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| The Green Lady Killers are on the prowl |
"No one who knows the real world of rock n’ roll
can ever say it’s not a man’s world; there are very few bands with an
all female line-up compared to the masses of all male rock bands,
wearing ‘guy liner’ and long hair. It’s definitely a “Boy’s Club” but
Lady Van Buren (vocals/guitar), drummer Cherrybomb and bassist Ivy Rose,
better known as the Green Lady Killers, seem to be holding their own. Why? Well, their eyeliner’s thicker and it’s waterproof.
One look at these women and you know they are not ‘wallflowers’. “Sometimes we get treated differently but I can tell you that after we
play, we get treated just like every other band.” States Van Buren with
certainty, but then says with a chuckle, “You’re mistaken a lot for a
‘girlfriend’ of a band, when you’re carrying a guitar! There are no
‘girlfriends’ in this band.” “We know how to play with the boys and we
have a blast out there,” giggles Cherrybomb, “there are definitely not
as many female rock bands; I think it has its disadvantages and
advantages; but we don’t care about any of that though ’cause we just
want to rock, bottom line!”
Being very confident, educated women, one might ask, “what is a green
lady-killer” and how did you become one? It’s a sordid tale but true;
and brings to mind the theme from the Twilight Zone. “Well, Lady and I
grew up across the street from each other,” states Cherrybomb. “When I
was a kid, I was afraid of this monster in my closet and she was called,
‘The Green Lady’. This was like when I was two or three years old and
Lady remembers all this because she terrorized me for about a year…maybe
longer… so years later we grow up and Lady decides to move to Seattle
for a little bit and she’s in a house with like seven other people and
one day this roommate brings home this print of a painting called, Miss
Wong. It’s this 60’s painting that you’ve probably seen before; it’s
kind of a freaky print; her eyes follow you everywhere. Anyway…the print
FREAKED everybody out in Lady’s house so nobody wanted it by the time
everybody moved out. Well, Lady had a friend come visit her after she
moved out and he says, ‘show me your last place’, so they drive by. And
what’s sitting outside? The painting. So the landlord had put it
outside to throw it away. Her friend loved the painting and said,
‘that’s awesome can you send it to me’? So Lady says, ‘Yes, I guess if
you really want it.’ So she ships it off to him and he actually gets
the painting on Halloween. Now he’s having a party, right…runs out of
beer, goes to the store to get another case of beer and the house
catches on fire while he’s gone! Well… all this shit burned down and
all his shit burned down but the painting remained, right… it remained
untouched. So, a couple of years later we start this band and we’re
‘googling’ images for a flyer for a show and we typed in, ‘Green Lady’
for fun, and that’s the image, which came up. That’s the image that
comes up with that name. We knew it immediately… “We had to kill her.”
States Van Buren; with a devilish laugh. “Yeah… we still have that
painting… She hangs in my house actually.”
Though the Green Lady Killers
may be new to Los Angeles; Van Buren and Cherrybomb grew up together in
Phoenix, AZ. Along with former bassist, Annie Venom, they played as
much as they could but Phoenix is only so big; they needed to be in a
central location to get to more clubs and reach a more broad audience,
so the decision to move to Los Angeles was an easy one, though they’d be
making the move without Venom. “Cherry and I grew up together,” says
Van Buren, “we lived across the street from each other as kids and
that’s how we originally met. I met Ivy about a year and a half ago,
about May 2011, after we relocated from Phoenix, AZ (our hometown) to
Los Angeles. She lives in Chino, which is kinda close to LA. So we
found a new addition and the best yet…for sure!”
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| The Green Lady Killers taming the sun © 2011 Lance Dawes Photography |
“Unfortunately,
our old bassist Annie, wasn’t able to move with us, when we decided to
come to Los Angeles,” adds Cherrybomb, “we adore her and loved playing
with her but she decided she wanted to go back to school and moved back
to Chicago. We supported her decision hundred percent and we totally
understood; it was hard because we were all so close and such good
friends; we totally loved jamming together. Lady and I decided we
wanted to totally support Annie with her next endeavors in life and we
parted ways on excellent terms; again, we’re really close friends.” So
the hunt was on for a new bassist but it didn’t take Van Buren and
Cherrybomb long to find…Ivy. “When we got to LA, we interviewed a few
bass players but when we met Ivy, we knew it was like an instant
match….” Cherrybomb says with a smile. “Like eHarmony!” quips Ivy. “We love the vibe of Los Angeles,” states Van Buren. “Phoenix is a
great city but we just wanted a different experience. Of course we spent
some time getting everything tightened up and nailed down with a new
line-up and then began writing songs and Ivy is a mountain of
creativity. The song writing chemistry we have is awesome.”
Green Lady Killers
(GLK) sound stirs memories of the Cramps and the Pixies and as they
will tell you; unleashing an electric-charged garage rock that embraces
1970s American pre-punk style and delivers a loud, fast and sexy ride.
Their video for the single, My .45, filmed in Nashville, TN, is a very visual piece and feels reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino’s, Death Proof;
not a copy by any means but a fun ride none the less. “It was really
really cold and look at what we’re wearing!” laughs Cherrybomb. “It was
a really cool experience. We did it over two days… We had an awesome
production crew,” says Van Buren, “we couldn’t have asked for more nice
people; they were awesome.”
Green Lady Killers have been gaining a lot of momentum and just came
back from a gig up in Oakland, CA, where they played with The Dwarves
and Fleshies and are getting ready to record again. “We ended up
talking to Black Dalia from the Dwarves and we’re going to have an
internet podcast on his show and that will be coming out in about a
month,” says Cherrybomb, his show is called, Radio Like You Want. So
yeah, we’ve been playing a lot of shows and we’ve gotten a great
reception. We also were just recently in the studio and we’ll be
releasing our new single, about mid August, we’ll also be putting
together a video for that single; we’ll be coming out with that and our
plan is to have a full record released next year.” “Yeah, we’ll probably
have a couple of singles drop before the full length hits,” adds Van
Buren. “We’re like Pinky and The Brain; we want to take over the
world!” laughs Ivy. I wouldn’t laugh; they just may."
- Robin Vagnozzi
