knew from the preview track, Wenches and Bitches, that this power trio had the goods but didn’t know until the recent release of their Dear Youth EP how really good they are. Talk about bitch slaps! Dig this!

Women delivering rhythm from our souls

Some people think that we’re wenches, we’re bitches

Livin’ the life though we are kind of old

It might be true that we’re wenches, we’re bitches…..

And that’s just the chorus! Later, they end a verse with

We are wily, wenchy, bitchy

Madonna whorish dames (ha)

No apologies, just steamrollin’ rock ‘n’ roll with a pinch of punk and a dash of metal. This is at the top of my list for 2013 even if it was (kind of) released in 2012. If it is too late to make my end of the year list, it isn’t for next year’s (or this year’s, by the time this is posted). You can preview and purchase MP3's here, but there will be physical product available soon. Stay tuned.

An Aside: Jilly Blackstone

Heidi fans remember Jilly as the frontman (erm, woman) for that band. I came upon her through posts and mentions by Lisa Parade when I discovered Lisa’s, uh, excellent— yes, excellent— albums, Out of the Funbox (which includes a stunning pop gem titled Girl, among other outstanding songs) and Finding Flora. I stalked Lisa, you might say, and I ended up stalking Jilly too. Jilly was thrilled that I had found Heidi and told me she had many stories to tell (I had asked) and we kept in touch off and on over a two or three year period. It was usually just me checking in on her through Facebook or email or her sending profuse apologies for not having contacted me for long periods, but it was enough because I knew that soon we would dive into the story behind Heidi and uncover her plans for her musical future. For a short period, she even posted a few demo tracks she had recorded by herself and we discussed the positives and negatives in terms of her future direction.

Then, I heard little. There was the occasional short message saying that she was not doing well (she was very ill, I came to find out) and that her life was a battle. It was a battle she eventually lost. I didn’t know until Lisa posted a short tribute to her dear friend on Facebook. It was a sledgehammer to the heart. Jilly was such a positive and delicate person to me and had been ready to talk music at the drop of a hat and to realize that she was truly gone was, to say the least, a true bummer.

More than likely, I will never hear those demos again nor will I hear the Heidi demos which she had promised me (but about which I was sworn to secrecy). Those are very small things next to the fact that I will not be allowed the pleasure of watching her develop, musically. She had a path in her head which was leading her toward her musical vision and she had barely started.

The reason I bring that up here is that Track 3 of No Small Children‘s Dear Youth EP was written by Jilly. Jill Considine, actually, for that was her real name. Titled Mystical, it is just that— to me. Lisa and Jilly were very close. So when Lisa sings Jilly’s lyrics, it is both magical and mystical. It is a tribute, both painful and joyous, and brings tears to my eyes and a pain to my heart.

It is a only a small part of what Jilly deserves. An anthem written by and sung for a wonderful person. Lisa Parade, if few others know what a magnificent track this is, I do. Jilly would be proud. - Frank Gutch

It keeps getting better and better. Really! Lisa Joy Pimentel, leader of the parade (The Lisa Parade, that is) is now head meatgrinder of No Small Children who are readying an EP for release and if the track I heard is any indication at all, it’s a killer. This is what I have come to expect out of Pimentel, who has to rate as one of the least appreciated real talents out there over the years. Want to hear a little in-your-face coolness, listen to their new track, Wenches and Bitches (click here). If radio was still viable, disc jockeys all, over the world would be screaming “It’s a smash!”….. - Frank Gutch

"GodDAMN! The parade may be over, but it will never die. Lisa Joy Pimentel <http://www.facebook.com/lisa.j.pimentel> , Nicola B and Joanie Pimentel rock the tundra with their new track, "Wenches and Bitches." It ain't a song, it's an ANTHEM!" - Frank Gutch

NPR ‘The Secret Lives of Teachers’
by JOANIE | JANUARY 30, 2015
NPR ‘The Secret Lives of Teachers’ January 25, 2015

The NPR Ed team is discovering what teachers do when they’re not teaching. Artist? Carpenter? Quidditch player? Explore our Secret Lives of Teachers series.

