MEET A MELANIE

A very nice interview with 

MELANIE VAMMEN

of the PANDORAS, the MUFFS, and the LEAVING TRAINS

by Angelo Ruggiero

I have always had a weakness for all-female rock bands. One of my favorites, even now is the 1960s garage revivalist band the Pandoras, from Los Angeles, CA. 

Following an energetically rough 7” EP, the Pandoras issued in 1984 their debut album, It's About Time, a real masterpiece of the garage genre. However, the band’s original line-up dissolved soon after the album release, remaining vocalist/guitarist Paula Pierce, as the only original member.

Shortly, Paula put together a new version of the band, including Melanie Vammen on keyboards, Julie Patchouli on bass, and Karen Blankfeld on drums. Featuring this line-up, the band recorded the Hot Generation single, which is my loved Pandoras record. This is because of its great sound, but maybe since it was the first record by the band to feature Melanie Vammen. In fact, she’s my preferred member from the band’s second formation. Melanie is so cute and agreeable that I could not resist to ask her some questions, to which she gently answered. 

Melanie grew up in Fountain Valley, Orange County, California, and joined the Pandoras in 1984. Well, I've always been interested to know if the Pandoras were Melanie’s first band and how come she met Paula.

“Yes, the Pandoras were my first band. I was 17 years old when I joined,” replied Melanie. “I joined the Pandoras in June of 1984. I already knew Paula from the 60's garage scene I hung out in. She had asked me in the past and asked me again if I knew how to play keyboards. This time, I said I could play a little piano. She had me come try out at Rich Coffee's (Unclaimed, Thee Forgiven) house. I played "Hot Generation", "High On A Cloud" & "Haunted Beach Party". After, she asked do you want to join the Pandoras. I of course said YES! A couple of weeks later we recorded our single “Hot Generation”/"You Don't Satisfy” at Silvery Moon Studios with Greg Shaw and Gary Stern,” described Melanie, on the recording sessions for the single. 
“While recording the Miracle Workers showed up from Oregon and hung out. There are a few photos from this session.”

The Hot Generation single was released on Bomp! Records in late 1984. I own the pic sleeve version with silver labels. The A side is a great remake of a song by the Sunsets, a terrific surf band from Newcastle, Australia. The Sunsets' original version was composed by Lindsay Bjerre, and appeared in the Film Soundtrack "The Hot Generation" surf documentary, released in May 1967. The B side, ”You Don't Satisfy,” penned by Paula, is a killer garage tune that easily could have been the A side.

Julie Patchouli quit the Pandoras in the Spring of 1985. Her substitute on bass was Kim Shattuck, who joined the band in July of 1985. During the winter of that year, the reformed line-up recorded Stop Pretending, considered by many as their best album.

Melanie’s prime instrument in the 1980s was keyboards, but I was curious to know when she started playing guitar. “When I started in the Pandoras, my main instrument was keyboards. I also knew how to play Clarinet,” said Melanie, “Later on, in 1989, I started teaching myself how to play guitar. I would watch them play and that's how I picked it up.” 

After a withdrawn album for Elektra to be titled Come Inside, and more changes in the band’s line-up -Blankfeld was replaced by Kelly Dillard, and soon later, the new drummer was Sheri Kaplan- the Pandoras started taking a new direction in sound toward hard rock and metal. By July of 1990, Melanie departed from the Pandoras. She was the longest-duration Pandora other than Paula. 

In September of 1990, Kim Shattuck also left the band and started the Muffs together with Melanie. The original line-up for the Muffs consisted of Kim Shattuck on vocals and guitar, Melanie Vammen on rhythm guitar, Ronnie Barnett on bass, and Criss Crass on drums.

Since the only songwriter in the Pandoras was Paula, Melanie’s first ever composition was during her tenure with the Muffs, “My first song I ever wrote was “Eye To Eye”. I co-wrote it with Kim when we started the Muffs.” In 1992, Melanie took part in the amazing single by White Flag, “Don’t Give It Away”/"Out In The Streets", providing harmony vocals. 

Melanie left the Muffs in 1994. Later on, she joined the Leaving Trains appearing on the albums Smoke Follows Beauty, Emotional Legs, and Amplified Pillows. 
“I co-wrote songs with Falling James when I played in the Leaving Trains," said Melanie.

"After that, I had another band, Pointy Kitty with Sherry Koko Puder and Dennis CarlinI. I co-wrote all the songs.”

Currently, the Pandoras have reunited, and Melanie Vammen has joined them on Keyboards. The other Pandoras participating in this reunion are Kim Shattuck on lead vocals and guitar, Karen Blankfeld on bass, and Sheri Kaplan on drums. The first show with the new line-up configuration is due to take place on June 26 at the Casbah, in San Diego, CA. This will be the Pandoras’ first gig since 1990. 
Then, they’ll play at Burger Boogaloo on July 4, 2015, at Mosswood Park, in Oakland, CA. Next, on July 25, they will rock the Battle Of The Garages at Turf Club, Minnesota. European Tour dates announced on the Pandoras Official page.

