Punk’s riot grrrl movement is often framed as a bicoastal phenomenon, defined by early-’90s breakthroughs such as the Pacific Northwest’s Bikini Kill or New York’s Lunachicks.
Far from those epicenters, San Antonio has cultivated its own insurgent lineage, a brown-girl-loud strain of feminist punk rock called Fea. And the band is hardly representative of a bygone era.
Fea is about to embark on a jam-packed two-week tour across the Southwest with New York’s Ratas En Zelo. The road dates follow the release of the San Antonio group’s third studio album, The Nerve, earlier this summer.
While the tour doesn’t include any SA dates, local fans can catch the band Saturday, Sept. 19, at Sam’s Burger Joint with all-woman AC/DC tribute act Hell’s Belles.
Before Fea, though, there was Girl in a Coma, whose blend of Tejana post-punk and rootsier sounds made them one of San Antonio’s most memorable bands of the early 2000s. The trio included Phanie Diaz, her best friend Jenn Alva and Phanie’s sister Nina, whose first show with the band was a week shy of her 14th birthday.
The band had a quick rise that included a contract with Joan Jett’s Blackheart Records label, a tour with Morrissey and opening slots for acts ranging from Social Distortion to Tegan and Sara.
Girl in a Coma’s success and eventual breakup set the scene for Fea. Not just by proving San Antonio punk shakes rooms from here to Europe, but also by giving Phanie and Jenn a creative restlessness that eventually guided them toward a new project — one with a pointedly political agenda.
Although Girl in a Coma disbanded in 2018, the trio has since reunited and plans to head on tour later this fall. Balancing both bands, Fea’s Alva said, has sharpened her sense of what each project is meant to do.
“I have really enjoyed both bands because, in Fea, we can be assertive, confident and have a message, while in Girl in a Coma we can just get lost in the passion for playing,” she said.
Girl in a Coma’s momentum carried directly into Fea. When Phanie and Jenn launched the new project in 2013, they did so under Jett’s label, which went a long way to putting Fea’s sound in the ears of punk fans worldwide.
For example, their early song “Mujer Moderna,” a grungy takedown of macho man behavior and rape culture, was featured in NPR’s list of the greatest songs recorded by women in the 21st century.
The band’s early years were shaped by collaboration as much as sheer grit. By the summer of 2014, they had locked in their current lineup: Diaz on drums, Alva on bass, Adrian Conner on guitar and Letty Martinez on vocals.
Lived experiences
Fea coproduced their debut full-length album with Alice Bag, a pioneering Chicana punk vocalist whose work in late-’70s Los Angeles helped lay the groundwork for riot grrrl politics. Bag’s influence carried into Fea’s songwriting and stage presence, both dedicated to making punk that speaks directly to the lived experiences of Latinas.
In conversation, the band is quick to point out that the issues they were singing about a decade ago haven’t gone anywhere. Misogyny still shapes their daily lives, both online and off.
The new album’s title track, “Nerve,” deals with how women are punished for noncompliance, whether that be rejecting a cocky dude or refusing to smile on command.
“It’s still happening today,” Alva said. “President Trump is telling a journalist to smile. It’s just so classic: ‘Smile more.’”
“The song is about an experience rejecting somebody, who then starts picking on your physical appearance,” Martinez added. “And Trump does exactly that, to reporters that don’t agree with him or ask questions that he doesn’t want to answer. Suddenly he’s commenting on her appearance, and that parallel is just crazy.”
As a cohesive album, The Nerve digs into the parallel between personal experience and political reality. While earlier albums, Fea (2016) and No Novelties (2019), were sharp, loud and outward-facing, this one turns inward without losing its edge.
And the edge has been there from the beginning. “Fea” means ugly in Spanish, and the name was a deliberate choice to reclaim a word used to belittle girls who dared to be loud or different. But it’s also an acronym that means “fuck ’em all.”
“This album is a little bit different from the last two because we focus on personal experiences,” Martinez said. “The heart of the album is growth and empowerment in our personal lives.”
In Fea’s world, healing means the refusal to apologize for yourself. It’s the decision to stop wearing bras, to shave or not shave, to wear blazers just because they make you feel powerful, even if it’s “fucking hot outside,” as Martinez acknowledged.
Conner said the power comes from shaking off shame and old insecurities to take back ownership of your body.
“We’re used to being told how to heal the right way,” Diaz said. “Whatever it takes to feel good about yourself, that’s it. You do it for yourself.”
