Chelsea Girls: Music With Balls

http://img.suicidegirls.com/media/albums/2/34/13342/646572.jpg

Chelsea Girls are kinda like Camp Freddy, but with less dicks and more balls. Indeed the band's chief instigator, bassist Corey Parks of Nashville Pussy, was inspired to put the all-female/all-star cover band together after becoming a regular guest player alongside Camp Freddy's bad-boy residents (Dave Navarro, Billy Morrison, Donovan Leitch Jr., et al.).

"It was so loose and fun, and you got to play all the songs that you grew up listening to and that made you start to want to play rock and roll to begin with," says Parks. A call from fellow like-minded Camp Freddy guest Teri Nunn (of Berlin) prompted Cory to start thinking about her dream XX band. Nunn later dropped out of the project and Cory moved on alone.

"Samantha Maloney [of Peaches and Hole] was my first choice for drummer," says Parks, who, after a false start with the Go-Go's Jane Weidlan, secured the services of Donnas' guitarist Allison Robertson. Robertson then brought in Les Deux's Rock Mondays promoter Tuesdae, who completed the core lineup. Though the least well known of the Chelsea Girls, the Juilliard scholarship recipient, who toured the world as a teen opera starlet, rocks out on vocals like a vet.

The band started rehearsing in early January, and have played just two shows to date. Though their residency at the Sunset Strip's Roxy is in its infancy, already the buzz around Chelsea Girls is as loud as their music, which is a mix of classic, head-banging rock. Heart's "Barracuda", Guns N' Roses' "Welcome To The Jungle", Judas Priest's "You've Got Another Thing Comin'", and Pat Benatar's "Heartbreaker" are on their set list, though Parks hopes to expand the band's scope as things progress. Their ultimate goal is simple; "We want to be the greatest rock and roll cover band in the world," says Parks. "We will accept nothing less."

Chelsea Girls are keen to keep their concept live and direct. "It's such a dream situation because we don't have to write a record," explains Parks, who doesn't want to get distracted by the toil of recording and promoting a record. "People have actually already asked us," she says, before quickly dismissing the idea. "Why? Why would we do a record of covers? It's the most absurd thing in my life. We're playing songs that people have heard thousands and millions of times. It would never work. No matter how well we play them you would never listen to these and go 'Oh my god, I love this so much better than the original, I'm going to buy a record.'"

One might beg to differ on that point, since Chelsea Girls have a knack of giving even the most testosterone-heavy songs a steroid edge and an adrenalin high. However, for now the girls just want to have fun, and perhaps show a generation of young women, who've missed out on the likes of Joan Jett and Susie Quatro and have had the Pussycat Dolls fed to them as role models, that "you can learn how to play an instrument and kill it!"

"We just want to have the greatest, funnest rock and roll night," says Parks. "We want to be able to provide people with solid, amazing entertainment -- and we want to show little girls that guitars aren't necklaces."


Images of Chelsea Girls at the Roxy in West Hollywood, CA on February 26th, 2009. Special guests included Carmen Electra and Lemmy of Motorhead. Click HERE to view large image library.

web address: http://suicidegirls.com/news/music/23588/Chelsea-Girls-Music-With-Balls/