RAW AND REAL

INTERVIEW WITH
SOPHIA DILLEY
YOUNG PEOPLE WITH FACES and CHAIN LETTERS singer
by Angelo Ruggiero



Every generation of punks has always included a great diversity of people. Some aspire having a career as musicians, some hope to gain the interest of a big record label, but the immense majority of them, are youngsters that start their own bands, and make at least one record by them selves or on a small label. In fact, many of the best punk records came from one-shot projects, by bands that only made one seven inch or an album.

Even if the punk scene has changed through the time, many people are still in it for the fun and the enjoyment of what they are doing. Young People with Faces were one of those bands that epitomized a group of adolescents who just wanted to rawk hard. They were an amazing punk band from Hailey, Idaho, that formed in 2004 with Alice Bynum on drums, Simone Kastner on guitar, Matt Mayhem on bass, and Sophia Dilley, who was in charge of the vocals and keyboards.


Like the old punk bands, they used a valid strategy: self-releasing their debut single, which came out in June of 2005. Inspired by their punk heroes, they expressed their inner anger with an exciting piece, “I Hate You” on the side A, and backing it with a pair of catchy covers of “Spider-Man” and “Batman. 

Soon after, in August of 2005, the band’s self-titled debut album was released as a CD. The disc was comprised of fourteen punk rock influenced tracks: “Sick Girl,” “Break Your Face,” “Fuck Art, Let's Rock,” “So Annoyed,” “Piece Of Meat,” “Say Goodbye To Hollywood,” “I Hate You,” “Gettin' Hit On,” “Stay 17,” “Do The Pogo,” “Unlovable People,” “American Dream,” and “Yeah Yeah.” The vinyl version of the album was beautifully pressed on pink vinyl, surfacing one year later on Rapid Pulse Records, and featuring one extra track, "I Didn't Die." 

In 2013, Young People with Faces main member, the cute Sophia Dilley, came back to the scene as lead vocalist for Chain Letters, a Power Pop band which also featured former Tyranna Johnny Bubblegum on bass, Violet X on drums, and Chris Parker on guitar.

This new group made a great debut single, the Bad Reflection 7”, which was released by their own Pogo Time Records in June on 2013.

The melodic “Bad Reflection” was backed by the killer pop punk song, “Boulevard Girls.”  Chris Parker penned both tracks on the single. Only 300 copies of the single were pressed, hand-numbered on the back cover. I own copy number 67.

Chain Letters resulted to be a unique new band, that as many others, just wanted to take pleasure in the music they were creating.

Recently, I sent Sophia Dilley a list of questions to which she kindly responded. I hope that fans of both bands, Young People with Faces and Chain Letters, will enjoy reading this interview the same as me.

Please, tell me about the formation of Young People with Faces (YPWF). How did you all meet each other?

SOPHIA: We all went to high school together so we knew each other through other avenues.  Funny enough, Alice and I did ballet together growing up!  Matt, Simone and I were all in Jazz band together in high school as well. 

YPWF had actually formed almost a year before I came on board.  They had two lead singers who left in an angry huff when they discovered their musical interests aligned more with Michael Jackson than with Punk rock.  I happened to hear that YPWF was auditioning for a lead singer when this all went down and thought, “Hey, why not?” So I auditioned.  I remember I was so nervous, I had no idea what I was doing, no idea about punk, but there was something awesome when we all played our first song together and I sang with them for the first time.  Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t great, but there was a rawness that worked.  And I remember Matt, Alice, and Simone saying, “You’re in” and then it was just practice and studying the greats to get down the basics.  And my punk side was born.

Before I knew it, I was obsessed with these awesome 70s punk bands, we were rehearsing every day we could after school and started playing gigs a couple months later. Then we went on to writing our own material, and then recording and even a few tours! It’s all such a blur looking back now, but man was it awesome. 

How did you come up with the band’s name?

SOPHIA: It’s an old Buddy Rich line.  Buddy was famous for yelling at his band after they performed and on one occasion he screamed at a trombonist to get rid of his beard “This is the Buddy Rich Band; young people…with faces! No more fuckin’ beards” is the line he yelled.   Matt loved this line and it became the band’s name.  You can see Buddy Rich’s head on Alice’s Drum set if you look closely at our CD cover.   

Sophia, what are your top 5 favorite female singers/bands?

SOPHIA:
Avengers - Penelope Houston 
Pretenders - Chrissie Hynde
Penetration - Pauline Murray
The Bags - Alice Bag
The Sounds - Maja Ivarsson

The I Hate You single has “Punks Not Dead-Just The Punks” (side A), and “Better Than Zeppelin” (side B), scratched in the run-off groove. Who had the idea of including those messages?

SOPHIA: I am sure the messages were the ideas of Matt’s and Steve Bynum who manages Young People with Faces.  The two of them have the most incredible knowledge of punk history and wittiness when it comes to album releases, song titles, band names, etc.  They even started a zine called That’s Cool, That’s Trash!  which is awesome if you haven’t seen it.  



Did YPWF split after the debut album? What did you do during the 6-year break in the continuity of your career as a punk rock girl?