It’s not unusual for kids to wear a T-shirt to school with their favorite band on it. But at Oakwood Elementary in North Hollywood, Calif., that T-shirt may also have a picture of their teacher — actually, three of their teachers.

The punk band No Small Children formed two years ago when Joanie Pimentel moved to California to play with two elementary teachers — her sister, Lisa Pimentel, and Lisa’s co-worker Nicola Berlinsky.

“We thought to ourselves, ‘We’re not getting any younger. And we’re sure not getting any cooler,’ ” recalls Berlinsky, the band’s drummer and a fourth-grade teacher. ” ‘So why not? Let’s see what happens.’ ”

The band started as a way to create a space for themselves outside their lives as teachers — hence the name No Small Children.


The “Might Get Up Slow” music video is a tribute to the band’s routine of teaching and performing.

Onstage, the trio wear matching dresses while pumping out fast, heavy, energetic punk songs: like “I’m Irritated” and “Dear Youth.”

They were an immediate success, playing 55 shows in their first three months.

“At first, we said yes to everything,” says Berlinsky. Now, after two years of steady gigs, No Small Children is an established act in Los Angeles. So the band can be more selective. One big change: It doesn’t play many school nights these days.

Lisa Pimentel leads her orchestra class at Oakwood Elementary School in North Hollywood, Calif.
Lisa Pimentel leads her orchestra class at Oakwood Elementary School in North Hollywood, Calif.

Mark Horowitz

Balancing the demands of teaching and performing wasn’t hard, says Lisa Pimentel. She’s lead singer, guitar player and, at Oakwood Elementary, orchestra instructor. It was never a decision between this or that, she explains. Instead, the band always thought about school and music as one entity: this and that.

All three agree that performing together has made them better teachers.

“As performers, we’re constantly putting ourselves out there. We ask our kids to do that every day,” Joanie Pimentel says. She plays bass and is the school’s music instructor. “When you can talk to them from the same place, you can relate better. You’re kind of walking the walk.”

With a combined 25 years of teaching among the band members, a full-length album released last year, and regular — if not weekly — gigs, No Small Children shows no signs of slowing down.

“Both music and teaching are very long careers,” Berlinsky says. “You can keep going and going.” - NPR

The LA Beat
by JOANIE | JANUARY 30, 2015
The LA Beat January 28, 2015

Relatively new on the L.A. scene, all lady trio No Small Children have been tearing it up, one dive bar and one small club at a time. Expect them in larger (and more expensive) venues, soon. Right now, though, you can see them in a neighborhood near you. And you should.

With songs ranging from an awesome “drive to work” song, Might Get Up (I might get up slow, but I get up), to a song with actual real no shit YODELLING (especially awesome live)! Not gonna name the song. See them. You’ll get it.

Most of the songs are super tongue in cheek, but then you get one or two that are from-the-heart empowerment shit, be you female or male, such as Survivor Face, and a Let it Go that has NOTHING to do with the song from that Disney movie.

A super slice of amazing pop-culture awesome is KMA (Aka You Can Kiss My Ass). Taylor Swift wishes she wrote this. It’s that sweet. Charlie Girl and Mary Tyler Moore would be soooo jealous, Mr. Grant would approve. We think.

This writer’s fave of faves? The beautiful ode of all odes to a a mature LTR: Baby I Love You, Even Though.

Power anthem: Eff You in any Language. I mean, really? In ANY language. Yep.

They play this Saturday at El Cid. The video above is a soft nod to the goofs at the local dive where they cut their live show teeth.

