THE MARBLES – For Rockers of All Ages (1977)

 © Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 1977/2022
Images from the Internet unless indicated

When I started to collect pieces for the second issue of FFanzeen, I decided to begin with a band I enjoyed: The Marbles were an amazingly entertaining band. Their sound was a unique combination of power-pop / rock’n’roll that they made their own.

I was a fan of the group and saw them often, sharing bills with bands like Television, Mong, the Mumps, and Milk & Cookies (another personal power pop fave). And yes, they shared the bill with the infamous CBGB AC/DC show, which was Bon Scott’s last New York performance, to which I was present (the enclosed pictures by me here are from that night).

The musicians had similar pageboy hairstyles and looked very boy-next-door, in fresh pressed white shirts and slacks. Their main power lay in their songs, which were hard-hitting, killer pop tunes, fueled by Howard Bowler’s lead guitar and bolstered by Eric Li’s keyboard. This is evidenced especially in their first single, on Ork Records, “Red Lights” b/w “Fire and Smoke” (“Red Lights” was also included on ROIR’s excellent Singles cassette collection). Eventually they would come out with another single, “Forgive and Forget” b/w “Computer Cards.” Unfortunately, these two 45s represent all the existing officially released catalog of the Marbles. What happened to the tapes they refer to in the interview following is a mystery. According to their ex-manager, Alan Betrock (d. 2000), they no longer exist. It’s a shame, because they had some killer tunes, like “Closing Me Down,” “She’s Cool,” “Jealousy,” “She’s Pleased,” and especially the bouncy “You Tomorrow.” Live versions of many of these songs can be found online. After all this time, I still remember the tunes to many of these songs. Despite being a pop band, they also had a snotty attitude, which help them fit into the scene.

I was fascinated with Jim Clifford’s bass, and bass playing style. It was Clifford’s bass that made me first notice the Rickenbacker brand. I couldn’t figure out how anyone could play a bass with a neck that long. I was also amazed at his technique, which I have rarely seen since. Rather than just bending his wrist around the bass and curling his finger to play the frets, his wrists were turned at an almost ninety-degree angle so the fingers were nearly straight. I tried duplicating it, but couldn’t come close.

This interview was published in FFanzeen No. 2, dated October 31, 1977.

The Marbles – For Rockers of All Ages

The Marbles are really one of the better bands around now-a-days. I have been a fan of theirs for a few years now and have caught their act whenever I could. Recently they went on vacation. When they left, they were very good, but now, they are just great. I had to interview them, and below is the outcome.

It was a hot night when I visited the Marbles’ loft, that last day of August 1977. The entire band, Howard Bowler (guitar, vocals), Jim Clifford (bass, vocals), Eric Li (keyboards, vocals) and David Bowler (drums, vocals), was present:

FFanzeen: How did the first single (“Red Lights”) sell?
Jim Crawford: There were 1,500 copies made at the most, and they all sold out.
David Bowler: We’re negotiating for a re-pressing.

FFanzeen: How did Terry Ork [d. 2004] approach you to do the record?
Jim: Over a joint.
David: He got us our first gig at CBGB on the same bill as the Ramones. And I work at Cinemabilia [with Ork]
Howard Bowler: He likes the band. He wanted to do a single … and he was picking bands he wanted to record. He started with Television [“Little Johnny Jewel, Parts 1 and 2” – RBF, 2022]. The second was …
Eric Li: Hell. Richard Hell [“Blank Generation” b/w “Another World”  – RBF, 2022].
David: Then we came out.
Jim: Then he went berserk.
Howard: And we haven’t seen him since [laughs].

FFanzeen: His next single is going to be with Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. [Note: either this never happened or was not released – RBF, 2022]
Jim: Yeah? The New Wave bands have to make a splash with the critics.

