On this blog I will talk about Rock´n´Roll women that I love. From Blues and Rockabilly, to Punk passing through 60s Garage Punk and 70s Glam, this is my tribute to the wonderful women of the Rock´n´Roll underground.
Please note that suggestions are welcome but there is no guarantee that I will publish it as this is a personal project.
Inez McLain is a drummer and a singer of the father-daughter combo of The Exbats. She was 10 when her dad first suggested they start playing music together.
Kenny McLain had picked up the guitar a few years earlier, at 40, and he decided drums would be the way to go for his new bandmate, who became a singing drummer. It wasn't long before they started writing songs and playing shows in Portland, Oregon, where they were living.
Their band name is a British term for Ex-Battery Hens — or female chickens of a certain age who are killed after their egg production drops. They were previously called the Numbats, but they were forced to find a new name when another Arizona band released an album on Lollipop Records as the Numb Bats. By that point, they had moved to Piñon, Arizona, Kenny had taken a teaching job at a school there as Inez was about to enter high school.
The band released their first album in 2016, and since then they have released four Lps and four singles.
Patricia Day is the Danish upright bassist and lead singer for the rockabilly/psychobilly band, HorrorPops.
Patricia Day began her musical career performing with the Danish punk rock band Peanut Pump Gun. She met Nekromantix singer and bassist, Kim Nekroman. The two formed a band in 1996 called Horrorpops. Day is the lead singer and also plays upright bass. Day and Nekroman decided to form a band where they could experiment with many genres outside of their normal bands, and decided to start by switching instruments. Nekroman taught Day how to play an upright bass, while she taught him how to play guitar. The two began auditioning for a drummer, with Nekromantix guitarist Peter Sandorff even being a possible choice. They eventually chose Niedermeier to drum, a friend of Day's and a member of the band Strawberry Slaughterhouse, and officially started HorrorPops in 1998. After touring for a while as a trio, the band recruited Niedermeier's old bandmate, Caz the Clash, as a second guitarist.
In 2000 the group recorded a 7-song demo for use in a press kit, but it was somehow leaked to the public, and resulted in two of the group's singles, "Ghouls" and "Psychobitches outta Hell" becoming club hits in Denmark. The group spent the next few years touring Europe, until 2003, when they began recording 6 more demo tracks. During this time, Caz the Clash left the band and was replaced by another Strawberry Slaughterhouse member, Karsten. Hellcat Records, Tim Armstrong's record label, decided to sign HorrorPops based on their demos. The band was able to release a vinyl single in September 2003, and began a U.S. headlining tour.
The band's first album Hell Yeah! was released on 10 February 2004, soon after moving from Denmark to Los Angeles. The second album, Bring It On!, was released on 13 September 2005 and featured their new rhythm guitarist Geoff Kresge. The HorrorPops spent most of 2006 touring Canada, Asia, Europe, and the States, including a Warped Tour stint. Kresge left the group before the band's next album, bringing the group back to three members. Their third album, released on 5 February 2008, is titled Kiss Kiss Kill Kill. The band began a North American tour around the time the album was released.
Margo Guryan (September 20, 1937 – November 8, 2021) was an American songwriter, singer, musician and lyricist. As a songwriter, her work was first recorded in 1958, although it was for her 1960s song "Sunday Mornin'", a hit for both Spanky and Our Gang and Oliver, that she is perhaps best known. Her songs have also been recorded by Cass Elliot, Glen Campbell and Astrud Gilberto, among others. As a performer, she is best known for her 1968 album Take a Picture, the sole album release in the initial phase of her career. The album was re-released in 2000, and followed by a compilation entitled 25 Demos (2001).
Margo Guryan grew up in New York City in the neighborhood of Far Rockaway, Queens. She wrote poems from an early age, and moved on to writing songs soon after being introduced to the piano in childhood. Initially interested in the popular music of the time, as well as the classical music she was studying, Guryan became interested in jazz at college. She studied classical and jazz piano at Boston University, idolizing musicians such as Max Roach and Bill Evans, and switched from piano to composition in her sophomore year in order to avoid performing.