-Aileen Fraser, The LA Beat - LA Beat

Guitar Girl Magazine
by NOSMALLADMIN | AUGUST 16, 2013
Guitar Girl Magazine, August 2013

What began as an imaginary idea between a couple of schoolteachers has evolved into a full-fledged female band that rocks after the bell rings. No Small Children [NSC], featuring guitarist-singer Lisa Parade, bassist Joanie Pimentel, and drummer Nicola B., deliver a sound that has already made them one of the fastest-rocking, fastest-rising bands in the Los Angeles area. Some would think it’s not easy teaching students by day and being a rock band by night, but thus far, No Small Children have had no problem figuring out how to handle both.

I recently asked Lisa about doing this kind of double duty, as well as a few other topics like her take on a certain movie that combined rock with school, their latest music video shoot and some songs they’ll be releasing soon.

GGM: For my opening question, Lisa, when did you first learn how to play guitar?

Lisa: I started playing guitar about ten years ago. I played drums/sax in all my bands before that, but as a songwriter, singer, teacher and producer, I felt that not knowing how to play the guitar was affecting my freedom as a musician. I started playing it to accompany myself in an acoustic “singer-songwriter kind of way” at first. I played a bunch of coffee houses, got a band, played a ton of gigs and then switched over to electric when we started NSC. Now I play my Les Paul in a definitely not so “singer-song-writer kind of way.” As it stands, learning how to play the guitar was one of the most liberating things I have ever done.

GGM: Where was your first professional performance as a musician, and what was that first-time experience like?

Lisa: The first time I played my guitar professionally, I had all kinds of nerves, and when you have all kinds of nerves, you get “flustery” and “rushy.” The gig went well, but it took me some time to get a handle on the gear and all that comes with it…set up, tuning, pedals, tone, cables, tempos… The first gig we had with NSC was at The Guitar Merchant in Canoga Park, CA. The tempos to most of our songs are fast, but that night, they were really, really, really fast. Haha…but we had so much fun.

I grew up playing marching snare drum in an Italian processional band called The Roma Band of Boston. We played all the fests in Boston in the summers and we also played lots of parades. I guess that was officially my first professional gig …that band was a trip…I learned a lot.

GGM: How did you meet Nicola and Joanie to form No Small Children?

Lisa: All three of us are schoolteachers at the same school. Nicola and I had been working together for about nine years when we started the band, hypothetically at first. We gave the band a name, thought about outfits, started writing songs and rehearsing until we were ready for a bass player. It just so happened that Joanie was moving from Boston to LA around the time that we were ready for her. She didn’t play bass, but played cello and sang. Even though cello is tuned in 5ths and bass is tuned in 4ths, I knew she could pick up the bass in no time, and she did. She worked her butt off, too. We have been on fast forward ever since. Also, she started working at our school this school year. Joanie is my sister by the way.

GGM: Are any of the three of you still teaching and, if so, how do you manage your time between teaching school and being in a rock band?

Lisa: We are all teaching still. During summer “vacation,” Nicola went to Columbia (in NY) for a 6-week masters program, and Joanie and I ran a summer arts program here in LA called The Exploratorium, which is part of LA’s Academy of Creative Education. Joanie and I did local unplugged shows while Nicola was away. She came home on July 13th and we played a show…two actually…on the same night…one at the Redwood and one at El Coritas. We have played like 65-70 shows since January…and many of them on weekdays. We are often pretty tired but find the love of the music to be energizing, which in turn makes us better teachers. Kind of like being in love I guess (barf). Being teachers is a big part of who we are.

GGM: Do any of you teach, or have taught, music in school, or just normal subjects in the vein of math, science, English or history?

Lisa: We teach elementary school. Nicola teaches 4th grade and Joanie and I teach music. Orchestra, Jazz Band, Pep Band, Chorus. I am also an administrator. I used to be a [high school] band director in Randolph, Massachusetts before my band HEIDI got signed to Warner Brothers and we moved to LA.

GGM: A decade ago, there was this movie entitled The School of Rock, starring Jack Black, and featuring a young Miranda Cosgrove, later of Nickelodeon’s iCarly, as one of the students. Have you ever seen that movie, either in the theater or on video, and, given what it was about, what’s your take on it?