FFanzeen: Are you satisfied with the single?
Jim: No. The master recording we did for Terry Ork was very clear; you could hear every instrument. You could hear the vocals: ... We’re satisfied with our performance on the record. There’s a lot of energy on that record, but as far as the actual pressing and mastering of the record, it was done – well, face it, Terry Ork doesn’t have that much money to work with. He tried the best he could but with the things he was using, the best is very sub-standard. Plus, this was one of the first recordings he put out, so he was still experimenting with different pressing companies. And unfortunately, the ones he experimented with us were really crummy. I mean, the first press cuttings of the single came back and it wasn’t even printed on the record straight. You’d put on the needle and it would speed up and slow down. It wasn’t on the central axis. The second one had a skip on it that was printed on the record. And five test pressings later, we finally decided to just go ahead with it. The third test pressing sounded like there were five thousand mosquitoes in the room. We were not satisfied with the sound quality, but we were satisfied with the energy. We like the record. The songs come through anyway.
Eric: After the last pressing, we just got so disgusted we just said, “Go ahead with it,” ‘cause it was just taking so long.
Howard: We had planned to release it in September, and by the time we were finished, it was January when it was released.
David: Now it’s over a year old to us and we know we could do it better.
Jim: Anyway, we’re gonna put out a new one now.
Eric: That’s the main thing.
Jim: I don’t know if it’s gonna be by Ork or not, but we’re going to record a new single, “Free World” and “Love Today.”

FFanzeen: Are they new songs?
Howard: No, they’re about a year old now, but they’re very mature, and ripe for recording them. One of the songs is sort of a political statement, “Free World.” “Love Today” is, well, a love song about “every-man.”
Jim: It’s a revolutionary single. You have never heard a single like this.
David: Next question.

Eric Li (ffoto by Robert Barry Francos)

FFanzeen: I was going to ask if you were satisfied with the way Ork promoted the single, but …
David: He didn’t do any promotion, so we’re very satisfied.
Eric: We did about what we expected.
David: No, really. He told all his friends.
Jim: Well, actually, they sold out so we can’t be unimpressed. He only pressed 1,500 copies, and the fact that it was an Ork record and we were a part of the New York rock scene. We were just so disappointed in the sound quality, that before he printed any more, we wanted it pressed at a different place. He has to come up with the money to do that before we’ll go ahead with it. (We) want to do it, but it’s just a matter of getting the monkey wrench out of the works.

FFanzeen: Was “Jailbait” recorded at the same time?
Howard: Yeah.
David: There were two others. “From Me For You” and “Closing Me Down.” All recorded at Douglaston.

FFanzeen: Will you release those?
Jim: No, actually those will be burned.
Eric: We’re thinking of changing the B-side to “Jailbait.”

FFanzeen: When was the last time you played together publicly?
David: Our last New York job was four months earlier.
Jim: In May
Howard: We took a summer break. We went to Minneapolis. And we played there three nights.
David: It was great. Parties every night. Encores every night.
Eric: Unqualified success.
Jim: Everyone liked us a lot.
Howard: The bar owner there did the best he had ever done, and they want us back. That’s part of this tour. The reason we set up this tour is because we did so well in July when we played there and he asked us back in October, and we figured if we’re going out there in October, this time let’s make some money, so we want to have jobs stopping off in Cleveland and Ann Arbor. We have connections for a few jobs on the way out and hopefully on our way back. And we’ll be playing. That’s another thing.

Eric Li, David Bowler, Jim Craford, partial Howard Bowler
(ffoto by Robert Barry Francos)

FFanzeen: Did you enjoy your vacation?
Eric: Oh, yeah!
Howard: It was great.

FFanzeen: Why did you take a break?
Jim: Because we couldn’t get a job in New York. Summer in New York is so hot, and Hilly [Kristal, of CBGB] at that point was not really excited about hiring us. We didn’t want to play at Max’s because – eh – we just didn’t want to play there. And the summer here was just very dead.
David: We had to get our heads together.
Eric: We just wanted a break. We needed a vacation and it was really fun.
David: We kept on rehearsing, we worked on our material, and we were going through managerial problems that was taking up a lot of our attention.

FFanzeen: That was Alan Betrock?
Jim: Boy, you leave no stone unturned. Next question.

FFanzeen: How did you get to play at the ECHO convention (two years ago)?
David: Our first manager [Betrock] got us the convention. Next question.

FFanzeen: OK, I'll pass on that one. Never let it be said I couldn’t take a hint.
Jim: He’s a fine rock writer.

FFanzeen: What do you call what you play?
Jim: Music. Definitely music.
Howard: Noise with a sprinkling of screaming. No, I call it Alfred.
David: Marbles Music Mania.
Jim: It’s hard to classify us. We’re somewhere between AM and FM, whatever that means.
Howard: Nirvana.