While still in high school, Guryan was sent to Frank Loesser's Frank Music, whose Herb Eiseman sent her on to Atlantic Records, where she performed her songs for Jerry Wexler and Ahmet Ertegun, who signed her up to song contracts, and had a demo session with Tom Dowd. Jazz singer Chris Connor recorded her song "Moon Ride" in 1958, while Guryan was still at university, and in 1962, Ms. Connor had recorded "Lonely Woman" with Guryan's lyrics. Another early recording of her work was by Harry Belafonte, who recorded "I'm On My Way to Saturday" for The Many Moods of Belafonte (1962). She attended the Lenox School of Jazz in 1959, where she met and worked with Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry, and was taught by Bill Evans, Max Roach, Milt Jackson, Jim Hall, John Lewis and Gunther Schuller, among others. Following this, Lewis and Schuller signed her to MJQ Music. She was primarily a jazz musician in this period, writing lyrics for jazz pieces by composers including John Lewis, Ornette Coleman and Arif Mardin. Songs of this period, with her lyrics, were recorded by Chris Connor, Freda Payne, Nancy Harrow and Alice Babs, among others. "Sunday Morning" was recorded by Spanky and Our Gang as "Sunday Mornin'". Released in December 1967, it reached No 30. Bobbie Gentry and Glen Campbell sang it as a duet in 1968. Also in 1968, Marie Laforêt released "Et si je t'aime", a French version of "Sunday Mornin'" with lyrics by Michel Jourdan. Oliver also released a version of "Sunday Mornin'" which reached #35 in the US charts in 1969. "Sunday Mornin'" was listed as one of the "102 most performed songs in the BMI repertoire during 1968".
Guryan signed to Bell Records as an artist, recording an album, Take a Picture (1968), full of light, jazz-tinged pop melodies, produced and arranged initially by John Simon, then when he became unavailable, by John Hill, both overseen by David Rosner. The musicians on the record included Hill on guitar, Kirk Hamilton (flute, bass), Phil Bodner (oboe), Paul Griffin (keyboards) and Buddy Saltzman (drums). It was preceded by a single entitled "Spanky and Our Gang", a tribute to the band who had had a hit with "Sunday Morning", backed with her own version of "Sunday Morning". The single was included on the Japanese reissue of Take a Picture. Take a Picture was praised by Billboard, who remarked on Guryan's "fine sound" which it characterised as "commercial" and said "should ensure strong sales". However Guryan refused to tour, and as a consequence of this, the label ceased promoting the album and it thus failed to make an impact. Resigned to this, Guryan withdrew from performing, although she continued as writer for April-Blackwood for several years afterwards, and worked with Rosner producing records for other artists. Taking classical piano lessons after this led her to becoming a piano teacher herself, and producing music books for students.
Interest in Guryan's recordings underwent something of a revival in the 1990s, particularly in Japan. British band Saint Etienne covered "I Don't Intend to Spend Christmas Without You" for a 1998 fan club single. Linus of Hollywood met with Guryan in 1999, and as well as covering two of her songs on his Your Favourite Record album, reissued Take a Picture on his Franklin Castle Records imprint (in conjunction with Oglio Records) in 2000. Trattoria Records (Japan) and Siesta Records (Spain) also reissued the album. In 2001, a collection of demos entitled 25 Demos was released by Franklin/Oglio. An alternate version entitled Thoughts, released by UK-based RPM Records, has the 25 demos, plus two recordings of Guryan singing songs written by others. These tracks were also compiled by Burger Records on a 2014 cassette entitled 27 Demos, which Oglio again released on CD. To promote the re-release, Guryan issued a music video for the album track "California Shake", co-written by Richard Bennett.
Guryan died November 8, 2021, at the age of 84 at her home in Los Angeles.
