Vibrant Chronicles: The Punk Odyssey of Tucson's Young Charm

In the dusty underground punk scene of Tucson, Arizona, the early '90s gave birth to an explosive three-piece band that shook the Old Pueblo and the punk community at large. Jamie Suarez (AKA Daisy), Francine Pasquale (AKA Jordan), and Nicole Velasquez (AKA Myrtle), the fearless trio behind Young Charm, would go on to leave an indelible mark on the punk rock landscape.

The Formation (1990)

Young Charm came into existence in 1990, a product of the collective frustration, passion, and raw energy embodied by its three members. The three girls shared a Freshman English Literature class at the ungodly hour of 8:15 a.m. Jamie had the highest score on every video game at the local Pizza Hut. Francine, punished with her grandmother’s name, was a voracious reader who’d devoured every novel at the local library by the age of 13. And Nicole was a southside kid who was bussed to Rincon High as part of a citywide desegregation order who never talked in public. She just drew doodles in the back of the class.

The three came together when tasked by their teacher, Mrs. Hicks, with writing a book of poetry for their Fall semester final. They met at Francine’s home, where her older brother Jeremy’s hair band practiced in the adjacent carriage house. Jeremy had started college at the University of Arizona and was never around. The door to the carriage house had a giant “DO NOT ENTER” sign. Francine had never defied him. But Jamie, always the daring one, found the key to the door hidden in a planter. Once inside, the girls inspected every corner of the musty room, and found themselves on an old futon, turning their school observations into poems for their assignments. The poems, quippy verses that expressed the trio’s humor, frustration, and secret desires, begged to be set to music.

With the help of Jeremy’s instruments, that’s just what the girls did. They made sure to leave everything in exactly the same place they’d found it, so as not to arouse suspicion of the four sweaty headbangers who practiced there on Saturday mornings.

Were they any good? No. Not at first. But who is? In making music they found something outside of school that gave them focus. It gave them a shared secret. And soon they were sharing their influences: AC/DC, The Go-Gos, The Germs, The Dead Kennedys…yes. But also the synth melodies of video games, the sardonic wit of Dorothy Parker and Weird Al, and the mariachi and oompah rhythms of Mexican music so integral to life in Tucson.

Jamie, the fiery guitarist and main vocalist, channeled her inner turmoil and rebellious spirit into every chord. Francine, on bass and backing vocals, brought a relentless drive and a deep connection to the punk ethos. Nicole, the enigmatic artist and precise drummer, added the rhythmic backbone to the band's pop punk sound.

By Spring 1991, they’d been discovered by Jeremy who, after screaming at them for an hour and scaring them half to death, asked if they were any good. It was a terrifying audition, but Jeremy liked what he heard and got them a gig opening up for Death Rattle at an all ages show at the VFW on Franklin.

The band scrambled to create a band name. After coming up dry, Francine pulled out a copy of The Great Gatsby from her book bag, flipped through the pages and found two words: “Charm” and “Young.” In the naming convention of great punk bands, they renamed themselves Daisy, Jordan, and Myrtle after characters from the book. Nicole made fliers in Yearbook class using the school’s expensive Xerox machine…without permission. The band posted them all around the high school and at Pizza Hut.

It is said of The Sex Pistols that everybody who went to the famous gig in Manchester started a band. There were 14 people in attendance at Young Charm’s first gig. None of them started bands. But every single audience member told at least two people about that gig, and within a week, the three high school freshmen found a following that would only continue to grow.

The Sound and Message

Young Charm was known for their high-energy performances, often leaving audiences laughing and headbanging by turns, drenched in sweat and screaming for more. Their sound was a blend of punk, grunge, and a touch of post-hardcore, marked by Jamie's intense lyrics and abrasive guitar riffs, Francine’s thumping basslines, and Nicole's relentless drumming. The girl never talked. But man could she rock.

Young Charm was more than just a band; they were a voice for the voiceless, tackling issues such as the lack of chocolate milk in the cafeteria, the mendacity of the popular kids at school, and Donatello’s unqualified superiority as the best Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. Their lyrics were a poignant reflection of disenchanted youth, and their live shows were a cathartic release for those who sought refuge in their music.

The DIY Ethos

At the heart of Young Charm was a DIY ethos. From recording their early demos in Jamie’s carriage house to Nicole designing their album covers, the band was a testament to the grassroots spirit of the punk movement that was sorely lacking in Tucson but present in other places like Aneheim, San Francisco, D.C., and NYC. They even made their own merch with puffy paint bought at Michael’s.

Albums and Impact

Young Charm's discography includes a string of iconic albums. "mania/zania" (1991) was a gritty and powerful debut for ones so young, followed by "Self-Titled" (1993), a politically charged record inspired by World History class that resonated with a growing fan base. But it was "light a fuse" (1994) that showcased the band's self-possession and unique personality, which gained traction afther the album got written up in Maximum RocknRoll that drew in fans from all corners of the punk universe.