FFanzeen: What do you think of some of the other New York bands?
Howard: We like the Mumps. I like the Heartbreakers. I like the Voidoids, despite their music. I used to like Television. Blondie’s gotten better. Patti Smith is dead. She was great.
Jim: That about covers it.
Howard: You see, the bands that we listen to are not the so-called New Wave bands that have cropped up in the last eight months. Teenage Jesus, the Cramps. They’re just awful. There's a fundamental philosophy that if you get on stage with an instrument, you should know how to play it.
Jim: I just find it boring. I have no place in my mind for the thoughts those people have.
David: I mean, what does it mean to be “cramped?”

FFanzeen: If you had a choice, what band would you choose to play with?
Jim: Marbles and Mumps are the strongest. Actually, the Rolling Stones.

FFanzeen: What are your ultimate goals?
Jim: To be the first rock band on the moon.
David: First goal is Number One single, ten gold albums.
Jim: Right now, my ultimate goal is to have enough money to buy a TV set. We’d like to tour Europe. I don’t know. Just to be rich and famous. To have fun. Pleasure. Eat a lot of beans. I want to be a major political force: ... for the youth of America. We want to lead America out of the depression. To give people something to believe in again.
David: We want to put rock music back on the map.

FFanzeen: What kind of fan is a Marbles fan?
David: Beautiful. Female. Eighteen.

(At this time, Jim got up to show me something and accidentally knocked my tape recorder off the table, and being consistent, my tape recorder stopped taping).

The publishing of this interview, in part, may have led to the dissolving of the band. At a time when CBGB and Max’s were the two key places in the city to play, the Marbles were considered a CB’s band. And from this interview, you can tell that not only did they insult Max’s, they were not on Hilly Kristal’s A-list either. At the time this interview was completed, the Cramps were CBGB’s Number One house-band. A week after this issue came out, the Marbles were booked to open for, who else, the Cramps. The story I heard is that when the Cramps read the interview, they told Hilly it’s “them or us.” Of course, Hilly went with the money (who wouldn’t) and blackballed the Marbles.

Having burned their bridges with Max’s, there really was no decent venue for them, and they could either move out of the city or dissolve. For a long time, I felt guilty for printing their comments about the Cramps, but in retrospect, I did not ask the Marbles about specific bands, they spoke up voluntarily, and on the record.

The band was very antagonistic in the interview. They were fresh and just back from vacation, excited about their material, and yet they were bitter about the whole scene. Others who have worked with Terry Ork were disappointed in his production, management of the promotion, and especially his handling of the cash, so that’s understandable. David told me years later, with some chagrin, that they were “young and arrogant.”

After Clifford left the band (he became a teacher in Minneapolis), they broke up, and then reformed with the late Richie Lurie (who would eventually join the Waldos with brother Walter Lure), calling themselves the Volts. I had the chance to catch them on February 13, 1981, at the long-since-gone Botany Talk House (Sixth Avenue and 27 Street).

When that ended, as David later explained to me, “Eric, Howard and I formed a production company called Atomic Records, and began writing and producing records for other artists. In 1988, we had a number one dance record with Denise Lopez, whom we had signed on to A&M. During this time, unbeknown to Howard and me, Eric developed a drug habit. Our record actually went Top 40 with … Denise Lopez, and we did two LPs for A&M Records [Truth in Disguise in 1988, and Every Dog Has Her Day in 1990 – RBF, 2022]. At any rate, Eric didn't show up at rehearsal for a few days and we knew something was up. So, I went to his apartment and found him. He'd been dead about 2 days.”

In the early 2000s, the Bowler brothers formed a new band called Contraband, leaning more towards a roots/folk rock sound. I have since regained contact with them and have even taken some publicity photos, including one that is incorporated in their second CD.

NERVUS REX – or – “I Was A Caucasian Runner” (1977)

Text © Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 1977/2022
Images from the Internet unless indicted

Nervus Rex – or – “I Was A Caucasian Runner”

Very soon after I had published the article on the Cramps in the first issue of FFanzeen, dated 7/777, Miriam Linna left the band as drummer. She next joined up with artist Shaun Brighton (whose father was a famous painter) and Lauren Agnelli (a rock writer for Creem Magazine with the nom de plume of Trixie A. Balm) to form the core of the Nervus Rex. Bassist Lewis Eklund rounded out the group.

[In a sidebar digression with a weird twist, when I mentioned the Nervus Rex and its members to my clique at Queens College at the time, friend and drummer of The Glands (who wrote the insane “Mutants on Motorcycles”) Richie Shapiro said, “Hey, I know Lauren. We used to date in Cardozo High School!”]

