The Gits (2005) - full transcript

foodval.com - stop by if you're interested in the nutritional composition of food
---
(MultiCom Jingle)

- [Gits Fan] The Gits,
they were about addiction,

they were about loss,
they were about love.

- [Band Member] We became I think,

a real band of the people.

- [Gits Fan] People were indoctrinated.

They came and they saw this band,

and it opened some passageway up in them.

- [Record Exec] There
has not been anything

like them since then.

- [Band Member] What I was
doing, what I love doing,



and then, we had to stop doing it.

- [Band Member] When Mia was murdered,

that just destroyed us all.

- [Gits Fan] Everybody was
just blown away and stunned,

like the world caved in.

The fucking walls came tumbling down.

- [Band Member] It still
makes sad that there's

so much more we could have done.

- [Gits Fan] What the fuck happened?

(light acoustic guitar music)

(crowd cheering)

(singer muffled)

(punk rock music)

♫ When I woke up today



♫ I was dizzy in my brain

♫ It's not that I like to feel this way

♫ The wagon's shaking and
I feel it start to tilt

♫ And I just go tumbling
right back in a whirlwind

- [Narrator] The story
of Mia and The Gits,

it's not a story about a Seattle band.

It's not a story about a punk rock band.

It's not a story about a
band with a woman singer.

This is the story of a great
American rock and roll band.

- [Steve Voiceover] I
started playing music

when I was about 11.

I tried to be a jazz
musician, I really tried to.

I always hated that fact that
I couldn't get into jazz,

and couldn't really enjoy it,

because I knew it was a better art form,

it was a better music.

(drums beating)

- [Matt Voiceover] I grew up in Jersey.

I spent a lot of Sunday
afternoons at CBGB's.

I started listening to
bands like the Minutemen,

the Descendants, and Minor Threat.

That's when I was
inspired to start playing.

- [Andrew Voiceover] The
neighborhood I grew up in

was way out, in Brooklyn,

it's like a neighborhood that time forgot.

My first guitar was actually
like this, a toy guitar.

It had really, really
light cheap nylon strings,

it was more like a ukulele.

I knew I wanted Mia to sing with us.

♫ Where are all these people that you just

- [Andrew] In fact I
remember, literally crying

one of the first times I heard her.

- [Matt] I was really happy

because I knew that she was good.

I didn't know how good.

- [Narrator] The story is
that her father's family

is a distant descendant
of Emiliano Zapata,

who was a big revolutionary,

so she kind of had that
in her blood maybe,

that like kind of fighting spirit.

- What I know of my daughter.

She was very quiet,

very reserved,

ultra ultra shy,

the last person in the world

who would call attention to herself.

And yet, put a microphone in her hand,

march her up on a stage,

and she was just magnetic.

(punk guitar)

- [Narrator] Antioch College is in Ohio.

It's an old liberal arts school

that was regarded highly a long time ago.

The Gits were formed in the fall of 1986,

after Matt Dresdner came back
from a coop in San Francisco.

- Went back to Antioch,

and I was really inspired to start a band.

I knew this guy Andy looked punk rock.

- I want you to be the guitarist.

So I said sure, you know, whatever,

because I didn't take it seriously.

- When I first met the
members of the Gits,

I was into the Kinks, and
60s rock, and The Who,

and I loved The Ramones,
and some of those bands,

but really, I really didn't
know much about punk,

because it just really didn't exist in

Indiana where I grew up.

- You know, a week and a
half later, we actually,

had a band and were practicing
for hours every night.

- We sort of jammed,

we jammed in this old
abandoned dorm room at Antioch,

and once Mia started singing everything

just kind of came together,
and it was so much fun.

It was just a really soulful band,

the songs were really fast and furious.

(punk music)

- I was in class with Mia,

and I remember always
being kind of intimidated,

like who is this woman?

She just commanded respect,
and interest immediately.

- I was at this party,

and it was pretty late,
and everyone was drunk,

especially Mia.

She just like jumped up on
a table, out of the blue,

and started singing, like
Bessie Smith blues or something.

And it was like, blew everyone away.

- It was really as if like somebody

pulled the plug out of
the wall, or something.

The room kind of stopped.

I think it was at that moment

when Matt Dresdner heard her sing,

that he was like, I'm
gonna form a band with her.

Her natural performance
was just so beautiful,

I mean, there was an
awkwardness about her,

because she would pull her knees together,

and you know, she looked like a chicken.

I mean she did.

But it was awesome because you
were like who is this lady,

who sings like a heavy angel?

It was like, where is Ma
Rainey and Bessie Smith?

Let's just like, power punch
them and power pack them,

inside this chicken woman,

who's got a lot of heart, you know,

what's going on here?

- [Matt] When we started the band,

we were called the the
Sniveling Little Rat Faced Gits.

- I wanted to change the
name of the fuckin' band,

but the other three people in
the band would not have it.

- A git, it's like a moron,

a crackpot, a git is a freak,

a git's a dork, a git's a nerd.

It's from a Monty Python episode.

- Darling, these,

these are the gits.

(audience laughing)

The gits.

- Band names are inherently stupid,

and they become,

just a symbol of the band.

- This is Sniveling Little Rat Faced Git.

(audience laughing)

And this is his wife,
Dreary Fat Boring Old Git.

(audience laughing)

- It doesn't evoke anything.

The other three of them,
they were just like,

the Gits, we're the Gits.

- The Gits shows at Antioch were like

unparalleled probably to
anything that I've seen

in a certain sense.

♫ Each time you fall

♫ The pieces are only
more and farther between

♫ And those pieces won't hold together

♫ With all the guilt built in your head

♫ Well I see you shake

♫ I see the paint
underneath your fingernails

♫ Scratching the walls

♫ Scratching the moments
that brought you here

♫ Each time you thought you'd hold on

♫ Trying to stay clean for someone

♫ Maybe you should just
take a look inside yourself

♫ Cause you create your own hell

- It was time for all
of us to leave Antioch.

We hadn't all graduated,
but it was time to leave.

Andy and I knew that we
wanted to get as far away

from the east coast as we could,

So Seattle, felt natural,

and we heard that there was a little bit

of a music scene burgeoning.

As soon as we arrived here,

it just felt like home.

(punk music)

We all lived various
places for a few months,

until December, when a
bunch of us moved into

a big old rundown house,

that became the main
center of our activities

for the next several years.

We called it the Rat House.

- This is 19th Street, and the Rat House

is at 19th and Denny,

which is, just right on Capital Hill.

It was owned by this
guy who was a warlock,

and he told me that the crows

used to all come and
land on top of the house,

and the neighbors thought
that he was a demon,

so they spray painted a white
cross on the front lawn.

He also said that it
used to have cockroaches,

but he ate a cockroach stew,

and this is the guy that rented to us,

he made a cockroach stew and ate the stew,

and then, from then on,
all the cockroaches left.

And look we haven't been
here for a long time.

This Porsche wasn't here.

This was a beat up '76 Dodge van

that was falling apart.

And one time, the brakes gave way

and it drove down and we
found it in the bushes,

like way down the street,

and miraculously didn't
hit any other cars.

It just sort of drove itself
and crashed down at the bottom.

When this fence wasn't
there, there was a porch

there in front of the door,

and that's where we used to sit,

and talk about projects
and drink and hang out.