Lisa: Wow, was that a decade ago?? I think Jack Black is the man!!! I loved that movie….a romantic version of what it is really like, of course, but who doesn’t love a good romance?

GGM: What guitars do you currently play?

Lisa: I play a Gibson Les Paul Standard, pretty much exclusively. I love the sound of it through my rig and I love the feel of it under my fingers. I use very heavy strings played through a Lone Wolf Amp and Marshall 1960B 4 by 12. I’m working on my pedals. I recently won “The John Lennon Song Writing Contest” and the Grand Prize was a whole bunch of gear, including a bunch of pedals….I ordered them last week and this will be my new exploration for NSC.

GGM: For your video of “Might Get Up Slow,” you played out your teaching roles rather nicely. You’ve since shot another video, so what song would that be for, and how much fun was it compared to “Might Get Up Slow”?

Lisa: Making the video for “Might Get up Slow” was so-o-o-o-o-o much fun and pulled on all of our creative juices (which is probably why it was so much fun). It was created with a very low budget by a very talented film student. His name is Clint-Khile Bragger.

We have a song called “Drunk Creepy Guy” that we have been playing live for about 3-4 months. David Berlinsky came up with a concept for a video, directed it and is in the process of editing it. Like “Might Get Up Slow,” it is a comedy, but for this video we had actors, hair and make-up, dream scenes and a lot more people involved. We did two full days of shooting…one at a bar called Silly’s in Winnetka, CA and one at Green Screen Studio. It was incredibly fun to tape and I cannot WAIT for you to see it!!!

GGM: Finally, since you’ve been working on your first full-fledged album, how did you pick Bob Marlette to help mix it, and when will we expect it to be released?

Lisa: We recorded drums for 10 songs before Nicola left for New York. We will be releasing the songs as we finish them, one at a time. We are planning to have another EP with five songs on it by the beginning of our east coast tour in August. We thought about this a lot and decided that we didn’t want to wait to release a full length LP. It takes too long and we want to keep moving. As far as Bob Marlette, I have special connection with him….he is my husband…so it seemed like an obvious choice…haha. But seriously, Bob is an incredible producer, engineer and mixer, and he has been totally supportive of us from the very beginning.

I can’t predict whether the women of No Small Children will give up the value and prestige that comes with teaching for the rock star life, but I do think they’ll continue doing what they do best, as both teachers and band members.

You can find out more about No Small Children on their website, www.nosmallchildren.com, as well as like them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/NoSmallChildren or on Twitter @NoSmallChildren. Also, you can check out their videos on YouTube at www.youtube.com/user/NoSmallChildren. - Guitar Girl Magazine

Geeks of Doom, May 2013

…Finally, all-girl band No Small Children opened the gig, which sported fast, loud, and intelligent punk and post-punk ditties about staying in bed and the perils of being a young woman, coupled with the lead singer nimbly playing her guitar with solid mixes of soloing, riffs out of the 1970s power pop meets early punk scorebook, harmonics, and even performing a more than capable TRUMPET solo during one song. The band absolutely killed it with their scrappy and attitudinally charming set. Highly recommended, you can check them out via their website. - Geeks of Doom

They are school teachers by day and wenches and bitches by night. Their words, not mine. Wenches and Bitches is indeed the leadoff track to their recent EP titled Dear Youth and you can bet if the kids could hear it, they would petition to be transferred en masse to any one of these three ladies’ home rooms. A teacher who rocks out? No-brainer!

My connection to these ladies took root a number of years ago when I discovered The Lisa Parade and, to me, a mind-blowing album titled Finding Flora. I was on a quest to find the best and most buried music out there and while this may not have been the most buried, it certainly qualified as among the best. The band teetered on the edge of breaking out at the time, having scored the theme for a short-lived TV sitcom called Miss Guided (I didn’t miss an episode, though I believe there were only five or six and the network played russian roulette in their scheduling of it). Had Miss Guided succeeded, there is that possibility that The Lisa Parade might have succeeded also and then where would we have been? Probably not talking about No Small Children.