Kitty, Daisy & Lewis are a British band fronted by the siblings of the Durham family. Their music is influenced heavily by R&B, blues, soul, punk, rock and roll, and West Indian music. They are all multi-instrumentalists playing guitar, piano, bass, drums, harmonica, banjo, lapsteel guitar, ukulele, xylophone, accordion, and more between them. Kitty, Daisy & Lewis have sold over a quarter of a million records worldwide.
Kitty Durham is the youngest of the group and primarily sings and plays drums, guitar, harmonica, ukulele, and banjo. Daisy Durham, the eldest, primarily sings and plays drums, piano, accordion and xylophone. Lewis Durham sings and plays guitar, piano, banjo, lapsteel, and drums. The band are renowned for building their own recording studio, which consists of mostly vintage analogue equipment and custom in-house built equipment. Their first two albums were recorded in the back room of their mother's house. In 2011, they began building their professional recording studio in Camden Town, known as Durham Sound Studios, where they recorded The Third (2015) and Superscope (2017). They've produced all their own recordings apart from The Third which was co-produced by Mick Jones.
The band are signed to former BBC Radio 1 DJ and Bestival curator Rob da Bank's label, Sunday Best, who released their second single "Mean Son of a Gun" with the B-side "Ooo Wee" which they first heard on a 78rpm record sung by Louis Jordan. This was released on 45rpm, CD and a limited edition 78rpm vinyl. The tracks were recorded at their home. The master lacquers were also cut by Lewis using his own equipment at The Exchange Mastering Studios, which is owned and run by his father Graeme.
On 30 May 2011, Smoking in Heaven was released on CD and vinyl (double LP and 78rpm album), also on Sunday Best. On 26 January 2015, Kitty, Daisy & Lewis The Third was released. Their fourth album, Superscope, was released on 29 September 2017.
When performing live, their parents Graeme Durham and Ingrid Weiss play guitar and bass. Graeme Durham is a founding member and mastering engineer at The Exchange recording studios in London, and Ingrid Weiss is the former drummer of The Raincoats and was encouraged to play the bass by Kitty, Daisy & Lewis. Legendary Jamaican trumpeter "Tan Tan" (Eddie Thornton) has played on all live shows since 2008 and featured on most records.
Miss Alex White is the stage name for Alexandra Brooks White, an American musician from Chicago, Illinois, United States, and founder of Missile X Records born April 30, 1985. Her projects have included Miss Alex White and Chris Playboy (a collaboration with Chris Saathoff), the Hot Machines, Miss Alex White and the Red Orchestra, and White Mystery, a collaboration with her younger brother, drummer Francis Scott Key White.
White began playing guitar at age 13, after being motivated by hearing The Who. White began playing under the pseudonym “Miss Alex White” and released her first music in 2003. Her project, Miss Alex White and Chris Playboy (Chris Saathoff) made several recordings together. Saathoff died in a car accident on February 13, 2004 and White was responsible for creating the Chris Saathoff Foundation following his death. Soon after, she formed Miss Alex White and the Red Orchestra. The group recorded their first self-titled album with producer Jim Diamond in Detroit, and their second "Space & Time" in Costa Mesa, California at the Distillery with Mike McHugh. Both albums were released on In The Red Records.
White founded her current group, White Mystery, with her brother Francis on April 20, 2008 named after an Airheads flavor. White Mystery is known for their relentless tour schedule in which White claims to have played 1,000 shows in the band’s first ten years. The group has played with acts such as Garbage, Shonen Knife, The Stooges and Weezer. The group has released nine full-length albums.
On April 1, 2016 White Mystery premiered "Best Friend" on the NBC Carson Daly Show, “Last Call” and announced forthcoming record Outta Control which is titled in reference to the same Airheads flavor from which the band name is derived.
Delloreese Patricia Early (July 6, 1931 – November 19, 2017), known professionally as Della Reese, was an American jazz and gospel singer, actress, and ordained minister whose career spanned seven decades.