- Out of all of us, Mia had
been the first one of us

to become gainfully employed,

and she got a job as a
waitress at the Frontier Room,

and she made about $4.25 an hour.

- But it used to be the toughest dive bar,

and nastiest greasy
spoon restaurant in town.

- And we were here every day.

- Because she would feed us.

- Because she would feed us,

and we didn't have much money,

and I think we spent, probably every day

for about a year, year and a half,

at this waterfront dive.

- See that's where Mia used to live,

in that room back there.

I used to live up there,

in that top floor there,
actually I had the best room.

And Carla and Julien
lived in that bottom area,

which used to be a church chapel I guess.

And there was an altar in there,

where the church used to be,

and they had their bed on altar,

which is kind of, risque.

- So beautiful, it was just
so nice to meet people,

and I just kind of had this same mind,

that's the way we want to live our life.

- You had beer dripping off the wall,

because people were
rowdy, it was punk rock.

What do you expect?

So people would like
break through windows,

break things, fall over, dump their beer,

throw their beer, I mean
it was just incredible.

It was just totally insane.

- Here we are, in front
of this hair salon,

that used to be the foremost
live music venue in Seattle,

a club called The Vogue.

- We were trying to get a
gig there for like months.

And no one would,

the guy wouldn't book us at all.

- We actually bribed him with a dollar.

The first night at The Vogue

was our foot in the door in Seattle.

- [Mia] Hey Jewel,

less vocals in this
monitor and more guitar.

You'll get him off me.

(loud punk music)

♫ Well I don't need your social love, no

♫ I feel misread enough

♫ And what repels me

♫ Is the fact that you're smiling

♫ Walking on by, well just keep on walking

♫ Yeah when it hits me

♫ See it still gets kinda heavy

- You know how many times
do you go see a band,

it's like well, okay.

Start playing,

and something happens.

With them it was like,

and oh, fuck.

♫ You never look me in the eye

♫ Or feel the truth

♫ Yeah when it hits me

♫ I see you still gets so heavy

♫ Yeah when it's laying there over

♫ It's wide open and read

- [Eric] They're bringing
something else to the table

that no one else around here has.

- I remember I brought some
friends to see their show,

and everybody just got
along really instantly,

yeah instantaneous, they were just like,

a most sensitive kind of
whole punk rock scene there.

A lot of people became very,

it was on the same, everybody
was kind of on the same level,

coming from the same place.

- Down there is where we
had our rehearsal studio,

7 Year Bitch, DC Beggars, the Gits,

Big Brown House, and all the
bands rehearsed down there.

- I can remember when 7
Year Bitch got started,

there was Valerie Agnew,

who at the time was Steve's girlfriend,

and Selene, and Stefanie Sargent,

and Liz Davis, and the were
all huge fans of music,

and huge fans of the Gits.

We so respected and admired
and looked up to them,

and just thought they were the shit.

- So when we first started
playing, it was like,

we had to borrow their gear,

I mean we didn't know shit,

we didn't know what
the hell we were doing,

so they just totally helped us,

and listened to us thrashing away

and banging around down there,

I mean I can't even imagine,

what it was like for them.

- You would have to go and get like,

a half rack of beer,

to loosen up and get comfortable enough

to start playing.

- [Valerie] 'Cause we were
like, you gotta go away,

like go somewhere else.

- [Selene] Yeah, just go
away, don't listen to us.

- Ah, get that fucking
camera out of my face.

- Please Stefie, lighten up will ya?

- [Eric] There was so much encouragement,

probably specifically from Mia to say,

you guys can do this,

you don't need to just
stand in the audience.

- [Selene] She's like, no
you should be the singer,

and I'm like, okay.

Steve is such (muffled).

We meet this other girl,

Elizabeth, who also worked in the market,

oh she's queen bitch.

Let's have her come out
there and jam with us.

- And he would always come up to me like,

what are you doing?

It's good, it's real, it's true,

you guys sound really good.

And she paid attention, she would like

would pick out certain things.

Like you knew she wasn't
just giving it lip service.

- And I knew that her
bedroom was right above

our practice space,

and it was like whoa that
was really like intimidating.

- I realized that sort of our ethic,

the reason we were doing it,

fit more into the category
of punk, than anything else.

- We were bored, we were young,
we were a little bit drunk,

and little bit angry, and
we had a lot of energy.

What we considered punk was
the whole do it yourself ethic.

If you need to make something happen,

you decided you were gonna do it,

and you started from
scratch and you just did it,

and that's how we put
out our first record.

- And we'd have these haphazard meetings,

everybody's all,

whatever, drinking,

okay we gotta get serious,

we're gonna put out this compilation,

and we're gonna do this.

- [Matt] So we pooled
all the different people

that were in bands,

and said hey, you want to
put a cut on this record?

Give us a tape.

- At a time which we didn't even realize,

there was such a huge thing
about to happen in that city.

- We had no other family here,

so our family was us.

- The Comet was like the bar
they went to most of the time,

and the Comet knew that
if there was a party

at the Rat House, everybody
was basically invited.

You know, so it was many
times that it's like,

people would just show up.

- There was gonna be
the big Rat House party.

The Gits were playing, the
Beggars, and 7 Year Bitch,

just, let's go.

New Years.

- New Years Eve show that
we did at the Rat House

was all like,

and everybody like no fuckin' war,

and we were all just like really,

there was all that going on,

that was affecting
everybody's whole psyche,

and just whatever.

- [Crowd Member] No fuckin' war.

No fuckin' war.

- [Andrew] The war,
before there was a band,

or before there was a show,

or before there was a rehearsal,

there was our friendship and
our loyalty to one another.

- I think that was kind of
the spirit of the Rat House,

and like the thing that
was going on there.

It was just easy, and free, and fun.

(loud punk music)

♫ I tend to drink too much sometimes

♫ I fall a little drunk on my face

♫ I get up I brush up I head to the bar

♫ For another round with all of my friends

♫ Here's to 'em here's
to all of my friends

♫ Here's to 'em here's
to all of my friends yeah

♫ Here's to 'em here's
to all of my friends

♫ Here's to 'em, to all of my friends

♫ It's all I got left in
the end are my friends

- From the the get-go,
this chemical thing,

where things would just sort
of organically materialize,

and songs would happen,
more than be written.

- A few times I just messed
around with some shit on guitar,

and the other guys were like,

oh is that a new song?

And I'd be like, yeah it
is, even though it wasn't,

but I would tell them that because,

the thing is when you're in a band,

you get bored pretty easily.

You constantly get bored of your shit,

and you want to do something new,

and that's how bands get better
and better from doing this.

You know a lot of songs, too,

I would just bring the
entire song fully formed,

and show the band, and
they would arrange it.

Other things, I didn't have fully formed,

I just had these parts,

but I knew sort of the order, and then,

we would arrange it together as a group,

mostly me and Matt, or
me, Matt, and Steve.

- [Steve] Matt, he would
come up with great basslines.

He had a really good ear,
and he could sort of,

describe what he wanted,

and Matt would turn it into
something that was unique.

- [Matt] Both Steve and Andy
were just amazing players,

and trying to keep up
with their musicianship

forced me to learn very quickly.