The Lisa Parade was fronted by Lisa Parade, by happenstance, and I made contact with her and waited for her to become a star (she could easily have been) and found that she had played with an all-girl rock band called Heidi a few years previously and that they, too, had flirted with success, having recorded a demo for Warner Brothers Records (things didn’t work out). Lisa, through the Net, introduced me to Jilly Blackstone and Jilly and I struck up a conversation about Heidi and her musical works in progress and her hopes for a future as a composer and performer. The contact was off and on with long periods of silence and it was a long time before Jilly told me of her illness. She had cancer. She lived between what must have been bouts of pure hell but, Goddamn, she loved her music and a few times, out of the blue, I would get a message saying that she was sorry but she just hadn’t felt up to doing much and then would try to update her musical doings. Jilly finally lost her battle. I found out when Lisa posted a message, which between the lines told me that Jilly B was no longer walking among us. It was a shock. (Band members as shown in the photo are, L-R: Janet King, Lisa P, Jilly B, and Susan Lutin)

Heidi, as far as I can tell, had a chance but as it happens all too often, their biggest supporter at Warner Brothers was removed at a critical moment and the project was dropped. The band hung on for awhile but nothing was happening and eventually they all went their separate ways. Lisa’s was toward the Parade and while she kept contact with Jilly, outside of occasional reunions, they worked separately.

Lisa put out two albums with The Lisa Parade, both testaments to her depth of talent. The first, Out of the Funbox, is an exercise in Power Pop and Pop, the songs riding waves of melody and harmony way beyond what I’ve come to expect, even from the best. Finding Flora takes another step forward, beat and hip hop spicing up Lisa’s mostly upbeat and melodic creations. I have no idea how either sold but I can tell you that they did not sell enough. Certainly nowhere near the numbers they deserved.

Since then (Finding Flora— click here to listen— was released in May of 2009), Lisa has been dabbling here and there, probably trying to find direction. That direction comes in the shape of No Small Children, a three-piece band of no small consequence. The Pop is still there but now it is couched in stacked amps and attitude. Even the name emphasizes the change. No Small Children is reference to the freedom one has when children are not the center of life. These chicks ain’t kids anymore. They even put it in song. Check out the chorus of Wenches and Bitches:

“Women delivering rhythm from our souls
Some people say that we’re wenches, we’re bitches
Livin’ the life even though we’re kind of old
It might be true that we’re wenches, we’re bitches”

Stack a few Marshalls behind these dames, turn it up and you have The Lisa Parade honed down and on steroids. Track by track, they rock out and punk out and even anthem out (Mystical, written by Jilly Blackstone and recorded here as a tribute— and what a magnificent tribute it is). They sing of being cranky (I’m Irritated) and being hungry (Salad) and getting older (Dear Youth). They rock and shuffle and dance. They freakin’ make me laugh with their wall-of-sound rhythms and vocal harmonies and their view of life. And make me tear up with as near perfect a version of Mystical as will ever be recorded.

I could go on and on about how they’re working in the studio right now (I can hardly wait) and how cool is Lisa’s husband, Bob Marlette, who twists knobs but knows to stay out of the way because you can hear in her music that Lisa needs that freedom to create. I could give you a more complete history of Heidi and The Lisa Parade and might in the near future. Right now, though, is not the time. Now, you should listen. To a couple of tracks off of The Lisa Parade‘s Out of the Funbox album (follow this link and click on Can’t Speak and Girl). To the full Finding Flora album (link two paragraphs above). To No Small Children’s Dear Youth EP (click here).

‘Nuff said. But you’ll be hearing more about these ladies. Lots more. Guaranteed. - Frank Gutch