Lunachicks Interview
By Jason Cole
The Lunachicks are a band whose name precedes
them. This name alone strikes fear and terror in the
hearts of many a knuckle headed jock and arouses
feelings of love and adoration in the the groins of
multitudes of sexual deviants and punk rockers. These
chicks don't try to be cute for the boys in the crowd
nor do they want to be the dolls of the music press.
They play heavy as shit fucking punk rock, simple as
that. And no, they aren't afraid of breaking a few
nails along the way.
To see the Lunachicks live is an expierence all
it's own. Lead singer Theo goes fucking nuts every
time she hits the stage, dancing around, telling
stories,going up over the monitors and into the crowd.
And for those morons in the audience that think they
can bust a quick ass grab and not get noticed...well,
they better think again. Theo's boot has been planted
in tons of faces for shit like that.
Last time I caught them live they were opening
for Rancid and all I can say is that they blew them
away, hands down. After watching their set that night
it was a let down to watch Rancid plod away at their
instruments with not even one tenth of the energy of
these five women.
Anyway, thanks to Dan I got at the guest list
when they played the Whiskey the other day. After a
great set comprised of new material and old favorites
I caught up with them outside their tour van and we
shot the shit for a few minutes. (Just a side note,
the bass player Squid is real fucking scary! She
didn't say a word the whole time, looked real pissed
and sneered a lot. Punk man.)
Jason: Who all's in the Lunachicks?
Gina: I'm Gina Guitar, Theo vocals...
Theo: Theo, vocals. There's Squid on bass.
Sindi: I'm Sindi, guitar.
Theo: Gina plays lead guitar and Chip on drums.
Jason: So what's up with the new record? What's it
called?
Theo: It's called "Pretty ugly" It's on Go Cart
records. It's our only uh, second albumn on one label.
So we've only ever done one offs and so were triumphing
over the fact that we're doing two records on one label.
Gina: Yeah.Woo-hoo!
Jason: The crowd response was really good tonight
wasn't it?
Theo: Yeah they were singing all the words, yahoo!
Gina: Yeah, we had so much fun tonight! It was so much
fun!
Jason: You have a great stage show going on.
Theo: Thank you, I'm glad you liked it.
Jason: Especially you, you're a great performer.
Theo: Thank you.
Jason: How long are you on tour for right now?
Gina: We got another two weeks.
Theo: So it's a month.
Jason: Where were you before you hit L.A ?
Theo: Yeah, we did like all the midwest and then north
west.
Gina: And before that we were in Europe for most of the
Offspring.
Jason: Oh, you did go to Europe?
Theo: Yeah. With the Offsring and Vandals.
Petter: How were the crowds over in Europe?
Gina: It was fun!
Theo: Incredible. It rocked!
Jason: I heard some story about the Vandals, that you
threw somebody through a window or something?
Gina: Oh yeah, Dave.
Theo: Sindi threw Dave through a plate glass window
that had a fire extinguisher on the other side cause
they were messing around she was pulling him around and
it went ksshhhh!!!
Jason: WHo was that, your bass player?
Theo: No, our guitar player.
Jason: Well, I was going to ask you if you had any plans
to go to Europe but you've already been there. Ah, you
guys were on tour with Rancid the last time I saw you.
How was that? Did you have a good time with them?
Theo: They're great, yeah, they're fun. I got the tattoo,
that's how much I love those boys.
(Theo shows me a tattoo she had done with the names Rancid
and Lunachicks inside of a heart. Damn cool.)
Jason: Wow!
Theo: And ah, Lars and Matt have them too.
Jason: Really? That's cool.
Theo: Yeah.
Jason: Uh, Let's see. Fat mike from Nofx produced your
record didn't he?
Theo: Um-hm.
Jason: How'd you hook up with him?
Gina: We toured with Nofx last winter and they fell SO IN
LOVE WITH US that Fat Mike wanted to produce our record
and we're like, "Hell yeah, let's do it.
Jason: Does he smell bad or is that just a rumor?
Gina: No, I think he's quite clean.
Theo: He is.
Gina: And he's got like a nice fancy familly kind of car,
you wouldn't expect it. And this license plate that says
PUNK GUY.
Theo: It's like a four by four or something.
Gina: Yheah.
Jason: Is he cool to work with?
Gina: Yeah, funny guy.
Theo: And Ryan Green's great too and that's...we really
wanted to work with him as well. He's the other guy who's
producing.
Jason: What's your favorite Nofx song? Do yo have one?
Theo: Um,mine is definetely "Jeff wears Birkensocks" and
"The longest line".
Gina: Mine is Lorie myers.
Jason: I've read alot of articles about you guys that sort
of lump you in with the riot grrls and all that stuff.
Gina: Oh, that's just the press being lazy and they have
to classify everybody because riot grrls are girls and
we're girls, well hell, they must be riot grrls!
Theo: Yeah, it's prety retarded.
Gina: No, we're not riot grrls, it's just the media being
stupid and narrow minded.
