Mecca Normal

Mecca Normal (Jean Smith, David Lester) started in 1984 with the express purpose of changing the world. Thus one discovers bursts of social justice interspersed with moments of introspection: Water Cuts My Hands, Mecca Normal’s third album, originally co-released by K and Matador in 1991. It is now (June 13, 2025) being made available to the digital realm for the first time. Water Cuts My Hands is available from Bandcamp. There are no plans to release the album on LP at this time.

The first digital pre-release single is the title song "Water Cuts My Hands."

Mecca Normal is known as a fore-runner and inspiration to the riot grrrl movement in the 90s. In her 1991 Bikini Kill zine interview with Jean, Kathleen Hanna said, “Mecca Normal: it makes me wanna cry, I am so glad they exist.” As part of the regional D-I-Y scene at that
time, Mecca Normal co-founded the Black Wedge in 1986 – anti-authoritarian poets and minimalist musicians "setting wild hearts free, spreading the damn difficult word of how to combine poetry with activist resistance culture".

"I don’t know of any other rock ‘n’ roll so closely attuned to the realities of women’s rage.” – Village Voice, 1990