Two days before interviewing the Nervus Rex, I saw their first public performance, opening for the Mumps at CBGB. The set was hot and the songs were riveting, relying on more than just love songs. Even the love songs they did had unusual little bends and twists. I fell in love with their material – popish, but with a razor-sharp edge. That they did “She’s Not There” by the Zombies seemed appropriate, since that was the kind of sound they were achieving.

The loft on Mercer Street where I interviewed the band belonged to Shaun’s father, so I had a chance to see a number of his paintings. I remember rows upon rows of them.

I felt very comfortable with the band.

(photo by Robert Barry Francos)

Nervus Rex – or – “I Was A Caucasian Runner”

Do you believe in omens? The first time I interviewed a group in which Miriam Linna was a member (the Cramps, last ish), the weather was lousy, the tape got wet and all I ended up with was five minutes of recording before the sound died. Now Miriam is in a new group called the Nervus Rex and I interviewed them, September 24, 1977. The weather? Increment. The tape, once again getting wet, went out after five minutes. Is Miriam vexing my tape recorder or the weather? Whatever, it is getting very frustrating.

The new group is really good. I caught their very first pubic performance at CBGB September 22. I liked them from the first soundcheck. For a group that has been together for only a few months – since the middle of July – they are amazing.

Actually, the lead singer / guitarist Shaun Brighton, met rhythm guitarist / singer Trixie A. Balm (yes, the Trixie A. Balm, writer for such papers as Creem and The NY Rocker) at CBGB, where they both hung out, about a year ago. Shaun then met bassist Lewis Eklund on the Staten Island Ferry. Trixie, a Cramps fan, interviewed the group and became friendly with Miriam (which, I might add, is not hard). When Miriam took her leave from the Cramps, Trixie asked her if she wanted to drum for her group. Together, although it’s a little over two months, the combo of Shaun, Trixie, Lewis and, of course, Miriam, is a tight one.

As of right now, their repertoire consists of about ten songs, all of which are amazing (most written by Trixie A. and Shaun). The set I saw (remember, it as their first), consisted of “Duplicators,” “Third World,” “Love Affair,” “Dubrule 1250,” “No Regrets – Sort Of,” “I Love You Or Whatever” (my personal favorite), “December Pledge,” “The Index,” “Rachel In Ruins Again” (my second fave), and for an encore, the Zombie’s great “She’s Not There.” They are practicing some Troggs songs and possibly some Flamin’ Groovies stuff, too.

Walking into their loft on Mercer Street forty-five minutes late, I was soaked from the rain. As I mentioned last time, the stereo was blasting out, now with the brand-new released Talking Heads album (Talking Heads 77). Throughout the interview, many records went on, like some early Beatles (both Shaun and Lewis are avid Beatle freaks – meant kindly – and Shaun even collects Beatle memorabilia, along with really old books and material about art and painters; Shaun claims that “most rockers seem to forget about paintings”) and the Velvet Underground. They agree they like Cale a whole lot, but Lou is tops.

Anyway, some of the interview that survived proceeded thusly:

 

FFanzeen: Have you ever been in any other groups?
Trixie A. Balm: When I was in high school, I was in this group with these guys from Elmont, New York, and we did stuff like, we did Janis Joplin; we did really ridiculous shit, like a Chicago song …

Miriam: [in surprised disgust] You did a Chicago song? A Chicago song!?!
Trixie: One Chicago song.
Miriam: Oh, one Chicago song.
Trixie: It was a pretty bad band. Other than that, I was in this band with Pink Floyd freaks who wanted to do “Astronomy Donomy” and shit like that, and I hated it. No, but off and on in groups in high school. In college I concentrated on writing, but now I’m almost done with college and getting back to music.

FF: Are you going to continue with your writing?
Trixie: Some. Not about music so much, but, you know, fiction and such things.

FF: How long has the group been together?
Trixie: Since July.
Shaun: The middle of July. Trixie and I have been playing together since January.

End of tape.