At six years old, Reese began singing in church; from this experience she became an avid gospel singer. In 1944, she began her career directing the young people's choir, she was often chosen, on radio, as a regular singer. At the age of 13, she was hired to sing with Mahalia Jackson's gospel group. Her big break came when she won a contest, which gave her a week to sing at Detroit's well-known Flame Show Bar. Reese remained there for eight weeks. Although her roots were in gospel music, she now was being exposed to and influenced by such jazz artists as Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Billie Holiday. In 1953, she signed a recording contract with Jubilee Records, for which she recorded six albums. Later that year, she also joined the Hawkins Orchestra. Her first recordings for Jubilee were songs such as "In the Still of the Night" (originally published in 1937), "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" and "Time After Time" (1947). The songs were later included on the album And That Reminds Me (1959).
In 1957, Reese released a single called "And That Reminds Me". After years of performing, she gained chart success with this song. It became a Top Twenty pop hit and a million-seller record. That year, Reese was voted by Billboard, Cashbox and various other magazines, as "The Most Promising Singer". In 1959, Reese moved to RCA Records and released her first RCA single, called "Don't You Know?", which was adapted from Giacomo Puccini's music for La bohème, specifically the aria "Quando m'en vo'" (Musetta's Waltz). It became her biggest hit to date, reaching the number 2 spot on the pop charts and topping the R&B charts (then called the "Hot R&B Sides") that year. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA. Eventually, the song came to be widely considered the signature song of her early career. She then released a successful follow-up single called "Not One Minute More" (number 16). She remained on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with "And Now" (number 69). In 1960 she released "Someday (You'll Want Me to Want You)" (number 56), which was drawn from her Grammy-nominated album Della – a big band outing arranged by Neal Hefti who incorporated some arrangement ideas conceived by Reese.
In November 1960, Reese appeared in advertisements in Ebony magazine for the newly launched AMI Continental jukebox. Reese recorded regularly throughout the 1960s, releasing singles and several albums. Two of the most significant were The Classic Della (1962) and Waltz with Me, Della (1963), which broadened her fan base internationally. She recorded several jazz-focused albums, including Della Reese Live (1966), On Strings of Blue (1967) and One of a Kind (1978). Live hit number 21 on the R&B charts. She also performed in Las Vegas for nine years, and toured across the country. She signed with Avco Embassy Records and released the soul-pop album Black is Beautiful in 1970, charting at number 44 on the R&B chart.
In 1986, Reese formed the gospel group Brilliance with fellow singers O.C. Smith, Mary Clayton, Vermettya Royster, and Eric Strom. They released an album that earned Reese a Grammy nomination in the gospel category for the song "You Gave Me Love" (1987). She later earned another nomination for the album Live! My Soul Feels Better Right Now (1998). Motown singer Martha Reeves cites Reese as a major influence, and says she named her group the Vandellas after Van Dyke Street in Detroit and Della Reese. In 2017, Reese was inducted into the Rhythm & Blues Music Hall of Fame.
In 2016, shortly after her 85th birthday, Reese was said to be in poor health, and had undergone multiple surgeries. She stated that she had neglected her health for years, which had contributed to her developing type 2 diabetes. She died at her home in the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles on November 19, 2017, at the age of 86.
Michelle Santamaria is an American musician that was in a few garage punk bands like Loli & The Chones, Bitchschool, Hunx and his Punx and The Pinkz.
Loli & The Chones was an American lo-fi garage rock'n'roll band from Boyle Heights, California, active around 1995-1999. It was founded by Michelle Santamaria together with her brother Chris and Vince Maldonado. They released two Lps and two 7"s.
Bitchschool were a garage punk band from California who got together after the demise of Loli And The Chones and featured brother and sister Chris and Michelle Santamaria as well as Jessica Mirmak. Not to be confused with the band of the same name who come from Portland, this Bitchschool just had the one release, an ep which came out on Tina Lucchesi's Lipstick Records in 1998 and featured 3 tracks : Bitchschool, Record Shop and I'll Be Good To You. They also contributed a cover of Nick Gilder's Runaways In The Night to the California Ain't Fun No More compilation.