The members’ thoughts about body autonomy bleed naturally into conversations about dealing with identity and language as Chicanas. Diaz and Martinez shared contrasting stories about speaking Spanish — Diaz was discouraged from learning for fear of discrimination, while Martinez was bullied for speaking it fluently.
Both experiences reveal the balancing act many Mexican American kids grow up with as they straddle two worlds at once.
“I was treated differently just because I spoke Spanish,” Martinez said. “Like at recess, we’d have to partner up and they’d say ‘Ew, she speaks Spanish,’ like it’s some contagious thing.”
Credit: Courtesy Photo / Fea
Martinez’s early experiences shaped a sense of responsibility that extends beyond singing political lyrics. In addition to performing with Fea, she’s a paralegal at a law firm, where she assists pro bono clients navigating the immigration system.
“This underdog complex came about because I was treated so badly, which made me want to protect the others,” Martinez said. “I’ve always tried to take other people under my wing, and I think we all resonate with that. It’s why we all ended up in this project.”
The members of Fea are acutely aware of how women, especially women of color, can be scrutinized or dismissed. Diaz recounted early interviews from the Girl in a Coma era, where journalists would focus solely on their appearances or sexuality.
“They would point out things that just didn’t matter: how puffy my cheeks looked, how fat my face was, all dumb things that should have nothing to do with the interview,” Diaz said. “It had the opposite effect — it made me not give a shit. It made me want to help people feel unashamed of themselves.”
The members’ commitment to visibility is matched by their passion for their hometown. They speak about San Antonio’s music scene with equal parts affection and frustration.
They said they love the tight-knit nature and feel that artists are free to help each other book shows and build community. Yet they’re candid about the challenges posed by rising costs, inconsistent support and the city’s tendency to overlook its own musicians.
“I’m proud that we’ve been able to accumulate fans from everywhere, and we still have that San Antonio pride,” Alva said.
Even so, there’s room for growth.
“We need to nurture our artists better,” Diaz said. “The people of San Antonio need to come together and start taking care of our musicians, instead of bitching about who’s on the lineup or going to Austin for shows.”
For fans and musicians alike, it’s important to show up and engage with the scene instead of waiting for it to entertain you.
Perform for the algorithm
At the same time, Fea is navigating the realities of the digital age. They’re blunt about the exhaustion of content culture and the pressure to post constantly to perform for the algorithm. It’s a vastly different world than the one where Girl in a Coma first found success.
“I’m not a fan of this style of marketing, but I also accept that it doesn’t matter that I don’t like it,” Conner said. “It’s just the way of the world now.”
Martinez described herself as a “total lurker” who hates posting but accepts that it’s necessary.
Despite the IG grind, the members of Fea see hope in the resurgence of physical media. For their release of The Nerve, the band again collaborated with local graphic designer Regina Morales. Beyond digital and CD releases, the album is also available on neon green vinyl.
Alva and Conner agreed that vinyl’s comeback has a lot to do with connection. The ability to have an artist sign your record and have a conversation with them at the merchandise table are parts of the music experience lost during the COVID-19 pandemic.
After lockdown forced Fea into livestreamed shows, or what Martinez described as “talking to a camera with a green screen behind me,” the band is grateful to be back in rooms full of sweaty, screaming strangers.
“You can’t top the energy of a live show,” Martinez said. “The crowds give us their energy, and I can’t describe how great that feels … the dancing, shouting, it’s all so important. I’m glad that that never got phased out.”
Right now, the band is focusing on giving The Nerve the long runway it deserves. They’re adjusting to life on a new label, Cosmica Artists, along with a changing promotional landscape.
The Nerve is their first album in seven years, a milestone that still feels new despite the band having played many of the songs live since Conner joined the lineup.
Longevity is the goal, the members explained, not just for Fea but for Chicana punk bands they hope will come after them.
“We’ve taken advice from Alice Bag,” Diaz said. “She said to do it for as long as you physically can. If you can fucking do it, then do it. If we can tour, we’ll do it.”
Sure, they face real-life obligations — jobs, motherhood, dogs — but the sentiment is clear: Fea isn’t slowing down anytime soon. For a decade, they’ve watched their project evolve into the band they once needed to see.
As Fea head into their tour, they carry a message with them, along with a decade of Chicana punk history and a new record that refuses to apologize.
“We’re proud,” Alva said. “Let us be the disease and we’ll spread.”
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