SOPHIA: We actually never officially split, but obviously we haven’t recorded or played in years.  What happened was we all went our separate directions after we graduated high school to college and to work and that meant different states and the distance at the time wasn’t conducive to us continuing to play.  We had a good three-year run.  I think if we were all in one place together for a long period of time, we would play again.   I hope we do actually!  I have been pursuing my career in film so I have found other ways to be creative, but I have always had music as a passion of mine so when I’m not in a band I play piano or sing by myself.  It’s not something you can shake if you have the bug.  

I know Chris is the main songwriter for Chain Letters. Have you penned material for YPWF or are you currently co-writing songs for Chain Letters?

I helped co-write a couple of songs for YPWF and as of now I haven’t done any co-writing for Chain Letters.  I am open to it though; I think it’s more a matter of time in the day.  I need more hours to do all of this, between a full time job as a producer and wanting to play music, scheduling can be a nightmare! 


Chain Letters are, at the moment, based in Los Angeles, Toronto and England. Sophia, you are currently in Los Angeles, Johnny is in Toronto, and Chris is living in Cambridge. How often do you reunite for rehearsing?
SOPHIA: Amazingly enough, we have yet to rehearse in person. We all worked on our parts of the song separately. In a way this was great because it gave each of us an opportunity to bring our own twist on the songs to the table. 

But it is always hard when you don’t have the physical presence of the band to keep you grounded and give you support.   When I recorded my vocals, I was all alone re-listening to takes and deciding whether they were good enough.  I could hear my neighbors mimicking me after a certain point because I had been replaying and singing so loudly and I was tempted to ask which take they liked better. 

The cool thing was Chris wrote the lyrics and sent me an example of him singing the song how he envisioned it. I then got to take it and pick parts of the lyrics I wanted to hold longer or yell or have a different tone for.   As an example, the entire end of Bad Reflection I adlibbed.  I am sure that is how Chris, Johnny and Violet X worked as well. As we continue to create more music, I hope we all get to play live together.  There is no other feeling in the world like that and I crave getting to do it again.


 
Chain Letters are still a relatively new band with one great single and a great recognition, and cool reviews. Are you planning to make a follow-up to the Bad Reflection single, and then start gigging?

SOPHIA: I know Chris and I have talked about doing more stuff together.  I hope we do.  We all have external obligations, which make it difficult, but I think we are all super pumped to see how it turns out.   I am incredibly humbled by the reception that the single has received.  It’s really just awesome to be a part of a band again. I love playing music and I LOVE playing live, so if we get the opportunity to play gigs, I am in.  



Some words for your fans and the kids that are just starting bands now.

SOPHIA: Don’t be afraid to say ‘yes’ even if you aren’t confident in your ability yet.
All of the opportunities I have had musically and in life actually came about because I decided to take a risk and say ‘yes’ to something that made me nervous.  So say ‘yes,’ keep playing, and don’t be afraid to be raw and real.  Punk is all about not being afraid to be unique, to do what you believe in, and to not conform to a general idea of what something should be.  So, Be different. Say yes. Play loud! Try a new instrument.  Do whatever it is that makes you uniquely you.  And, never give up on your music it’s a way of communicating that is extremely powerful both internally and externally and hugely underestimated.

AMORY BUILDING

An interview with James Young, vocalist with the Scabs

By Mick Fletcher

The Scabs , from Exeter, Devon, did just one record in 1979. The E.P. includes 4 punk masterpieces, "Amory Building," "Leave Me Alone," "Don't Just Sit There," and "U.R.E."

Featuring Exeter University students James Young (vocals), John Salmons (guitar/organ), Steve Pardoe (bass), and Patrick Cunningham (drums), the Scabs released the E.P. in March 1979. Recorded in 4 hours in a crappy West London studio, it went on to become a highly collectible classic. Only together for around 18 months, a couple of them went onto form ska/pop band the M5's.

Since then I came into contact with their vocalist/composer, James Young, who revealed he doesn't even own a copy of the single anymore. I took the opportunity to ask if he'd like to do an interview and I'm grateful to him for saying yes so here it is...

  

From what I remember of The Scabs, you were 5 students at Exeter University who's only release was an ep in 1979. Which bands influenced you? Was it a typical case of 5 teenagers hear the Pistols and the Clash and decide "we can do that"?

Yes more or less correct. We were 4, never 5, and yes we felt that we could do it too. The band was the idea of John Salmon the lead guitarist. I didn't think he was particularly "punk" but he announced that he wanted to start a band called the Scabs (as in Strike Breakers Scabs). Steve, the bassist was also a "founder member". He and John were already mates, and they found Patrick Cunningham, the drummer, who in the true spirit of punk rock couldn't really play the drums when we started, but he looked kind of punk and at the time that was more important.

They had an audition for a lead singer, and I believe only 2 people turned up, so it wasn't exactly a triumph that I was chosen. John Steve and Patrick worked pretty hard at rehearsing, and we had our first gig only a couple of months after we started in a university bar called Cornwall House. It wasn't hard to get gigs on Campus. In those days there really weren't many people who could set up and entertain and the news that ANYBODY was playing anywhere was quite a big stir. But we weren't really very good at first. There were a couple of non-student punk bands in Exeter, who were definitely better than us and we were painfully aware of that and often felt like we were a bit if a joke early on.