 

Once again, Miriam makes it quite clear that she hates “punk rock.” By punk rock, she means assholes with the safety pins who then go home and put on bell-bottomed jeans. If you’re gonna be a punk, claims Miriam, be a punk. (The following is a paraphrase) “I saw some guy at CBGB with safety pins all over him and he had on a leather jacket. He accidentally stepped on someone’s foot and turned around and said something like, ‘Oh, excuse me. I’m sorry.’ If you’re really a punk you don’t care and just say, ‘Get out of my way!’“ It’s sort of Miriam’s way to sayin’ that she don’t like poseurs.

When asked about fave movies, such names as What’s Up Tiger Lily (1966), Horror Hotel (1960, aka The City of the Dead), Night of the Living Dead (1968), and The Twonkey (1953; Miriam’s favorite) were brought up. Fave music turned up such names as, of course, the Troggs, the Zombies, the Velvet Underground, Flamin’ Groovies (Miriam’s top fave), Talking Heads, the Seeds, as well as the Everly Brothers (a Trixie fave), the Stones, the Beatles, and Bach (that’s J.S., by the way). As the group was eager to explain, this is how they feel now. It changes week by week, depending on what they are listening to at the time (isn’t that the way it is for all of us?).

The group is pretty cool looking. Of course, there’s Miriam with those dynamite eyes. She was dressed her usual casual way: sweatshirt, sneakers, et. al. Shaun dresses sort of a David Byrne style. Just as comfy as possible. He wore a tee-shirt with a sheet of iron-on letters ironed on. Just the letters (“I couldn’t think of anything to print”). Trixie, with flamin’ red hair, looks really cool. Lewis is basically a quiet type that absorbs everything. He tells how, for a while, he shut himself off musically to everything except the Stones and the Beatles, and is coming out of it now with just the opposite reaction. He goes to an uptown library and takes out ten of any type albums (except d***o), listens to them and then returns them a week later so he can take out ten more.

All their personalities overlap in such a way that they seem to be very compatible and comfortable with each other, which also makes the music seem that more real. I have to admit that I really enjoy listening to them play. A whole lot. And it seems I’m not the only one. When they did their sound check on that night (“Rachel”), they got a loud round of applause. This caught them a little by surprise. Trixie even exclaimed, pleasantly baffled, “It’s only a soundcheck!” When they finally did play, the place was not yet crowded, since it was the Mumps that was headlining, and they would not be on for a couple of hours at least; but those who were there were not disappointed. Far from it.

Saving this part for last in the interview, I asked Miriam about her break from the Cramps a few months back. She said that she missed some warning signs, like the group telling her to ease off her writing a bit and tone down her fan-manship, regarding some of the other groups, and to pay more attention to her own. Finally, they told her to choose between the two and she left. Unfortunately, the split was not on friendly terms. But time heals wounds. The Cramps have a new drummer and Miriam has the Nervus Rex (and visa versa) and all are happy in their niche. Now the Nervus Rex has nowhere to go but up. Ten to one they have a record out by this time next year – on a major label!

Last, for those interested, Miriam is now prez of the International Flamin’ Groovies Fan Club and has this really terrif fanzine called The Flamin’ Groovies Monthly. Look for Miriam’s article in FFanzeen #3 about the Groovies. It’ll be in unless Miriam’s power has the same effect on my typewriter has she does on my tape recorder.

After the Groovies fanzine, she would co-produce with Billy Miller one of the best fanzines the scene has seen, Kicks!

Some time, not too long after this interview, Miriam left the Nervus Rex to join Billy Miller in the Zantees, who in future incarnations would become the very-roots-rockin’ A-Bones. She would be replaced on drums in the Nervus Rex by Jonathan Gildersleeve. Together, the new band would release a single in 1978 called “Don’t Look,” which was not played on either of the nights I saw them perform (the other being at Max’s Kansas City). Lewis would also depart, with Dianne Athey filling his spot.

Three years after the interview (1980), the band put out an overproduced, eponymous-titled pop album on Mike Chapman’s Dreamland Records that seriously blunted their edge through overproduction, with high gloss and minimum bristle. While a decent, re-recorded version of “Don’t Look” was present, missing were all the songs they had performed that first night at CBGB, lost to the ages. The cover of the LP looked like something out of a John Hughes / Molly Ringwald movie, with cotton candy coloring and a style that was destined to be very shortly out of date.

Shaun changed his name to Shawn, and formed a band called The Puppets, which had a hit dance song “The Way of Life” which, in my opinion, sounds like many British synth bands from the 1980s. He is now an artist and art dealer.