- If the three of us were
working on stuff or whatever,

Mia would come down with a tape recorder,

and listen to it for a
while, and then eventually,

after she heard it a couple
times, she'd tape it,

and then bring it upstairs,

and then we wouldn't hear
from her about it for a while,

and then we'd have have a period where

it was just the three of us
pretty much working on stuff,

and then we'd start
hassling her, you know?

So Zapata, where's our lyrics?

Yeah, you'll get it eventually,

you'll get it when I'm ready.

A lot of times she had these journals,

these little journal books,

and a lot of times at the bar or wherever

she was hanging out,

she was by herself a lot of times.

She would just sit
around and write in them.

♫ Hey you walk in with another headache

♫ I can tell by the lines in your face

♫ You seem to think if you
just remove the problem

♫ The answers are what will come next

♫ Another shot of whiskey

♫ And maybe I'll be ready

♫ For what's still crowded in your head

♫ Never thinking that all the good times

♫ Are what walked in with the bad

♫ I don't know why we compromise ourselves

♫ I thought it was a common understanding

♫ With all I've tried to help with

♫ Tell me, why do I end up empty handed

♫ Another couple of beers
while I'm safe here at the bar

♫ And maybe I'll get me some rest

♫ Don't know why all the good times

♫ Have to turn up with the bad

- I thought she was a great lyricist,

I thought she had some great words.

- Andy's unusual mind,

was greatly like enhanced by his support,

that Mia would give him,

and there's just this emotional link.

- They were not lovers,

they weren't a romantic duo,

they were an artistic duo.

Their depth of their connection,

was really in the music.

It's a lyricist, and a music writer,

who understand each other's rhythms.

- Her and Andy, they brought
the best out in each other.

He kind of understood what she could sing,

and would push her to her limits.

The two just really
created something that was

bigger than the both
of them as individuals.

- She was really like my soulmate,

as far as my music soulmate.

It's kind of a miracle to meet someone

like that in this life.

(punk music)

♫ When I'm going into the bar

♫ I'm there trying to ignore

♫ This terror in me, I can't set it free

- Wingo Lamo, that was
always one of my favorites,

when I wrote the music to that,

I was in the Rat House basement,

and it just come together really quickly,

and I just knew, I just had a
really good feeling about it.

It's funny because the chorus, Mia says,

"immobilized by the torment."

I didn't know what the words were

because I hadn't read them.

I thought she was saying,
"just like my father told me."

one time I asked her, so
Mia what are you saying

about your father in that one song?

I'm not saying, just like my
father told me, you idiot.

But we always laughed at that,

when we'd play it live sometimes,

and she would say, "just
like my father told me."

♫ Just like my father told me

♫ It hits so hard, there's
nothing more I can take

♫ Needing each breath
just to make it through

♫ There's nothing more
you're expected to do

- [Mia] Woo, doggies.

- The stuff that was
getting all the publicity,

was basically the Subpop bands,

and this grunge thing, which was fine,

for whatever it was,

but we had nothing to do with it.

♫ Shove your lies up your ass,
I hope you choke on his cock

♫ When I found out honey I'll
tell ya it wasn't a shock

♫ You're full of shit and
you sure know how to suck

♫ Here's to it baby, here's to your fuck

- [Andy] Here's To Your Fuck, obviously,

you know I stole the
title from David Lynch

from Blue Velvet.

Fuck, fuck this shit,
and fuck my health sucks,

here's to your fuck.

Here's to your fuck, Frank.

♫ Didn't mean to hurt me,
its touching your sympathy

♫ Have fun with prickface

♫ Cause you sure fucking blew it with me

♫ You're full of shit,
sure know how to suck

♫ Here's to it baby, here's to your fuck

♫ Well baby, now this is the fucking end

♫ You sure got a fucked
up way of making friends

♫ You're full of shit,
sure know how to suck

♫ Here's to it baby, here's to your fuck

(audience cheering)

- Thank you all for that kind of patience,

smile for the camera.

- Mia was doing something
that was unique in 1993,

and it's unique today.

This raw,

pitch-brilliant blues singer,

singing as this charismatic front

to this whirlwind of a punk rock band.

I'm so lucky to have seen it.

- She could have really
sang in any type of band,

and she would have always
been the spotlight,

the point of focus.

- We're The Gits.

- All right man, I'd like
to thank all you people,

who came out tonight.

It makes us feel good coming back here.

- She didn't give a shit,

and it totally came out.

- Because she wasn't
afraid of abrasiveness.

How sloppy you are in life,
there's a beauty to it.

♫ I tear myself apart

♫ And throw it on the
ground in front of you

♫ Can't hide that I'm a social wreck

- There was a soulfulness
that came out of Mia,

and there was a rawness.

♫ And as far as I can see it

♫ I ain't got nothing else

♫ And with all that you've taken from me

♫ Well, go ahead and answer that yourself

- The intensity within
her was like something

that was like, both punk rock, and blues,

because it had that depth.

- I mean you'd have to
be a fucking zombie,

to not be affected.

♫ And as far as I can see it

♫ Hell, I ain't got nothing else

♫ And with all that you've taken from me

♫ Well, go ahead and answer that yourself

♫ Don't, don't try it with me,

♫ But don't, don't tell me lies

♫ And then call it some kind of truth

♫ Go ahead and walk me walk closer

♫ Escort me right to the edge

♫ Push me, push me I don't care

♫ Cause I'll keep coming back

♫ Slightly stronger, despite the worlds

♫ You've left and unbled and said

♫ Well just keep your
twisting, keep your twisting

♫ But I'll keep breathing,
I keep breathing

(audience cheering)

- It never really sunk in

that there was this
tremendous following of fans,

and not to sound melodramatic,

but even people who worshiped
the ground she walked on,

I never thought of her as a star.

She's just my daughter, you know,

my daughter, Mia Zapata,

27 years old, and double-jointed.

That's who she was.

Who when we were on camping
trips as a young kid,

would get mosquitoes in her hair,

flies in her hair, and
was always sitting around,

trying to figure out how
to get all these flies

out of the knots in her hair.

- My mother has this great idea

that we're gonna go to the
local bar in Sandpoint, Idaho,

and we go to this open mic night.

And I'm scared to death.

Of course, we walk in,

and everybody's singing country songs,

and of course, everybody's
kind of looking at Mia,

and Mia beelines right for
the guy handling the thing,

and says, would you mind
if I borrowed your guitar?

Oh yeah, what are you gonna do?

She's like, I'd like to sing a few songs.

And she gets up there in her
fur coat, and her dreads,

and bleached out roots,
and she looks nuts,

she looks like she doesn't belong there.

She blew this room away.

The shots were being sent to the table,

shaking hands, and it was the
introduction to Mia's talent,

that I never knew.

- She didn't have your
typical sense of humor,

and she couldn't tell
a joke worth her life,

but somehow everything she said

had a sort of dry wit, and bite to it.

We'd be driving along, hour upon hour,

and there'd be some cows
out in the pastures,

and every time we saw cows,
she would just go, those cows,

they're outstanding in their field.

The worst part though,
was when she tried to

relate that humor on stage,

when Mia would try to fill the gaps

by saying something funny.

And no one ever got what she was saying.

- She didn't know how to drive at all,

and she loved the idea of driving.

She convinced someone
else who didn't know,

who just assumed that she had a license.

And she was like,

can I drive us back to the
Rat House, from the Comet?

