An exciting new book of lyrics by punk bands from the Portland, Oregon music scene in the late ‘70s through the late ‘80s, compiled by one of that scene’s most active members, Patricia Baum. Entitled Portland Punk Lyrics 1977-1987, it features 76 songs by 26 bands, including some of the most iconic Portland artists of their day: Wipers, Neo Boys, Napalm Beach, Poison Idea, Smegma, The Rats, Jungle Nausea. Portland Punk Lyrics 1977-1987 is available as a hand-bound, limited, signed and numbered edition of 250 copies.
Patricia Baum, who played in several bands during the time span covered by Portland Punk Lyrics (including Neo Boys and A Rancid Vat) explains, “The bands were chosen because: I knew them, one of my bands had played on a bill with them, I'd been their drummer, or had mixed or recorded them either live or in the studio.
“I was overjoyed with the initial response from the bands and songwriters; everyone I asked said yes to providing their original song lyrics. The assembly and editing took about a year, and included several drafts, many corrections and some exciting last-minute additions.”
The format of Portland Punk Lyrics, a 5.5” x 8" booklet, is borrowed from DIY poetry chapbooks, which were also commonly xeroxed or mimeographed, and stapled. The cover is based on a design for a booklet for the 1979 Anarchist Symposium, Portland, Oregon, by XJ Elliot. The book cover for Portland Punk Lyrics was printed by Patricia Baum at the Ceiba Gráfica workshop in La Orduña, Veracruz, Mexico, near where she currently resides; she attended a printmaking and bookbinding workshop there in October 2025.
Patricia (Pat) Baum was born in Lansing, Michigan in 1957, where her father taught literature at Michigan State University. In 1962, he accepted a teaching position at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. Baum attended Riverdale School, Metropolitan Learning Center and John Adams HS. A classically trained clarinetist, she played in the Riverdale and Fernwood school bands, but had a dream of playing the drums. She realized her musical dream in 1978, when the Neo Boys asked her to join the band. After the band broke up in 1982, she played with Rancid Vat, the Redheads, Smegma, The Grip and the Unknown Soldiers. She eventually pursued a BA in film production at San Francisco State University, and an MEA from University of Guadalajara. In 1995, a surfer friend told her about Todos Santos, and she and two friends spent a month driving down the Baja. The visit inspired her to make a permanent move to Todos Santos in 1996. She inherited a surf shop, and lived in a trailer on Los Cerritos beach for 13 years. In 1999, with 500 books from her father’s library, she founded what is now the Biblioteca Elena Poniatowska. She married Daniel Garcia Sosa; their son, Silvio Carlos Garcia Baum was born in 2000.
During her 30 years in Todos Santos and Pescadero, BCS, she inspired, facilitated and participated in many community-based social and environmental projects including: spay and neuter clinics and educational outreach, beach and arroyo clean-ups, the first community recycling program, three sea turtle conservation groups, two libraries, a bi-lingual school, four youth-in-video films with the Escuela de Cine Leonard Perel, a ten-year stint with her Future Biologist’s field learning / ocean safety program in Pescadero, and numerous collaborations with like-minded environmental educators. She authored The Illustrated Guide to Sea Turtles in Baja California in 2013, which was distributed free-of-charge to Baja Sur middle schools. She is currently writing a novel based in Baja Sur, and spends summers in the cool NW due to global warming.
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