Lauren followed this group with the innovative root rockers The Washington Squares, with Bruce Paskow (d. 1994) and Tom Goodkind (d. 2019 of 9/11-related causes). Ahead of their time by just a twinge, they dissolved when Paskow suddenly passed away, though Agnelli and Goodkind would reunite for occasional gigs. Next up was a stint with Teenage Head and Hamilton, Ontario, heartthrob Dave Rave Des Roches, including the Dave Rave Conspiracy, and Agnelli and Rave. Lauren has also shown up with a collection of torch songs, mostly originals, called Love Always Follows Me on the BongoBeat imprint. She has since become a teacher, in the wilds of New England. She has not lost her spark.

CHEAP PERFUME Fills the Air [1980]

Text by Marc Silver / FFanzeen fanzine, 1980

Introduction by Robert Barry Francos © FFanzeen blog, 2017

Images from the Internet

Cheap Perfume were a rockin’, all-woman band that was underrated in the New York Scene, and deserved better. I had the opportunity to see them a couple of times in 1977-78, and was happy to give them their due by publishing this piece. They have reformed a number of times, sometimes with the lead singer who had moved to the other coast, other times with the rest of the band filling in vocally.

Please note that this has nothing to do with the Colorado-based band with the same name, which was formed in 2015.

This interview was originally printed in FFanzeen, issue #5, dated August/September 1980. It was written/conducted by Marc Silver. I have lost track of Marc, so if anyone knows his whereabouts, please let him know about this!

Cheap Perfume occupies the niche of the top-drawing all-female band in New York. Their music is self-described as “power-pop with a rock’n’roll edge.” Performances are vibrant and chock-full of ass-kicking rock’n’roll. The majority of their material is original, but their unique covers range from the Beatles’ “Boys” to a version of the Tokens’ “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” complete with choreographed dancing in the aisles.

Brenda, the drummer, had recently crushed her ankle and was partying the time away in the dismal dungeons of the Metropolitan Hospital. Also present for the interview at the hospital were L. and Nancy Street, lead singer and rhythm guitarist, respectively. Sue Sheen [Palermo], bassist, and Bunny LeDesma, lead guitarist, were AWOL.

Brenda [Martinez-White]: In the beginning I created the Earth and the heavenly bodies. No, at the start it was Zoey, Susan and me. But I didn’t consider that the band.

Nancy Street: I noticed an ad in The [Village] Voice for a female vocalist and I said to myself, “I know just the girl,” meaning L. She auditioned and I tagged along.

L [Lynn Odell]: It was a package deal.

FFanzeen: When did Bunny join?

Brenda: Eight months ago.

FFanzeen: After Zoey left?

Brenda: Yes

FFanzeen: Did your material change much?

L: The material changed drastically. Most of the songs up to that point had been written by Zoey and her boyfriend, so we had to give those songs up.

FFanzeen: Who’s doing the writing now?

Nancy: Susan and I, and we’ve got friends who give us songs.

FFanzeen: How would you describe your music?

Brenda: It’s hard.

L: It’s pop. It’s definitely pop. It’s not punk. It’s not heavy metal. Pop pretty well rounds it off. It’s under the genre of New Wave, but certainly not punk.

Nancy: Power pop, with a standard rock’n’roll edge.

FFanzeen: Who are the major influences in your songwriting?

Brenda: Mostly guys.

FFanzeen: I’ll ask you about that later.

Nancy: I’m influenced by the Beatles and the Who. Susan is influenced by…God knows…Frank Zappa, Ian Hunter, Mick Ronson, Southside Johnny, Greg Kihn…

L: Uncle Floyd.

FFanzeen: On stage, Bunny for example, is styled after Keith Richards.

Nancy: Very Stones.

Brenda: Very stoned!

FFanzeen: Do any of the rest of you ever mimic your rock heroes?

Nancy: I do try to do the Pete Townshend windmills.

L: And it looks ridiculous.

Nancy: But I try. I don’t do it very often and I’m not very good at it. But after a few vodkas…

FFanzeen: What would it take to get you to slide across the stage on your knees?

Nancy: I’d pass out before then. But really, I don’t try to emulate anyone.

Brenda: I have my own style.

L: Nobody plays like her.

Brenda: [to L.] And who do you try to sing like?

L: Well, my major influences are from acting. I’m very theatrical on stage. I move around a lot. I don’t just stand there and turn around in circles, like Debbie Harry.