I'm guessing that back in the late '70's every city and town had regular punk gigs? Was it easy to get bookings in the early days? Did you manage to attract decent crowds and did you share a stage with any big name bands?

No name bands. No, punk rock looks different through the rose tinted glasses of hindsight. Back in the day, the number of people who considered punk worth listening to were a REAL minority. Most people liked Supertramp, 10cc, and still those old pomp rock bands like YES. A lot of people were moved to getting angry at even hearing a punk record or seeing somebody not wearing flared jeans. I dyed my hair at the time, and on several occasions had to run extremely fast to get away from gangs wanting to beat me up. Other times, standing on a station platform, EVERYBODY would be staring as if I wasn't wearing any clothes. So, the general consensus was disapproval, and I think a lot of punk bands would echo that as the general "zeitgeist" once they moved out of the centre of London or Manchester. 

Name punk bands weren't a particularly big draw in themselves with the sole exception of the Sex Pistols and the Ramones. There were NEVER any punk bands booked at Exeter University. When the Stranglers were booked in 1980, when they were really a spent force as far as punk energy was concerned, the Security Guards announced that they would refuse to work if they played, and the gig was immediately shifted to Plymouth. If you study the charts at the time, you can tell that bands like, say, the Clash, simply weren't selling any singles. The Sex Pistols were so cleverly managed with all that "getting banned by the BBC" stuff, their sales came from notoriety more than any love of the music.

Talk me through how the single came about, was it a thrill knowing you were going to release one? Did it receive much airplay/press acclaim? Did it sell out quickly?

There were some independent records around, and that's what ours was. It was Patrick's (the drummer's) doing. He actually financed it and did the whole thing. I simply wouldn't have had the money. We all went up to London and there was a cheap recording studios somewhere right out in North London. A really nice guy called Marcus who was a bit of a Hunt Saboteur and general Anarchist guested on saxophone, and the whole recording was done in 2 hours. I think I just had 2 takes. Patrick then got 1000 pressed and set himself up in the Student Coffee Bar selling the singles. And we sold well and got more pressings. 

Because there just weren't any singles around by punk bands in any number, we were reviewed by all the music papers. In those days the music papers ruled. You just went and bought what the music papers liked. There was no way of previewing what they'd sound like, you just had to go and buy.

Sounds gave us an amazing review, Melody Maker good I think and the others said we were "amateurish" I expect. But the reviews helped Patrick to organize a tour. We played 6 or 7 dates in a week in some pretty weird places from Bradford to Cornwall, but always to "a crowd" and it was never a disaster. But, I don't think the single got any airplay at all. There just wasn't that kind of opportunity. Only Radio One and I'm not even sure if John Peel had got his show going in those days and that was only 2 hours a day. But you would never get played on Radio One during the day. It was all Agadoo.

I read somewhere that your brother spent his lunchtimes selling the ep to schoolkids. Did you ever feel famous in any way? Did you think you'd still be discussing it 35 years later?

That must have been Patrick selling the EPs. He wasn't my brother but he worked really hard at promoting that record. No, I never felt famous in any way... embarrassed most of the time. We played an open air gig at Powderham Castle (I think that's what it was called) and much to my surprise, a really large crowd were really appreciative. That was the only time I really felt like we'd done something worth celebrating. 35 years later, the record does sound good, and wow, no I would have been astonished to think that anybody would be interested. That was the age of "burn bright for a few weeks only." Once a record left the charts, you'd NEVER hear it again. Heart Radio would have astonished people in the 1970's. Well, maybe not astonished, but that was the modus operandi of Radio 2!!

Was another release ever in the pipeline?

Yes, we recorded another 2 tracks about a year or two later....it wasn't bad at all and John was hoping to get a record deal. Apparently we almost did but punk was losing ground to the Mod and Ska bands already. If we'd have recorded something about Popping Blues on my Lambretta, we'd have got a deal no problem.

Why did you split up and with so many of the old bands reforming to gig at festivals like Holidays In The Sun/Rebellion etc. Have you ever been tempted to give it a go?

I think we split up because we left university. I think the Scabs did reform but they didn't ask me to join them. I would quite happily give it a go of course.

Finally, do you still listen to punk music or have your tastes changed over the years?

Yes, punk rock rules!! I really like the Parquet Courts at the moment. Their new album is quite amazing. I still dabble with punk songs occasionally in my attic with Cubase, and recently wrote and recorded a song called BMW and it's still amateurish!

I'd like to say a big thank you to James for taking the time to answer my questions.

Mick Fletcher  

http://justsomepunksongs.blogspot.com/

I DON'T LIKE YOU

By Angelo Ruggiero

Featuring

MARCO FERRARESE of the Nerds

and GIACOMO of No Name No Logo Records 

The alternative to the conventional way of releasing music is to do it yourself, taking your own decisions, recording songs, and issuing them on small independent labels outside the mainstream.

Every generation of punks have always made an effort to openly announce their principles.  

