jaguarr
Be Your Own Hero
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Betty Blowtorch was an all female punk/hard-rock band out of Southern California that was formed from the ashes of another L.A. punk band called Butt Trumpet that was notorious for it's crass lyrics. The three female members of Butt Trumpet, the heavily tattooed Bianca Butthole (bass and vocals), Sharon Needles (rhythm guitar) and Blare N. ***** (lead guitar) decided to pursue their own band in 1998. Joining them was Judy Molish on drums (yes, all of them had oh-so-clever stage names). The tendency to lean towards rude, crass lyrics followed them but took on a much more feminist bent in the transition; these girls were the real deal in the rock scene and gleefully sang about getting laid, drunk and wild which was mirrored by their real lives. They released one EP titled "Get Off" in 1998 and followed up with a full LP in 2001 entitled "Are You Man Enough?", which had them poised for breakout success and was garnering them quite a bit of attention from alternative, punk and metal radio stations around the country. Unfortunately, Bianca Butthole, the primary voice in the group, died in a car accident in December of 2001 and the group was no more. There's another release out there of radio interviews and studio outtakes (some of the rather horrid) called "Last Call", but it's really only for die-hard fans. "Are You Man Enough?" is the most polished of their works. There is also a feature-length documentary on the band, directed by Anthony Scarpia called Betty Blowtorch And Her Amazing True Life Adventures; I've not seen it, but it's gotten very good critical buzz.
While my musical tastes are rather diverse, I keep coming back to these ladies, particularly the "Are You Man Enough?" album. It's raw, rude, loud and it rocks with a surprising amount of musicianship for a punk metal band of this variety. There's also a bit of a tongue-in-cheek, sometimes self-deprecating, sense of humor running through it with a whole lot of anti-establishment "f**k you" running through it which really captures the spirit of the genre they were playing in. Hearing women sing so blatantly about the same kinds of things their male counterparts did, getting laid, drinking binges and the rock-star life with every bit of swagger and attitude as the men is also sometimes a little bit shocking. Bianca sings some things in the sweetest of voices that could make the most seasoned sailor blush before she erupts in a vocal chord melting scream that's as primal as it gets and Blare N. ***** offers up some rather tasteful guitar licks to give these songs a melodic touch they wouldn't have otherwise.
Blare and Sharon are now in another all-female punk metal group out of L.A. called Psychostar, so perhaps we'll be hearing more out of at least those two in the future.
In the meantime, I wanted to introduce those of you who might be interested to this band. If you like the punk and metal genres, this one may be for you:
Some videos for you.
WARNING: Many of these contain some rather prolific use of profanity and adult themes, so view at your own risk and don't watch them if you're under the age of 18 years old without your parent's permission.
jag
While my musical tastes are rather diverse, I keep coming back to these ladies, particularly the "Are You Man Enough?" album. It's raw, rude, loud and it rocks with a surprising amount of musicianship for a punk metal band of this variety. There's also a bit of a tongue-in-cheek, sometimes self-deprecating, sense of humor running through it with a whole lot of anti-establishment "f**k you" running through it which really captures the spirit of the genre they were playing in. Hearing women sing so blatantly about the same kinds of things their male counterparts did, getting laid, drinking binges and the rock-star life with every bit of swagger and attitude as the men is also sometimes a little bit shocking. Bianca sings some things in the sweetest of voices that could make the most seasoned sailor blush before she erupts in a vocal chord melting scream that's as primal as it gets and Blare N. ***** offers up some rather tasteful guitar licks to give these songs a melodic touch they wouldn't have otherwise.
Blare and Sharon are now in another all-female punk metal group out of L.A. called Psychostar, so perhaps we'll be hearing more out of at least those two in the future.
In the meantime, I wanted to introduce those of you who might be interested to this band. If you like the punk and metal genres, this one may be for you:
Some videos for you.
WARNING: Many of these contain some rather prolific use of profanity and adult themes, so view at your own risk and don't watch them if you're under the age of 18 years old without your parent's permission.
jag
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