Theo: And were not man hating fucking BIATCHES y'know what
I mean?
Jason: It's cool if you are.
Theo: No were not, um, they should go on, go girls y'know
but it's not our thing.
Jason: You guys ever get any hecklers in your audiences?
Theo: Yes.
Jason: I saw people grabbing your dress tonight and things
like that.
Petter: And feeling up and down your leg.
Gina: When it's our own show the people in the audience
do it out of love and they're thankful and they want to
touch you and everything.... when it's... when it's....
when we're opening for other bands sometimes it's hard
y'know because we get a lot of shit.
Jason: You get alot of people saying show us your tits
and all that.
Theo: Dumb jocks saying show us your tits. At one show
with Rancid in Cleveland someone in the very back of this
big theatre threw a full can of beer and it hit me in the
head and I was like... saw stars and then this other guy
was in front flipping me off, so I was so mad and I was
hurt so bad that I just jumped off stage and punched this
other guy in the face because I was so pissed off, and I
couldn't get back on stage so there I am in my tutu and
I'm just like ARRGGHHH!!! Then I went backstage and cried.
Everybody: Awwww.
Jason: I was gonna ask you what's the scariest thing ever
happened to you tour. if you ever had to kick anybody's
ass.
Theo: Yeah.
Gina: Oh Yeah... daily.
Theo: You're like, why doesn't this scare you? But yes,
it's happened. It happens
Jason: I first heard you guys on the "Every band-
Gina: You're leaving? (To some guy) Don't leave!
Jason: (To Mr. Romeo) One second, I'm almost done. I first
heard you guys on the compilation record "Every band has
a Shonen Knife that loves them" and you guys do a great
cover of "Antonio baka guy".
Theo: Oh, thank you.
Jason: I was wondering, how did that come about? Were you
friends with Shonen Knife?
Gina: No we were friends with Bill Martel and Redd Kross.
Theo: Yeah.
Gina: That was the whole L.A connection out here.
Theo: Used to be, now we don't see them anymore.
Gina: Yeah.
Theo: Except I don't know, Steve stayed at my house
recently.
Gina: Last time I saw Shonen Knife was when they played
with the Dickies in San Francisco years and years and
years ago.
Jason: O.k. what kind of bands are you into these days?
What do you listen to while you're on tour, are there any
favorites that you have right now?
Theo: My friend taped me the Squirrel Nut Zippers, I think
they're pretty awesome and I like that video.....and um,
I listen to alot of metal stuff that nobody likes
Gina: And like we all listen to Al green together and
like y'know we all listen to classic blues.
Theo: Revrened Horton Heat everybody likes.
Gina: And Snuff.
Theo: And Snuff.
Petter: So do you guys have individual influences?
(Good question Pete, sheesh! The band has to pause a
moment to contemplate the fact that Petter asked this
clunker.)
Theo: Oh yeah.
Gina: Definately.
Jason: Did you guys get to catch the Sex Pistols
reunion?
Theo: Uh Uh. I was like kind of interested, I would
have gone if like I got in for free but it wasn't
like something I was dying to see. I don't know.
More power to 'em for doing it and raking in the bucks
because they can but it's not really something I want
to see.Fucking forty, fifty year old men like trying
to be cool. I don't want to see myself in that position.
Jason: Here's the last thing I have to ask you. What's
the punkest thing you've ever seen or done?
Gina: That's kind of rough because there's so many
things.
Theo: One of the punkest things, one of the violentest
things...
Gina: When you took your tampon out?
Theo: No!
Jason: What's that?
Petter: Whoa!
Theo: That was one time in Minneapolis or St. Paul or
whatever the audience was just...this was when we were
on tour with the Offspring a few years ago and the
audience was such fucking assholes, all boys all like,
"Tits, tits, show us your tits!" y'know. This was like
St. Paul and I'm on my first day of my period and I'm
bleeding like a fucking pig and I'm like "Ugh I'm gonna
fucking show you something" so I fucking whipped it out.
Jason: On stage! Really?
Gina: Yeah and it was like really bloody and really
gross!
Theo: I fell on my hand last night, I was really drunk
and um I've never boken anything but I fell down on
this thumb (shows me her hand) and it was facing the
wrong way. You can't really see. And it was like facing...
sticking out the wrong way. I put on roller skates to
do this. So I was like sitting there going "Oh shit!"
Sat down, put on my friends leather and went "Baamm!"
and knocked back into place.
Jason: That is punk rock!
Theo: And my friend saw the whole thing and was like
slapping his leg and he was really grossed out.
Jason: Well that's enough for me! Thanks alot.
Theo and Gina: Thank you.
Man, what a way to wrap things up. I gotta ask that
question more often I guess. I said my goodbyes to the
band and headed for home. I must admit that I was a
little intimidated by the band before I talked to them,
but I found them to be some of the nicest people I've ever
interviewed. But I wouldn't want to run into Squid in
a dark alley if you know what I mean.