For the majority of the bands, doing it yourself has not been an option but a have to.
Since the seventies, it has not been so difficult for bands to make recordings and get them pressed on vinyl.
Thousands of bands have been doing it at an underground level. Seven inches, albums, and CDs are still being sold by bands at their concerts, and traded with record distributors or other small punk labels.

One of those bands was the Nerds from Voghera, Italy. Late in the nineties, they started doing some of the rawest, hard to resist lively punk rock. Their very first recording, the split E.P. with Orange Juice from the Crypt, was released in 1998 on the Italian underground punk label, Saucer Rex Records. The Nerds' side consisted of the songs "Kill All The Boyscouts," "Teddy Flaunts His 25 cm. Dick," "You're An Asshole," and the Authorities' cover of "Radiation Masturbation."

Shortly after, it was recorded the Don't Like You 7'' E.P., which was comprised of the tracks “I’ll Kick You In The Balls,” and “I Don’t Like You”on side A, and “The Todd Killings,” and “The Hermit Wanna Eat Me” on side B.

The Don’t Like You 7'' was released on No Name No Logo Records, punk rock label owned by Giacomo Francioni, who was in charge of punk bands Nicketeen and Highschool Dropouts.

I would like to thank Giacomo, who has recently revealed his thoughts in relation to his label’s first release: “I wanted to start NNNL mainly because of the Nerds. I was friends with Marco [the Nerds’ guitar player] at the time, and his band sounded very fresh and raw... they caught my attention and I thought they deserved to release a 7" EP. Their 1997 demo cassette was awesome. Actually, their 7" on NNNL came out in 1998.”

The cost to press vinyl records in the late nineties, was still affordable. Giacomo spoke about pressing the Nerds' Don’t Like You 7’’ single, “the record was manufactured at a pressing plant in the outskirts of Milan. It was released in 1000 copies without test pressings or colour variations. I don't remember where sleeves and inner bags were made but it all costed 900.000 Lire which means less than 500 Euro.”

I also can't thank enough to the Nerds' leader and guitarist Marco Ferrarese, for letting me know some of his thinkings about the band's beginnings. “Don't Like You was recorded for a friend's label [No Name No Logo], he [Giacomo] was the guitarist of a pop punk band called Nickyteen, like the pornstar. We were really into 80s calipunk and the Angry Samoans, that's why we covered Todd's Killings,” told Marco. 

“I will tell you an anecdote from the Don't Like You 7". The song "The Hermit Wanna Eat Me". It does have a sense: the "Hermit" was a nickname me, Boss and Pollios gave to the now deceased grandfather of our bassist, Taccio.
We were kids, ahaha.. When we usually went to buzz Taccio to ask him out, his grandfather would sit on the porch, wearing a white singlet, and smoking cigarettes.
He would always tell us off in some impolite way, like "Taccio's not here", "Taccio's studying", or "Ring the bell don't let me get up and find him for you."
We were kind of intimidated by the man, so that's how the song came about. It's a great song.

One thing is, I'm not very happy with the guitar sound on that single," accepted Marco. 
"It's too slurred... Probably a problem due to the engineer's lack of competency with analog tape. Anyways, "I Don't Like You" was a great song too. 
Those were some of our most melodic songs, before we turned a bit more towards early GG Allin & the Scumfucs, and the likes.

Don't Like You EP

Don't Like You came out before our I Wanna Kill Your Plastic Slut 7", which I believe defines our early sound."

As guitarist of the Nerds, Marco Ferrarese provided a powerful sound to the band. The follow-up to Don’t Like You was the 4-track 7’’ EP I Wanna Kill Your Plastic Slut, released by Italy's Scarey Records. It included killer tunes like “Kill,” “Go Fuck Yourself,” “Slut,” and a GG Allin’s potent cover of  “I Wanna Rape You.” 

Early concerts by the Nerds were really wild. I remember all those energetic teens exploding into pogo dancing while every song was reaching its climax.

After signing to Holland’s Stardumb Records the band released their first full length Just Because She Didn’t Wanna Fuck, in December 2000.
A split 7'' with Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13 came out in 2001, followed by a split 10'' with Tunnel Rats. In 2003, the band delivered another split 7'' with Hammercocks. Their second album, A Black Star Burning Trails To Nowhere was released on Scarey Records in April of 2004.

Besides being a terrific musician, Marco Ferrarese also is an excellent writer and journalist. In late 2013, his first novel, Nazi Goreng: Young - Malay - Fanatic - Skinheads, was published by Monsoon Books in Singapore. The book examines the Malaysian drug traffic and racial furies. He's also the lead guitarist of hardcore band WEOT SKAM.

STARING INTO HER EYES

KEVIN McGOVERN and the Prostitutes
By Angelo Ruggiero

Here's the original Prostitutes from Harrisburg, PA, now relocated in Long Beach, CA. 
In the Get Sick! GetSicker! post, I covered the band’s early original recordings. You got the most detailed and precise information about the Prostitutes. With this new article and interview, you are getting the real deal: the ultimate interview with Kevin Patrick McGovern, and his most extreme answers and thoughts on his exceptional life. 