And he was like, yeah sure.

You have your car, right?

He's like, yeah.

She's like, okay.

- And Mia you know, I don't
really remember all these

tall buildings near your house.

She just turned around, she's like,

shut up, I'm taking you the scenic route.

- She would have been great

if she was singing with
an acoustic guitar.

She would have been
great if she was singing

in a techno band.

As it happened, she was
singing in a punk rock band.

Second Skin, I don't know.

Maybe I have a prejudice
because I put the single out,

but I thought it was their best song.

And I couldn't believe they
picked me to put it out.

- We were just kind of playing around,

and all of a sudden this song evolved.

I imagine specifically, Andy
probably came up with a riff.

- When we were doing Second Skin,

and recording that in the studio,

everyone left and Mia did
the vocals by herself,

and I was the first one to come back,

and I thought her vocal performance

was just really wonderful,

and Mia just looked at me and she said,

yeah, it's real desperate,
it's more desperate sounding

than what we've been coming
up with, up until this point.

- I mean it had everything
that we liked about music,

the driving force,

the emotions of Mia's lyrics,

and for the first time it
was kind of catchy, too.

♫ I've thought about it, hell

♫ About a million times

♫ It takes all my strength

♫ Just to keep me calm

♫ But I have to tell myself,
it's best just to breathe

♫ Holding it inside will
only help to do me in

♫ Each time I close my eyes

♫ I see another chain

♫ It's one I can't forget

♫ Something I can not break out of

♫ I need a second skin

♫ Something to hold me up

♫ Can't seem to get out of this hole

♫ I've dug myself right back in

♫ Just to wake up tells
me, hell, I must be brave

♫ It hits me like a drug

♫ Shot into my vein

♫ It's not as delightful

♫ Delightful of a pain

♫ Immobilizing me

♫ Almost makes think i'm dead

♫ I need that second skin

♫ Something to hold me tough

♫ Can't do it on my own

♫ Sometimes I need just
a little more help, well

♫ I want that chance to give
every drop that's left in me

♫ I need a second skin

♫ Something I cannot break free of

♫ I just tell myself,
girl, just let it breathe

♫ It's a calmness I'm always searching for

♫ But the dirt it gets so heavy

♫ It falls above my head

♫ Seeping from under my feet

♫ It just keeps on getting deeper

♫ I need a second skin

♫ Something to hold me up

♫ Can't do it on my own

♫ Sometimes I need just a little more help

♫ I've got that chance to give
every drop that's left in me

♫ I need a second skin

♫ Something I cannot break free of

♫ Though no ever said it'd be easy

♫ Still one's left to deny

♫ The choice that comes between

♫ Your willingness to survive

♫ Though you're knowing
what you stand up against

♫ A world set to deceive

♫ You need a special strength yeah

♫ I've got that second skin yeah

♫ I've got that chance to give

♫ I've got the only way that
I know how to live with it

♫ I need a second skin

♫ Something to hold me tough

♫ I need a second skin

♫ Something I cannot break free of

- We're playing tomorrow
night at the (muffled).

- We get into the parking lot,

and she makes me promise

that I will not make a
scene in Tower Records.

And then of course, I immediately
go to this local section,

and there it is, a Gits CD.

And so I'm, hey Mia, come
over here, come over here.

Dad, your voice is too loud,
your voice is too loud,

Dad, you're making a scene,
you're making a scene.

I'm getting out of here.

No, come here, let me show you.

She's pulling on my sleeve,

and I'm pointing at the CD.

So finally, I acquiesced,
and we leave the store.

She's saying, why did you do that?

I didn't do anything.

All I did was hold up your CD.

She says, it embarrasses me.

I said, why would it embarrass you?

This is what you do for a living.

You don't think of it like that, Dad.

- It must have been stunning,

to feel that you are a part of a scene

that the whole world was looking at,

because everyone's eyes
were on Seattle right then.

- When 7 Year Bitch got rolling,

totally out of the
basement of the Rat House,

with so much help from them,

and we started to get popular,

and then even to the point where

we were getting signed and
stuff, it was really weird.

♫ You kissed me once

♫ And you kissed me twice

♫ With your mess of slobbering lips

♫ With dribble in my brow

♫ I wait until you turned around

♫ And wiped it on my pant leg

- [Matt] We were a little envious,

we were like fuck these
guys are going to New York

and playing these shows.

- [Steve] We taught them how
to play their instruments,

and they're playing in New York before us.

- They're gonna be on
the cover of the Rocket,

and we barely ever got
mentioned in that rag.

♫ 'Cause now I wonder where you are

♫ Oh now I wonder where you are

♫ Yeah now I wonder where the hell you are

- This is what happens I suppose
in an intense rock scene,

you either become rivals
or you become friends,

and they were clearly friends.

- [Matt] There was a
documentary filmmaker in town,

and he was working on a movie called Hype,

that was about the Seattle scene.

7 Year Bitch was asked to be a part of it,

and I think they asked
Doug Pray, the filmmaker...

- Have you guys talked to The Gits yet?

Because like, if you haven't, get on it.

- And eventually he contacted us,

and we were always a little
bit wary of film people.

- We were always kind of like,

yeah I don't know about you.

We're gonna have to think about this.

We don't talk to you society people.

♫ Awaken in a state it's not my own

♫ The only thing that's real

♫ Is that amongst these walls

♫ I whisper to a fear
that sleeps in my soul

♫ Weighting on my conscience,
but I think I know

♫ It hurts me to be angry

♫ Kills me to be kind

♫ But my only torment

♫ Is my own disguise

♫ Waiting on these favors
they only come to show

♫ There's not much in them for you to hold

- I heard about Mia
Zapata, through the scene.

I knew 7 Year Bitch,

and Tad, and you know Soundgarden,

and it was sort of like,

oh there's this really great singer,

you have to see her.

There's this really great
singer, you have to see her.

- One of the guys from Subpop

knew me from the Frontier Room,

and had seen us one of
our very first shows,

and he asked us if we would
be interested in playing,

opening for Tad and Nirvana.

- Nirvana was just breaking,

and Soundgarden and all these bands

were becoming really
trendy and hip, in the US.

But we were like, fuck
it, let's go to Europe.

- [Andy] That we were completely unknown

at the time to the Europeans,

they treated us like royalty,

and we made many great friends

and played some spectacular shows.

- We played this place called the Ecstasy,

and it was this huge club,

and we ended up going on
at three in the morning,

and the place was packed with people.

But at that point in time,

Seattle bands were considered so hip.

I remember one show in Denmark,

we were playing with this band called,

Life But How to Live
It, from Oslo, Norway.

And the singer from that band,

she was singing all
the words to our songs,

and she just totally dug Mia's lyrics.

It was probably one of the best things

that we did as a band.

- We became, I think, a
real band of the people.

Actually, someone said that
to me, and it was really true.

- We got back home.

7 Year Bitch had just
played a real big show,

I think opening for the Chili Peppers.

The sort of fast success of 7 Year Bitch

at that time, a little momentum,

became too much for Stefanie Sargent.

And she had been fighting
a heroin addiction.

It snuck up and bit her on the ass.

Mia was especially crushed
by Stefanie's death.