After the rave reception of “light a fuse”, Young Charm toured the West Coast while on Spring break of their junior year of high school, eventually playing for Bad Religion’s Greg Graffin and Brett Gurewitz at 924 Gilman Street. Within a month, Young Charm signed onto the Epitaph record label and by the end of the summer, they’d been booked to play the 1995 Warped Tour, along with other bands like Lagwagon, No Use For A Name, Sublime, and No Doubt.

The trio continued to record albums through college at the University of Arizona where Jamie studied Computer Science, Francine received her bachelors in International History, and Nicole excelled in her Graphic Design program.

The albums they made throughout college and graduate school, “Estrellas” (1995) and “So So” (1999), maintained the punk ethos and humor cultivated on that old futon in Jamie’s carriage house. Only now, the punk scene had begun to shift from biting political commentary with a veneer of sneer to more poppy, superficial tunes that played on corporate radio stations and MTV. The age of the Riott Grrl was over. The girls had grown up, but the scene that had become integral to their lives had begun to deteriorate. Older punks died out or lost their edge. The hardcore scene grew cynical and sclerotic. And the new kids coming up just wanted empty anthems.

The band chose to take a hiatus from punk music in 2000 and, instead, released a covers album as their prog rock alter ego, Labryntine. The song choices reflected their early influences, with tracks from David Bowie, Foreigner, Heart, and Fleetwood Mac, but were played with that inimitable Young Charm style. “Labryntine” (2001) was a passion project that gave the band a creative outlet during early adulthood at a time when neoliberalismm, 9/11, and the cultural emphasis on “new and shiny” seemed to drown out voices of dissent.

The tech boom and bust hit Jamie particularly hard, leaving her first gaming start-up in catastrophe and her heart seeking solace in NYC. It was there, inspired by the East Village/Williamsburg indie rock scene, that she found herself among equally disillusioned artists, and made friends with The Moldy Peaches, Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Jaleel Bunton of TV On The Radio.

Distance from Tucson gave Jamie some perspective on her teenage years spent in the Sonoran Desert, the product of which was “Southwestern Decayed” (2002), an introspective album with a fuzzy, distorted edge. While the album sold less than previous Young Charm records, it stands firmly in the annals of the NYC indie chapter of rock history, and played regularly on college radio stations nationwide for years to come.

Francine was not unscathed by the early aughts. Recruited by the State Department while in college during the Clinton years, she found herself working for the Bush Administration, simultaneously bored by endless passport interviews she conducted at the American Consulate in Tijuana and horrified by her country’s foreign policy. But without her bandmates to help her express these feelings, she began to lose herself between the banality and exhaustion.

It was only in 2007, after being stationed for a year in Nepal, that she was able to find her voice again. Francine left the State Department and returned to the United States to run strategy for the Obama Campaign for Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. In 2010, she took a temporary hiatus from her campaign management consultant role, during which she recorded and released a solo album inspired by the meditative practices learned in Nepal that had preserved her sanity and brought her back to life. The album, “Head and Feet” (2010), while sonically leagues apart from Young Charm, still carried her passion, but also reflected the growth that 33 years had brought her. NME called “Head and Feet” “brutally intimate” and called the album “Joni Mitchell’s ‘Blue’ for the GenX generation,” while Rolling Stone panned the effort as “Lilith Fair nonsense a decade too late.”

In 2015, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their most celebrated album, “Estrellas”, Jamie and Francine reunited with Nicole, who had two Creative Emmys to her name for FX work done at Industrial Light and Magic. The trio wrote their last album “Mind Over Matter” from their respective homes in NYC, Boulder, and L.A. over email and then recorded it at Tucson’s WaveLab Studio over the course of a weekend. The album’s joy and playfulness was reminiscent of their early songs, and their homage to Patti Smith’s version of “Gloria” was featured in the year’s most successful independent comedy feature Nowhere Man starring Parker Posey and Ewan Bremner.

Legacy

Young Charm’s records are a time capsule of southwestern GenX irony and angst. Their following spans generations as GenXers introduced their GenZ kids to the band’s punk genius and new bands formed and covered their hits. The band’s fame only grew when Jamie’s second gaming start-up Jeeper licensed Young Charm’s catalog for a series of hugely successful video games.

Tucson remembers the band as its own. The University of Arizona marching band regularly plays Young Charm tunes at football and basketball games to audiences who sing along. The band’s legacy lives on in the hearts of their fans and in the continued influence they have on the punk scene.

Jamie, Francine, and Nicole remain friends and are proud of being able to have passed the torch onto the next generation of punk rockers.