"...I was insane and our guitar player totally destroyed his amp during the end of the set. Probably the drunkest and highest I (we) ever performed." 

After the separation of the Prostitutes' original line-up, Kevin was prepared for recording new songs he had written. He soon assembled a new band that featured guitarist Mike Williams, bassist Ryan Conner, and first drummer Jeff Peterson. This line-up of the Prostitutes recorded the tracks for a proposed E.P. including “Obscene”, “Living is Boring”, “Self Destructive Motherfucker”, “I’m Not Like You”, “No Sound”, “Nighttime Parasite”, and “FYF”. This songs remained unreleased until October of 2013, when they were issued on the online album 
The Unreleased LP.
During the Mid-West tour, the Prostitutes broke up, and Kevin stayed living in Ohio. Afterward, Kevin started the mind-blowing band the Inversions using the McKean brothers of Cleveland’s GC5 as backing band.  

"I moved in with the door girl the next day.  We got married a few months later but it was loose, unconventional, and based on a mutual love of frenzied self-destruction with good rock n roll always on the stereo."



Kevin and the Prostitutes came back in 2008 with their essential second album Kill Them Before They Eat. The 2008 incarnation of the band included drummer Noel Brown, bassist P Mo, guitarist/ keyboardist Issac James, and Kevin on vocals and guitar. 

Kill Them Before They Eat was recorded and mastered at Altered Thoughts Studio, in Long Beach, CA, in the Winter of 2008. The album has a more mature sound, but with the same magical talented touch of Kevin McGovern. The ten new tracks on the album are "The New Cure," "Fashion Bitch," "Lolita," "Wanna Go To Hell," "Whatever," "Hollywood Murder Scene," "Electrocution," "Living Is Boring," "Nightmare Parasite," and "Black Eyed And Cut." The CD version of this album was released in August 2008 on May Cause Dizziness Records, containing six bonus tracks (11-16) taken from the two Inversions E.P.s. 
A limited vinyl edition of the album was planned to be released on Sonic

Jett Records. The May Cause Dizziness/Erratic labels issued in 2009 the Let's Get Killed compilation album, which features the Prostitutes' track "Nightmare Parasite."

"...my intention was to show that I could write tighter and more sophisticated songs without the trappings of street-punk or hardcore."


In September 2009, the exciting 4-track E.P. Belle Ringer, came out on Finland's Hell's Tone Records, including the superb punk tunes "Psychward California," "Backstab," "Annihilate From The Start," and "Poison Me." All tracks are by Kevin McGovern, except "Poison Me" by McGovern/James. The line-up that recorded the Belle Ringer E.P. was comprised of Kevin on vocals and guitar, Bryan Rivas on drums, and 'Sexy Boy' Mike Damus on bass. This terrific E.P. was recorded at Anvil Studios, L.A., in February 2009. The front cover photo was shot by Luna. My copy is on orange vinyl from a limited edition of only 100 copies. The total pressing was 500 copies (100 Black, 100 Green, 100 Blue, 100 Orange, and 100 Red.)

Besides composing music, Kevin is currently the editor and main writer for the online magazine Fear & Loathing in Long Beach. Below is a crucial interview with Kevin Patrick McGovern, a true punk poet of our times.

ANGELO: Following the splitting up of the Prostitutes' original line-up, you went to record a 6-song E.P. in 2000. What's the story behind these recordings?

KEVIN: The original line-up was falling apart and we had two different bass players take over for some bigger shows we were doing in the Baltimore/D.C. area.  I was trying to have a relationship with two females at the same time, who happened to be best friends and developed bad addictions along with me.  I was holding back on contributing songs to that line-up because the band was beyond disjointed and I hated the new material they were writing.  I announced to the audience and to the band’s surprise, during a show we did with Nashville Pussy, that it was the last show we would ever play.  Corey Parks thought I was insane and our guitar player totally destroyed his amp during the end of the set.  Probably the drunkest and highest I (we) ever performed. This final show of the original line-up was video recorded and I have yet to locate it.

It was an anxiety inducing time for me and I started working erratically on new material outside of the band with a keyboard player named Danielle, and a drummer that was more rock oriented.  It was moodier and more garage-new wave type of music. The new project, which was supposed to be called The Modern Fuckers, never recorded anything and we were popping Vicodin like candy.  I had a breakdown of sorts at the end of 1998 and moved back home to regroup and clean up a little bit.  That was a rough time for me mentally.  I couldn’t get a grasp on what I wanted out of life or music.  I tried to keep substances to a minimum but I was drinking harder than ever before and working at the local mall. 