♫ There is a silence that paces us all

♫ It's sensitive to the
peace that we've known

♫ And if I could take that crevice in me

♫ I'd fill it up with all that you bleed

♫ When I was walking into the water

♫ And I was trying not to breathe

♫ I could feel the current pulling

♫ And I just kept in deeper

♫ I'm sick of the pain that you're feeling

♫ It's weighing you down

♫ If I could erase it
all within just one dive

♫ I wrap you precious around my soul

♫ And now I'm letting you go

♫ As I drown these evil spirits
and penetrate the obstacles

♫ I feel the seaweed creeping up my skin

♫ It's like a monster
that's reaching for me

♫ With the passion of life I've got left

♫ I've got to use it to sacrifice myself

- And one time I think
it was Mia, Stefanie,

and maybe Maria, I remember
seeing them all in the lake.

They were tangled up in a lot of seaweed,

and they were all screaming and squawking

and wrestling in all
this stuff in the water.

It was just so funny,

because, although they were these total

insane, punk rock women, they
looked like little girls.

They were all like (screaming).

Screaming in the water,

and you could tell when one
of them would get caught

in the seaweed, and they
were totally like, oh...

(screaming)

even more than the others, and
try to pull the others in it.

And Mia told me that's from going

into the seaweed like that,

that's where she came up
with the lyrics to Seaweed.

♫ Well, I dove down into the seaweed

♫ Scared once before, but not anymore

♫ As it twists and turns
me away from the surface

♫ Here's my chance of letting it go

♫ I'm sick of the pain that I'm feeling

♫ It's weighing me down

♫ If I could erase it all

♫ Within just one fuckin' dive

♫ I wrap you precious around my soul

♫ And now I'm letting you go

♫ As I drown these evil spirits

♫ And penetrate the obstacles

(audience applauding and cheering)

- Thank you very much, we
have CD's, tapes, records,

got a compilation over there
with all Seattle bands,

and San Francisco bands,
(muffled) 7 Year Bitch.

It's all for sale right there.

- Things just seemed to
keep building and building,

and we had all kinds of
tours that were being set up,

national tours, our first
gig in New York was set up,

and we were really
looking forward to that.

- Hi Dad, this is Mia.

Well I'm down here in LA, and
I'm in this fancy restaurant.

We're sitting here with these executives

from this recording company,

and well they're making an
awful lot of promises to us,

of what can happen, and
how they can help us,

and all of that.

- And I sat with them, and at that moment,

I committed myself to the idea,

that I was going to sign this band,

that they were going to
be on Atlantic Records.

- One of the executives
was asking the group,

what their aspirations,
what their goals were.

And when they got to Mia,

she said, well all I really want,

is a cabin in the woods, an
English sheepdog and a Jeep,

and to be able to sit and write music.

And one of the executives said,

we can give you that right now.

- I don't know whether

they had committed
themselves to that idea.

But I had decided

that I was going to
make them a firm offer,

to be on Atlantic.

And in fact, this was

June, 1993.

- This was the beginning of
so much great stuff to come.

It was just a real,
totally creative group.

It was just so spontaneous that way.

♫ When I woke up today

♫ I was dizzy in my brain

♫ It's not that I like to feel this way

♫ The wagon's shaking and
I feel it start to tilt

♫ And I just go tumbling
right back in a whirlwind

♫ Where I find myself again

♫ Well I cannot seem to
hold on to a fucking thought

♫ This whirlwind's got me
and I'm racing out the door

♫ It's nice for a while,
but when I try to focus

♫ All of my convictions come
crashing down around me again

- We were sitting at the
corner end of the bar,

and there's the door,

and Mia was in a really good mood,

because she had just
played a solo show in LA,

and had gotten paid for it,

and she was really psyched about it.

She was very loving, and
really like hugged us deeply,

and licked my face, and did
a Mia maneuver you know?

And she left the bar, and
it was about midnight,

maybe a little after.

And I got the call from Steve saying,

that Mia was missing,

and he was hoping that it
wasn't a repeat of Stefanie,

which made me think, drug-related,

which didn't make sense.

She said she was gonna take a cab,

she was doing this, she was doing that,

and that we were just having
a regular night at the Comet,

like we would normally have.

- [Narrator] Two of her
roommates finally broke down

and called the morgue,

where she was, and she was unidentified,

an unidentified victim at
the morgue at that time.

- [News Reporter] 27 year
old Mia Zapata was a singer

on the brink of making it big.

The band, The Gits, had recently
released a full-length CD.

National tour dates had
just been finalized,

but it's all over now.

Zapata's body was found
early Wednesday morning

on a remote street in
the central district.

Zapata had been strangled.

Police are investigating but so far

they have no suspects or motives.

- You can imagine how devastated I was,

when I learned about that,

and how angry I was,
that that could happen.

- And I just remember
feeling like holy shit,

like the world caved in,

the fucking walls came tumbling down.

It was hard.

- Out of all this, we
were all so devastated,

but I think it was really
most difficult for my mother,

because, and my father too,

I mean that was their little girl,

and they were so proud of her because

she really paved her own road.

- You think things are bad,
and they get so much worse,

and you have to handle it.

You have to deal with it,
and you have to persevere,

and you have to carry on,

and you have to hold each other up,

and keep each other up but it was so hard.

It was really a devastating thing,

her death, there was no rhyme
or reason to it, it was so,

definitely, she was
there, and she was gone.

She was missing in action,

it was just like she was just taken out,

like so violently.

- There's no (muffled) for that.

♫ Cut my skin, it makes me human

♫ Scorn your mind

♫ Just feel the pain

♫ 'Cause it's what makes us human

♫ Yeah it keeps us all the same

- That was a heavy time.

That was heavy.

You lose a few people like
that, in your immediate world.

It sucked a big one.

- I think we were really
hitting some strides musically,

and in our writing, when Mia was killed.

- It's really a shame because
we had so much lined up.

Mia had started writing music again,

and she had played me this piece on piano,

during her lunch break at the
pizza place where she worked.

To me I just felt like
this was the beginning,

of so much great stuff to come.

And it's just a real shame

obviously, that it never got to be.

- Everybody was just blown
away, and just stunned,

and just, grasping at anything,
and trying to figure it out.

It was a mystery, it was a grand mystery.

And I think that

the main thing, for me at that time, was

that she was gone, and that she was dead,

and that she had suffered.

Because she had suffered.

And that was the hit that I kept getting,

what did she go through?

What were her last moments like?

What the fuck happened?

- We've got her whereabouts
at about 2:15 in the morning,

and it was probably about a one hour,

an hour and 15 minute timeframe,

from the time she was last seen,

till the time her body's found,

and we have no idea what
happened at that time.

This is the area, 24th and Yessler,

this is where Mia's body was found.

At that time it was nothing
like the way it is today.

It was kind of a field
area, somewhat isolated.

And it was a young lady who was out,

she came across Mia's body,

and she ran across the street,
there's a fire station there.

And she woke up the firefighters.

They came out here and called paramedics,

and like I say, they tried
to do the best they could,

but it was too late at that point.

Mia was already dead.

- I remember that night
when we were with her,

but then I don't remember
anything until the funeral,

you know being at the
funeral home with everybody.

It sticks in my head so vividly.

- On the day of the wake,
I happened to look outside,

and the line kept getting longer,

and now it was like a half a block long.

And all you could come up with is,

is well these are fans and friends of Mia.