Michelle also played in Hunx And His Punx for while and in the garage punk band The Pinkz together with Alana Smargon, Jessica Mirmak and Kathy Walker.
Dorothy Max Prior, born in 1953, is a writer and artist living in Brighton. In other lives, Max was a punk muse, post-punk drummer, and exotic dancer. Somewhere along the way, she has taught ballroom dancing and toured the world as a street theater performer, choreographer, director, and cabaret dancer.
Rema-Rema was a short-lived English music group, consisting of Gary Asquith (guitar/vocals), Marco Pirroni (guitar), Mick Allen (bass/vocals), Mark Cox (keyboards) and Dorothy Max Prior (drums, generally known only as "Max"). Pirroni had been an original member of Siouxsie and the Banshees, and was a short-time integrant of Cowboys International, but shortly afterwards went on to fame as a member of Adam and the Ants. Asquith, Allen, and Cox went on to form another short-lived band Mass, which then split up to form Renegade Soundwave (Asquith) and The Wolfgang Press (Allen and Cox).
Under her first name, Dorothy, she is best known for a pop single released on Industrial Records which claimed she was 19 when in fact she was already 27. The other musicians on this record were Genesis P-Orridge and Alex Fergusson who were shortly to form Psychic TV with Peter Christopherson. They apparently asked Dorothy to play in the group, but she declined and didn't join the group until many years later when she was credited under her middle name Max. Dorothy only stayed in Psychic TV for about a year. In between this, she was in punk-pop rockabilly band first called The Weekend Swingers and then The El Trains.
Presently she is editor of Total Theatre Magazine and Animations Online. She also does performance work under the name Dorothy's Shoes.
Kate Schellenbach (born January 5, 1966) is an American musician and television producer. She is the drummer of Luscious Jackson and was a founding member of the Beastie Boys.
Beastie Boys were formed out of members of experimental hardcore punk band the Young Aborigines in 1978, with Diamond as vocalist, Jeremy Shatan on bass guitar, John Berry on guitar, and Kate Schellenbach on drums. When Shatan left in 1981, Yauch replaced him on bass and the band changed their name to Beastie Boys. Berry left shortly thereafter and was replaced by Horovitz. After achieving local success with the 1983 comedy hip hop single "Cooky Puss", Beastie Boys made a full transition to hip hop, and Schellenbach left, according to the rest of the band, because they were acting like "dudes" and she didn't fit in.
Luscious Jackson is an alternative rock/rap-rock group formed in 1991. The band's name is a reference to former American basketball player Lucious Jackson. The original band consisted of Jill Cunniff (vocals, bass), Gabby Glaser (vocals, guitar), and Vivian Trimble (keyboards, vocals). Drummer Kate Schellenbach joined the band midway through the recording of their 1992 debut EP In Search of Manny. Between 1993 and 2000, the band released one EP, three full-length LPs, and ten singles on the Beastie Boys' Grand Royal label. Their biggest hit—and only Billboard Hot 100 entry—was "Naked Eye". Other singles include "Here," "Daughters of the Kaos", "Citysong", "Under Your Skin" and "Ladyfingers". Keyboardist Vivian Trimble left the group in 1998 and in 2000 the group announced their breakup.
In 2011, the three remaining members announced that they had reunited and were planning to make new music. The band released two new albums, including a children's album, in November 2013.
Schellenbach was also the drummer for the punk band the Lunachicks, during early 1993 for a very short period of time, before Chip English was recruited.
She was later an Emmy Award-winning segment producer on The Ellen DeGeneres Show appearing on screen on a show first aired on December 4, 2007, playing the bongos with host Ellen DeGeneres. She has also worked as a producer on Lopez Tonight, Kathy, Love You, Mean It with Whitney Cummings, Chelsea Lately, Hello Ross, and currently The Late Late Show with James Corden.