At a new year’s party for 1999, I had asked Jeff the original drummer if he wanted to reboot the band.  We brought in my friend Mike Williams on guitar and Ryan Conner on bass.   At this point I had the band starting to learn the songs I was writing outside of the band, which included “Give Me Head, Give me Death”, “I’m Not Like You”, “Red White Black and Blue”, “Living is Boring”, “Please Kill Me”, “Nighttime Parasite”, and “Lolita”.  Mike and Ryan had written music for “Obscene”, “No Sound”, “F.Y.F”, and “Self Destructive Motherfucker”. I added lyrics and melodies to their compositions with a few chord additions as well.  We brought in Tim McCoy again, but Tim stayed for about 2 months. The original session with McCoy included the tunes, “Head or Death” and “Please Kill Me” and have yet to see a digital release.  They were recorded at Sound For Sound Studios.  We started drinking at 9 am and the session went until 10 pm with us dragging Tim out to his car and me stoned out of my mind trying to mix down, we did get 6 tracks done.  We were trashed during the session and the best songs to come out of it were “Psycho”, “I’m Not like You”, and “Red White Black and Blue”.  

Pat Grindstaff (Pelado Records) noticed the playing was off quite a bit so we sobered up and went back into 213 studios to re-record a few months later.  The new 6 song EP was “Obscene”, “Living is Boring”, “SDMF”, “I’m Not Like you”, “No Sound”, “Nighttime Parasite”, and “FYF”.  Some from before, some left out, and some that were newer. It was set to come out on a split LP with the Dimestore Halos along with the CD release of our 25-song discography.  

We played 6 or 7 shows with the new song set list while including covers of “Cherry Bomb” and “You Keep Knocking’” as show closers.  Also during these shows, we were performing the rough drafts of “Lolita” and “They’re All Dead”.  I wanted to save these for a future recording date with a different approach.  Close to the summer of 99, I had stopped using long distance calling and PO Boxes.  It was easy to book a ton of shows with e-mails in that year, as many bands were still using the old methods.  I booked a mid-west tour and we made it two shows in before I broke up the band on stage.  I started making out with the door girl right in front of the stage after Mike threw his guitar at me during our 3-song set.  This would lead to my stay in Columbus, OH.  I moved in with the door girl the next day.  We got married a few months later but it was loose, unconventional, and based on a mutual love of frenzied self-destruction with good rock n roll always on the stereo.  We’re still friends but our parting of ways wasn’t very pretty, we were young and didn’t care too much about anything.  I had a ton of credit cards available to me when we first met and blew it all drinking and binging for about 6 months before cleaning up my act just enough to land a decent job and prepare the songs for the Inversions.  A friend of mine suggested I use the GC5 as a backing band.  They were on break from tour, talented musicians, and fast learners.  This would turn into the “Inversions”. 
   

ANGELO: Please tell us about the other music projects you have been involved in, like your side band from 2007, Grown Up Wrong, and Cheap Dates. 

KEVIN: I was living in Providence, Rhode Island for a bit with my friend Jami Sleaze inside of a merch room that part of his house.  I had a lot of fun there and will always have a fondness for New England and the hospitality the punk community there provided.  We had a make shift Prostitutes for a month or so, it didn’t amount to much, but sounded pretty good.  The band was me, Jami, and two girls named Connie and Meg.   I was pretty much penniless, doing set design on an indie film and cleaning houses while I was there.

I was unfocused but beginning to write for the “Kill Them” album.  I wasn’t crazy about doing old material.  My ex-wife had hit major financial trouble in a freezing cold mid-west winter so I took the Amtrak back to help her with rent, stay in the basement, and make sure her health was okay.  I took a warehouse job while doing telemarketing.  My plan was to get my head straight after excessive indulgence in New England and figure out a new a plan. I placed an ad in Craigslist as a singer looking to front a band that sounded like the Pagans. The Popkie brothers responded and Grown Up Wrong was born.  Within two months, we wrote 8 songs, did 5 shows and made a lot of live and rehearsal recordings.  I hope the recordings are still out there, some of it was really good Thunders style rock n roll.  We even did a Teengenerate cover in our group of songs. They changed their name to the Cheap Dates after I quit the band.  Within 2 weeks I was offered a one-way trip to California by a girl that was huge fan of the song “Twenty-Two”.  I was miserable in the mid-west so I took the flight, and never looked back.    I liked the people that I hung out with and do not have any ill will towards them.  It was just time for me to go and see something new.   Live for the moment, right? When it’s time to leave, it’s time to go…    

ANGELO: As a refreshed band, the Prostitutes came back to the studio in 2008 to record the Kill Them Before They Eat album. Do you consider this album was an outgrowth of the Prostitutes early sound. Did the band reach their most representative effort with these recordings?

KEVIN: It was definitely more in line with what I wished that original lineup sounded like. The members featured on the artwork actually were only in the live version of the band. I did all of the vocals and guitars and Isyck James played drums and bass. We recorded it on a soundstage in Orange County and did the guitars and vocals in my girlfriend’s walk-in closet. I think my intention was to show that I could write tighter and more sophisticated songs without the trappings of street-punk or hardcore. If anything, I wanted the record to sound like a cross between the Buzzcocks and Fang.  I’m pretty happy with it looking back.  It was a recollection of my life in the 2000s put to music and words. I wouldn’t change it, but probably wouldn’t write that kind of record in 2014 as so much has changed for me. I take better care of myself nowadays and don’t wallow in depression as much as I used to. It gets old and stagnant. I never wanted to turn into one of those artists that sound like a broken record. A goal of mine throughout my recordings was to use a different vocal style and vibe so each release sounded like a different chapter in a book or something like that. 
   