- It blew my mind, how
many people knew Mia,

but Mia also knew them back.

- We went over to the casket.

And laying in the casket,

around Mia, there were snips of hair.

There were rings, neck
chains, labels, and postcards,

poems, all laying, very
respectfully laying

around her head and
shoulders, and on her chest.

It was just absolutely unbelievable.

There was a wake that
her friends, her fans,

was then holding that evening.

There were posters
scattered all over Seattle,

announcing where this
wake was going to be held.

The only admission was one yellow rose,

that's all you had to bring.

And the significance of that was

that Mia loved yellow roses.

We, as a family, were in my car,

and we were driving to the street

that the wake was going to
be held on, and the building.

I made a couple of wrong turns,

and at a certain point,
I said, wait a minute.

Look, I don't know
exactly where we're going,

but if you'll notice, on the streets,

there are people carrying yellow roses,

and they are walking to where
the location of this wake,

and we'll just follow them.

- She touched a lot of people,

and a lot of people considered
Mia their best friend,

because she probably was,

best friend to a lot of people,

because she was a great friend.

- [Andy] People who
never knew Mia often have

a lot of misconceptions
of what she was like.

They often imagine that
she was a real tough girl,

or that she was some type
of selfless martyr or saint.

I would say that those
two things are distortions

of qualities, which she
did in fact possess.

But in reality she was
a very modest person.

She was extremely
affectionate and sincere,

very very intelligent, and really funny.

She was very private and very gentle.

- Mia and I were just, had
a beautiful relationship.

She was my best friend.

And just musically, it was just amazing,

an amazing partnership.

I really felt like she was part of me.

- This is a painting,

it's on the album, that I did of Mia.

It's actually, probably, one of the most,

it probably is the most difficult
painting I've ever done.

I did it the day that she died.

I don't know how many
years ago it was today,

it still makes me really
emotional inside to talk about it.

But I mean I can't, I don't know,

that's why I paint pictures.

- She was on loan to me.

And she now belongs to all of you.

And it's neat,

I like it.

I'm proud of her.

♫ There are these things I want the most

♫ But usually one step
furthest from my reach

♫ But they always stand close enough

♫ To take me to the next drink

♫ Cause when it cuts, it really does

♫ My soul spills out blood

♫ Don't know how long it's gonna take

♫ But I'm gonna need a little more one day

♫ Sometimes, I just want to know

♫ Faster than that train is gonna roll

♫ Is it real or, tell me, is it wrong

♫ To keep these dreams
strongest in my mind

- Our office was involved

with the Seattle police department,

from the inception of the case.

We knew that we had a
tough case on our hands.

There were things about the case that

led to one scenario that
is always bothersome

from a law enforcement perspective,

which is, if it's a relatively
random, type of crime,

there's going to be less
clues, less evidence,

to glean, to collect.

- The theory is, and for
the most part, it works,

a female is gonna be killed
by someone she knows.

When someone's murdered,
there are other victims,

there's collateral damage.

And it's the family, and
close friends, and associates,

because everybody assumes, it's one of us.

And who is it?

- It broke it apart, and it
was never the same again.

A whole like dark cloud
came over everything,

and stayed there.

- When Mia was murdered,

that just destroyed us all.

All our friends' bands,
everyone just broke up.

We just pretty much lost it.

- At the time, a lot of our
friends were being questioned,

and being taken in to
give samples and stuff,

close friends of ours,
male friends and stuff,

and that were coming up to us, and saying,

God I had to go down to the police station

and be questioned and give
them a sample and stuff,

and how harsh it was for them,

and how we were feeling.

At the time, now we're
back there at the time,

and it was bringing up
all those feelings like,

yeah you didn't know if it was the guy

that was sitting across the
bar from you every night.

- We decided two weeks
after she was killed,

that the police weren't doing enough,

and that we had to hire
a private investigator.

By end of August, we had
started the investigation

and we started a campaign
to raise money for it.

And we called on our friends
that played in different bands

to play benefit shows at
different clubs around town.

- The guys in The Gits called, to see if

I would be interested.

They were doing some benefit stuff

to raise money for a private I.

- It somehow came up in
the studio with Joan,

and she's just like,
we've got to do something.

We gotta be involved.

- I think somehow we got
around to talking about

playing some of the Gits' songs.

- Next thing you know, she's like,

singing the Gits songs,

with the surviving members of the Gits.

- The band that we created

with the remaining Gits and
myself, we called Evil Stig,

which means, Gits Live, backwards.

- I'd like to thank you
all right here, real quick,

for coming out to Viva Zapata.

Thank you for supporting.

♫ Awaken in a state it's not my own

♫ The only thing that's real

- Andy, Matt, and Steve, were nothing but

beautiful souls to me.

I can't imagine what
they were going through.

I really can't.

I cannot imagine that happening.

And when you see the footage,
and you see how close

they were, and you see Andy
and Mia joking on stage,

and you see this rapport,

and how close they were.

It really had to be devastating.

So I really think

it's admirable what they did.

I think Mia would proud
of them, what they did.

- The amount of bands that got involved,

which was The Posies,
Presidents of the United States,

Nirvana, when Kurt was alive,

Eddie Vedder, Soundgarden,

and they all brought things,

I think Soundgarden lent
us some of the equipment,

like the drums, and what not.

- I wanted to do the music proud,

I wanted to do a good job.

I wanted to raise a lot of money,

to make sure we were able
to give the private I

something good and helpful.

So, you just wanted to do
everything justice, I suppose.

- To actually get a huge group
of people like that together

to come up with the money to
hire a private investigator,

because we didn't know what
the Seattle police was...

- How far they were gonna take it.

- You have to so something too, you know.

♫ Will there be hundreds mourning for you

♫ Will they talk of the talent
and inspiration you gave

♫ No

♫ Who besides your mother

♫ Will stand in sorrow at your grave

♫ Mother may I

♫ Momma Mia

♫ Society did this to you

♫ Does society have justice for you

♫ If not

♫ I do

- In the end, I think we
raised close to $50,000

for the investigation,

and it didn't come to anything.

We found out a lot of dirt
about a lot of people,

but in the end, we didn't
find out who killed her,

and we still haven't.

- Looking back on all
that stuff, there's really

creepy foreshadowing, in their songs,

and everywhere you look.

♫ Never ceases to amaze me
the shit you try to pull

♫ Anything to get me in
and then get me killed

♫ Go ahead and slice me up,
spread me all across this town

♫ Cause you know you're
the one that won't be found

- After she was killed, it
was very, very difficult

to listen to that song.

Go ahead and slash me up,

and spread me all across this town,

because you're the one
that won't be found.

I mean gosh, how could you not equate that

with what happened to her?

♫ Then you raped her

♫ You left her in the alley way

♫ I know I'll have to see you

♫ And now I think of you as mine

- I'd like to let her
lyrics speak for themselves,

and I have my own
interpretation of what that was,

and I do know some of the stuff

she was going through
personally at the time,

but I think lyrics should be

taken in by everyone that
hears them individually,

and looked at on a personal
level from the listener.

- My personal opinion
is that she was trying

to make a serious song,
about violence against women.

- The cops were telling us,

don't tell anyone that Mia was raped.

And we were like, fuck that.

- It could have been me,
it could have been anybody,

but it was Mia, and she was so

fierce, and so street smart.