Nancy: It particularly bothers me when you see a band who are obviously on a Who trip or a Beatles trip. There’s a band in the New York area where the lead singer is doing all the Roger Daltry moves, the lead guitarist is doing all the Pete Townsend moves, and the drummer thinks he’s Keith Moon. It’s disgusting. It’s stupid; I resent it. It’s one thing to have influences, but it’s another to have it completely take over your performance.

FFanzeen: This is the definition of a cover band. Have you played outside of New York?

L: We played DC twice; Upstate at Hamilton College [Clinton, NY].

FFanzeen: What were the audiences like?

L: In Washington, they’re pretty civil. They’re a little too civil. They’re boring.

Brenda: They don’t get into it heavily.

L: Upstate, forget it. We had to beat them back with hammers. It was like they had never heard music before.

Nancy: We played the Hot Club in Philly. They loved us. We beat them off with sticks.

L: They were all lesbians. We had to barricade the dressing room.

Brenda: We played a prison once, in Danbury, Connecticut.

L: They weren't wild about us. We were girls, and that they were into, not the music.

Nancy: It was a white collar prison; tax evaders.

L: Where Nixon should be.

FFanzeen: What makes you different from other all-girl bands?

L: Most of them don’t get any further than forming a band. There are a few that you hear about once or twice and then they’re gone.

Brenda: Do you know how hard it is to keep girls together?

FFanzeen: I know how hard it is to keep them apart.

Nancy: Cheap Perfume is very significant to each of us. It is the first and only band any of us have ever been in.

FFanzeen: On stage, it looks as though there’s no jealousy over the spotlight.

Brenda: We’re pretty good about that.

FFanzeen: But I have seen you run into each other on the way into the spotlight.

L: Well, Bunny needs a pair of glasses.

Brenda: We should hold a benefit for Bunny’s glasses.

L: She’s walked into my mic stand three times.

Brenda: But she never misses a cute guy.

FFanzeen: Being an all-girl band might be thought of as a gimmick, but it’s obvious that you’re serious about yourself as musicians. How do people seem to react to you?

Nancy: In the beginning it was a good gimmick and we never had any trouble getting gigs.

Brenda: People still come up to me and say, “You know, you’re pretty good for girls.”

L: At first they were right, because nobody had come anywhere near mastering their instruments. And now, although we don’t have it by the tail…

Brenda: – We have it by the asshole –

L: …We do pretty well.

Nancy: I’d like to think that the timing is right for an all-girl band. It’s more than accepted. Chrissie Hynde is the rhythm guitar player for the Pretenders. Girls are becoming more than just the lead singer.

Brenda: Nancy Wilson of Heart is a fuckin’ hot lead guitar player.

Nancy: I think that the lack of female musicians is a problem from our teen-age. It wasn’t accepted for little 13 year olds to be picking up an electric guitar.

FFanzeen: There were no role models.

Nancy: I think that now there will be a greater mix in the near future. There will be more groups like the Nervus Rex and Talking Heads.

FFanzeen: Unisex bands.

L: I’d like to think that we’re responsible for a lot of girls getting musically involved in the New York scene.

FFanzeen: Almost all of your songs are about guys and are sexually suggestive. Despite your musical social ability, it wouldn’t be outlandish to call this an exploitation or even a gimmick since you’re an all-girl band.

L: Most rock’n’roll songs are about guys, girls…

FFanzeen: Cars, money…

L: Sex, drugs. That’s all. They’re standard themes.

FFanzeen: I don’t buy that. All your songs are about guys, not any of those other subjects.

Nancy: They’re really not. Only one: “Tommy.”

FFanzeen: What about “Overnight Angel,” “Boys,” “Back Alley Lovin’,” “Todd’s Song,” and especially “Too Bad”?

L: “Too Bad”? No, you misinterpreted the song. It’s not about a guy, it's about missing a chance, about being in a situation where you know if you did it right, you could have it. Anything – a guy, a girl, money – anything. But you blow it for one reason or another.

* * *

Anyway, Cheap Perfume is a hot act with many surprises. They’re tight and fast and they’ll leave ya beggin’ for more. They’re avoiding recording until they get the right producer. Definitely a professional move.

As soon as Brenda is out of the hospital, Cheap Perfume will be gigging up and down the East Coast under the guidance of Spotlight Enterprise. I’m looking forward to it.