ANGELO: Did it finally get release the vinyl version of Kill Them Before They Eat on Sonic Jett Records?

KEVIN: No, it never happened.  Joel Jett really tried to make it a reality but the economy collapsed that year. I think for all of us involved, survival was much more important than getting a release out on vinyl.  It would be great if one day it did, I’m very cool with people downloading it for free from Bandcamp.  I do love vinyl, but doing a vinyl release is very expensive. May Cause Dizziness handled the CD release and also wanted to do the vinyl at the time but I promised Joel first, so that’s what really went down. That’s the way life goes sometimes.  The cover art that Sonic Jett had designed for the vinyl was different and the song order was changed.  I think Joel’s vision of the album would’ve been a much improved one over the version I originally wanted.    

ANGELO: In 2009, another radical production, the Belle Ringer EP, came out. Please describe us how this E.P. was achieved. Why did you decide to release it on Finland's Hell's Tone Records?

KEVIN: Belle Ringer is based on the concept of staring into a pretty girl’s eyes while your ears are ringing from a super euphoric drug high.  I had flown to Phoenix courtesy of MCD Records during a horrendous time of fighting with the girl I lived with. The line-up from “Kill Them” in Long Beach had dissolved and I wanted to get away.  I stayed at Wes of Erratic! Radio’s house and wound up crashing in hotel room depressed out of my mind.  I got a flight back to Long Beach and wrote the tracks “Backstab” and “Psychward California” in my head while waiting for

the flight to arrive and during my reluctant trip back to the living hell I had just left.  Can you say hopeless suicidal romantic?  Most of my song themes revolve around relationships, euphoria, anger, and deep periods of depression. The concept of Belle Ringer is that beautiful beginnings have ugly endings. Mike Damus responded to an ad I placed after returning to LB. He was in Van Nuys and said he had a drummer. New Years of 2009 we played the songs and met for the first time in my apartment living room.  I told them I wanted to get a 7” out quickly and they agreed.  I

messaged Vesku of Hells Tone Records, he liked the band and said he would do a release.  I always wanted an overseas release.   “Annihilate from the Start” and “Poison Me” were songs that I didn’t have time to record for the “Kill Them Before They Eat” album. The EP was recorded in Huntington Park in an old factory near a meat packing plant.  Don Bolles of the Germs was living upstairs. We had a tiny room to record in called Anvil Studios.  The whole thing was done in two back-to-back days.  We could only use the studio from 9 am to 5 pm so we were limited.   Jeff Harris the engineer got a pretty decent raw sound that we liked.  I wanted it to sound like one of those old Killed By Death record productions.

  
ANGELO: What's your favourite era of the Prostitutes, including Mainliner and the Inversions?

KEVIN: I like them all in a different way.  Some days I’m very proud of them and other days I’m very critical of the sound of my voice and the mixes I used.  The Inversions is the one band I go back and listen to the most, as “They’re All Dead” is one song that came out exactly how I heard it in my head.  It also reflects my disillusionment with my years in music and the deaths of friends and difficulties that came with it.    

ANGELO: What's your main goal as editor and writer for your online magazine Fear & Loathing in Long Beach?
KEVIN: Writing is a true love of mine and I like to share my thoughts and opinions in hopes of connecting with others who feel the same.  We have between 10 to 20,000 readers per issue and I like to interview artists I admire and turn people on to music that I like. I’m always trying to grow it bigger but funds and time are limited. Mike Spent is a big contributor to the digital zine as well.  It’s a one man show as I do the editing, formatting, and design. 

 We’ve just added Wil Cohen as our zine photographer and he does some amazing photographic art.  It’s kind of my full time music thing nowadays and I’m always looking for ways to reach more people with it. I write for other sites too and it has given me more access to the world around me than my band years ever did.  I’m a different person nowadays or just a little more wise to the world. However, good music, interesting personalities, cool writing, and pretty girls are still rock n roll to me.  I’m just expressing myself in a different format and it has been an amazing experience so far. I didn’t set out with an agenda.  It’s similar to music for me. My gut feeling dictates where I’m going and what I’m doing next with it. I like to keep things loose in the sphere of ambition and expectation.      

ANGELO: I have been listening to some of your latest acoustic tracks. These really are rad punk rock songs! Do you have plans to release a new record soon?

KEVIN: Thank you. I’ve written a new EP and would like to get it recorded properly.  It’s a matter of finding a drummer and bass player that can jump in with a day or two of rehearsals, go into a studio and knock it out.  When it comes to music, I like to work fast and efficiently. I’d like to see where it goes and label interest never hurts. Otherwise, you lose your momentum and it turns into a stale affair. It’s not about money or “making a comeback”, I’m always writing music and think what I currently have penned would make for a good Prostitutes E.P. Writing is in my DNA whether someone digs it or not. I pursue my creative outlets incessantly because it’s all I really want to do.  I’m always excited to see what’s working its way around the corner next.  Whether it’s a nightmare or good news, it’s better than standing still. 

ANGELO: Thank you so much for the time, Kevin!