- There was an incredible
sense of disempowerment,

after Mia was killed.

We didn't feel safe, we were freaked out,

the whole city was pretty freaked out.

The community was freaked out.

- The anger started
kicking in really hard,

but such intense anger
and just fuckin' rage.

- Valerie called me from the road,

and said, we have to get
together as soon as I get back.

We've got to do something.

She was just all like freaked out.

- We were just like, thinking
in the modes of self-defense,

like wishing that we were
all fucking ninja bitches.

- We didn't like feeling afraid.

We felt, we don't want to
change the way we live.

We want to be able to go
out, see shows, play shows,

drink, have it be two o'clock
in the morning, and get home.

We just want to get home
without being fucked with.

- And that's kind of the
inception of Home Alive.

And it's still around, and still doing it.

And I think we've accomplished
our goals and beyond.

- [Gretta] There was a sense of,

we're all taking care of ourselves,

and each other, we're
watching each other's backs

at the same time.

- Seeing like, from Home Alive,

people are trying to make
something positive happen,

from something really horrible.

And I remember thinking,

like getting a lot of
inspiration and hope from that.

- Definitely for me, made it
a little easier to deal with,

with the violence that she suffered.

- After The Gits ended, we started the

Dancing French Liberals of '48.

It was really therapeutic,
because it was a hard core band,

and we played hard, and we played fast.

And we rehearsed a lot,

and our goal was to be able to play

at the record release
party for our second album,

which would be released posthumously.

That was the record release party

for Enter the Conquering Chicken.

And it was also really cool
finishing that album up,

after Mia had passed away,
because we felt close to her,

because we were able to hear her sing,

and listen to her really doing her thing.

♫ Nothing like pain to
make you all the same

- [Mia] God, I'm not a guitar player.

All right, one more, and we'll (muffled).

That's mine.

Adrian.

I can take a yell anyway you dog.

♫ Well I don't need your social love, no

♫ I feel misread enough

♫ And what ails me

♫ Is the fact that you're smiling

♫ Walking on by, walking on by

♫ Yeah when it hits me

♫ See it still gets kinda heavy

♫ Yeah when it's laying there over

♫ It's wide open and read

♫ Well I don't need your social love, no

♫ I feel misread enough

♫ And what ails me

♫ Is the fact that you're smiling

♫ Walking on by, keep on walking

♫ Yeah when it hits me

♫ See it still gets kinda heavy

♫ Yeah when it's laying there over

♫ It's fucking wide open and read

♫ I don't need your social crap

♫ You head iron sleep boys

♫ I can see, what ails me

♫ Is your pretentious stare

- In the 10 years that have
passed since that, the crime,

her true goodness has come out.

- After the tragedy of Mia's death,

I think it's really amazing that we have

all of these recordings.

And so many people took photographs,

and there's film that
you guys have compiled,

and it's all there, and
I'm glad that's there.

But it still makes me sad

that there's so much
more we could have done.

- If anything, I like
to discuss more things

that are positive about the Gits,

and the musical legacy,

and the artistic legacy that Mia left.

- Probably, if the Gits had
some kind of mission or quest,

it was to put some soul back
into that kind of music,

and I think we did,

and that's why I, still, I
think people respond to it,

and care about it, and why it
continues to matter to people.

- Oftentimes in the
history of popular music,

women artists take a while

for really their influence to be felt.

And I think it's a ripe time for the Gits'

influence to be felt, and Mia's influence,

because a new generation of artists,

like the Yeah Yeah Yeah's,
and the Distillers,

are taking from Mia, without even knowing

they're taking from Mia.

- What she was about, and
that type of life force,

that seemed unique,

and to think that that
was just strangled away

from all of us, is just very sad.

- [Steve] Every hour that
goes by after a crime,

it gets harder to solve.

But, it doesn't mean it won't be.

- It's always, it's always going to be,

always will be,

in the back of your head.

- I tried to keep those guys' hopes up

that we would find

a killer, but it was
terribly disheartening.

- In any case, we never saw the file,

so we don't know if there's any evidence.

Basically we don't know anything,

and that's how it's been,

and that's how it still is.

- [Steve] Short of somebody
turning someone else in,

or somebody confessing,

we're fucked, we're still in the dark.

And that person is still
out there, obviously.

- [Announcer] Number one
in western Washington,

with coverage you can count on,

KING 5 News, at five.

- A local murder mystery
dating back a decade,

may be solved tonight.

Police in Florida arrest a suspect,

somebody they believe killed

Seattle grunge singer, Mia Zapata.

It was a horrific unsolved murder case

that shocked Seattle's music scene,

and now, a documentary is being made

about the band, The Gits, its success,

and its demise.

But this documentary will
now have a different ending.

- I got a call on my
cell phone from KING 5,

the TV station, and they said,

we want to be the first
to interview you about,

about this indictment,

and I said, okay,

you can do that, but first
you gotta show me proof.

A van pulls up, a woman gets out,

and gives me a piece of paper,

and it's a fax from the
Miami Police Department,

saying that they have someone in custody.

- I'll still never forget the day,

I got a phone call from Steve Moriarty,

no hello, no nothing,

we got him.

(loud punk music)

- This next chapter, in this awful story,

I'm glad they finally caught this guy.

It doesn't change anything about the band,

and anything about the music we've made.

- The key to the break in
this case after 10 years?

DNA evidence.

- [News Reporter] 10 years ago,

detectives saved some DNA
evidence from the crime scene,

and that finally led to
an arrest in Florida.

- Mia was viciously raped.

There was no semen,

but her attacker

left saliva on her breast.

And so we promptly reopened the case,

and we started looking at the evidence,

we said hey, we've got saliva samples,

we sent the gauze in, and we
were able to get a profile.

- [News Reporter] Just one month ago,

detectives finally got a computer hit.

It led them across the
country to Marathon, Florida,

where last night, officers
arrested this man,

48 year old Jesus Mezquia.

He's a recently convicted Florida felon,

whose profile was newly
entered in a database.

Suspect Jesus Mezquia was 39 years old

when Mia Zapata was murdered.

The investigation revealed
he lived in Seattle

at the time of the murder.

Last month a DNA match was made,

from the Florida felon database,

from a newly entered profile.

- This guy was an animal.

He was the type of guy, that
when he walked in a room,

the temperature dropped about 10 degrees.

He's big, he's got hands,

I remember the hands, they're like,

like baseball mitts.

He's a predator.

I'll go to my grave saying

that they never met, till that night.

- Nobody knew anything.

Nobody knew this guy.

We were on the wrong track the whole time.

- [Detective] She was at the
wrong place at the wrong time,

and he was out, like a
hunter trying to find game.

- When it all came about,

it was really a shock
to everybody's system.

- It was just like, whirlwind kind of,

up down, like euphoric,
like fucking piece of shit,

is caught.

- Seeing the man's face,

for the first time was

a truly evil experience.

Like, the damn just broke.

It was just like, oh my God,

this is the last person that she saw?

She was looking into this guy's eyes?

- I just felt disgust and hate for the guy

to the point that I pitied him,

that I pitied him, that
I hated him so much.

- When we got back from Florida,

my sergeant called me on the weekend,

he said, could you call Richard Zapata?

Tell him what's going on.

And I called him, and I talked
Rich for about a half hour.

And I'll tell you what,

through all this stuff, he's thanking us,

he's telling me that you guys
are saints for what you did,

and I couldn't believe it.

I thought Jesus, we did our job.

And I remember walking down the stairs,

and I was up in the bedroom talking,

and I walked down the stairs,

and my wife said, how'd it go?

And I just started crying.

I said, geez the guy's incredible,

I can see why Mia was the way she was.

- The time that it took
to solve this case,

to gather enough evidence
to support charging,

and hopefully a conviction later on,

is how it tracked with the
evolution of DNA itself.

Because in the early 90s,

DNA was just being ushered
into the courtrooms,

evidence such as saliva could not

yield a result at that time.

But then, some nine, 10 years later,

the lab now is able to
take a very small sample,

and render a reliable result,

and a genetic profile.

The discoverer of that process
received the Nobel Prize.

- And I think, I wanted to be there,

my sister wanted to be there,

and my father, of course, was
definitely gonna be there.

But my mother, she had a tough time.

She just really, I think
she wanted to be there,

but she just didn't
feel like she could be.

She felt like it would just hurt too much.

She didn't want to have a face.

She didn't want to know details.

She didn't want to relive it.

- The trial, it was different things,

different people saw it differently.

The people in Capital
Hill, the music industry,

it was their day, I mean
it was finally redemption.

It had really shaken up that community.

It really hit 'em hard.

And to them was almost like
the day of deliverance.

- [Bailiff] Please rise.

- [Judge] Has the jury reached a verdict?

- [Jury Foreman] Yes, Your Honor, we have.

- [Judge] Would the clerk
please read the verdict?

- [Clerk] Verdict form A, we the jury,

find the defendant, Jesus Mezquia,

guilty of the crime of felony
murder in the first degree,

as alternatively charged in count one.

Juror number one, is this
your individual verdict?

- [Juror Number One] Yes.

- [Clerk] And is it the
verdict of the jury?

- [Juror Number One] Yes.

- [Clerk] Juror number two, is
this your individual verdict?

- [Juror Number Two] Yes.

- [Clerk] And is it the
verdict of the jury?

- [Juror Number Two] Yes.

- [Clerk] Juror number three,

is this your individual verdict?

- [Juror Number Three] Yes.

- [Clerk] And is it the
verdict of the jury?

- [Juror Number Three] Yes.

- [Clerk] Juror number four,

is this your individual verdict?

- [Juror Number Four] Yes.

- [Clerk] And is it the
verdict of the jury?

- [Juror Number Four] Yes.

- [Clerk] Juror number five,

is this your individual verdict?

- [Juror Number Five] Yes.

- [Clerk] And is it the
verdict of the jury?

- [Juror Number Five] Yes.

- [Clerk] Juror number six, is
this your individual verdict?

- [Juror Number Six] Yes.

- [Clerk] And is it the
verdict of the jury?

- [Juror Number Six] Yes.

- [Clerk] Juror number seven,

is this your individual verdict?

- [Juror Number Seven] Yes.

- [Clerk] And is it the
verdict of the jury?

- [Juror Number Seven] Yes.

(subdued electric music)

♫ Cut my skin, it makes me human

♫ Scorn your mind

♫ Just feel the pain

♫ 'Cause it's what makes us human

♫ Yeah, it keeps us all the same

♫ You lose your head on your chosen trip

♫ The sight of your blood
you might lose your spit

♫ And a broken heart will turn to sin

♫ But when the wound is open

♫ We're all the same

♫ Cut my skin, it makes me human

♫ Scorn your mind

♫ Just feel the pain

♫ When you're lookin at pain
and you're lookin at truth

♫ There's nothin' like pain
to make us all the same

- Just hearing the jury,

pronounce him guilty of all charges,

completely and totally satisfied me.

- I've got my whole life ahead of me,

because essentially I was here.

You know, living with that on
my mind for the last 12 years,

and really not able to
find any peace until,

until I saw this day, and you know,

I always held out hope
that I would see this day,

but sometimes I really didn't think so.

- For a long time it's like,

I haven't been able to listen to the Gits,

because it was always so painful.

After this happened and we were over there

just the other night, and we put it on,

and it was the first time,

that I felt like, happy again.

- I still love listening to our music,

although it makes me sad,
it makes me miss Mia.

Their legacy is what it is,

and it's seen differently
by different people,

but for me, it's just my personal memories

of the time I spent with those guys.

- It matters to me very much that people

still care about the Gits,
and the music especially.

It's very moving when I hear

that people care and that
they get something from it,

because after all, that's
why we did it, to begin with.

- We experienced a really dramatic,

intense lives together.

And we lost our sister together.

We'll always be brothers.

We'll live probably in
different parts of the country,

or different parts of the world,

but there'll still be Gits.

Just like Mia, will still be a Git.

(rock music)

("Precious Blood" by The Gits)

♫ There are these things I want the most

♫ But they are usually one
step furthest from my reach

♫ Oh, but they always stand close enough

♫ To take me to the next fuckin drink

♫ Cause when it cuts, it really does

♫ My soul spills the blood

♫ Don't know how long it's gonna take

♫ But I'm gonna need a little more one day

♫ Sometimes, I just want to know

♫ Faster than my precious
blood will let me roll

♫ Is it real or, tell me, is it wrong

♫ To keep these dreams
strongest in my mind

♫ Cause when it cuts,
it just gets deeper baby

♫ Like when I go to touch you,

♫ You're the furthest from me

♫ Don't know how long it's gonna take

♫ But I'm gonna get me get
me get a little more one day

♫ Oh, it's laying tired in me, it does

♫ And when I see it
there it makes me wanna

♫ It's laying tired in me,
it does, when I see it there

♫ It's all I can do to
stare it in the face

♫ Just to get through this hell we made

♫ Even the hours they hold heavy on me

♫ Even the hours just hold the pain

♫ And even the times they
get heavy, little weak

♫ Even the hours just hold
the pain, there is no gain

♫ All in all it comes back to me

("Daily Bread" by The Gits)

♫ There's a motion in daily silence

♫ That's the yeses swimming round my head

♫ I need to listen to my conscience

♫ The world puts me down instead

♫ I have four walls and
they're there to watch me

♫ The blankness jumps right off the page

♫ My fingers try to tear the paper

♫ A bitter moment is almost dead

♫ It's almost dead

♫ Come take my hand

♫ Thought I'd tell the bit of it

♫ And what makes sense

♫ And wait for all that I offer

♫ And they take my only bread

♫ And I leave another example of

♫ Well it leaves me, at
about a thousand miles

♫ I feel the beating of the heartbreak

♫ I feel the beating of the sun

♫ And as I'm getting any closer

♫ Well I'm more than full of you

♫ In this place

♫ This hell

♫ Come take my hand

♫ Thought I'd tell the bit of it

♫ And what makes sense

♫ And wait for all that I offer

♫ And they take my only bread

♫ There's only so much I will take

♫ Bitterness is my rage

♫ And wait for all that I offer

♫ And they take my only bread

♫ Down

♫ Oh they're sending them down

♫ One by one they knock them over

♫ And they just sink down

♫ Suddenly down

♫ A simple down

♫ Let's all lay down

- [Mia] Thank you.

I think there are nice people here.

(crowd cheering)

(MultiCom Jingle)