(Editor: Bit of a break from form here for us to write up a cover band, but when the band has shared bills with Follow That Bird, Persian Wars, The Octopus Project, and Sunset, you know they’re not your average cover band. Ellen Green brings us the story on possibly the best-named band around Austin…)
At the park with my daughter on a Sunday…my friend Professor Barry Stone of Texas State University and his daughter approached. He had a really wide grin on his face.
"You ready? I saw an all girl Guns N’ Roses cover band last night!"
That was all I needed to hear, but it gets better.
"They’re called Paradise Titty…"
It’s almost to good to be true. Paradise Titty…PARADISE TITTY! Growing up in the 80’s I remember going to see The Cult in 87′ supporting their album, (yes, album), Electric. Some silly band called Guns N’ Roses were opening for them. What a shit name for a band, I thought. Seriously, Guns N’ Roses, how melodramatic. How Poison of them! I wasn’t looking forward to seeing them. How could I know they were going to change rock at the time, for the better?? Watching Axl swerve and move, with that ridiculous voice, he was amazing. They all were….they were punks, too. Axl kicked a guy in the face for screaming "Bring on The Cult!" Temper, temper. As this was all flashing in my mind, I wondered, is Paradise Titty going to recapture the angst, the power, the undeniable force that was GNR?? I recently had the opportunity to meet them at the Highball on Lamar to find out. I spent over 2 hours with the ladies and talked shop and about their love of cowbells.
The vocals for this particular band is so crucial! How did you find [lead singer] Kitty?
Lori: Wow! The auditions!
Beth: We have some really good audition stories.
Emily: Well, they weren’t all bad! But it’s just when Kitty came in, we were like Oh my Gosh, she just had it.
Deb: We had some come in that were singers around town and then we had a few that were going to come in but kind of chickened out. I think because they realized we wanted a commitment. Or they could really sing, but when they tried singing along to their cd, they were like, forget it!
Beth: We had some amazing singers, but weren’t the right style. Just random. Yeah, we had people come in completely unprepared, didn’t know any of the words…
Didn’t know the words to GNR’s songs??
Emily: It was sort of like American Idol. You know, the nights where it’s all about the messing up. But some were really great! And then we had a girl who brought her band mate in, you know, to see if the "girls" could play.
Lori: That’s why I want to blow peoples’ faces off! We’re women playing these GNR’s songs.
Emily: Yea, like everyone is like, oh you play like all of those Slash parts?? And I’m like, yeah!
Beth: She really does!
Emily: I really do!!
Lori: If people could see Emily playing these Slash parts, it’s like she’s just taking a walk in the park.
Emily: Sometimes people will tell me, you need to look like you’re trying to play the guitar because you don’t make any of the faces!
So, tell me about Kitty?
Beth: Man, we all knew she was the one!
Lori: That’s for sure, it was like dating.
Beth: You know, before Kitty, someone would come in and had a little bit of this we liked, but needed more of that. Like dating, when the one walks through the door, it’s like, ok we’re done.
Lori: And we all felt that way about Kitty. Everyone. And so we were all nervous about it and thinking…is she going to call me back?? What do I do? What do I do? Because when you really like someone, you really give a shit and you think man, I want to make the right move.
Emily: And we tell her that now and she thinks it’s so funny! Because she was nervous, too.
Beth: Well, we wanted to have a really tight band before we even auditioned a singer. We didn’t want to be loose and then have a professional singer come in and we have this loose band. They’re not going to take it seriously. So we tightened it up before we even auditioned.
What inspires you musically, obviously outside of GNR?
Lori: GNR, Whitesnake (giggling), I LOVE 80’s hair music. But I don’t listen to it all of the time. I grew up listening to country music. You know, if there was a girls’ rock camp, my parents would take me to girls’ country camp. I grew up on a farm, I barrel raced. But I mean, I like avant-garde, I was listening to that on the way over here. I love jazz music pretty much everything. I’m really inspired by music, except for rap and some of this no poppy whiney indie stuff.
Beth: I like the whiney indie music (laughs). I grew up on The Cure! I actually did really like GNR in college, but hadn’t really listened to it again until I started learning the music. I actually dressed up as Axl for Halloween one year. Back in college! But I just got into more underground indie stuff, like I listened to Radiohead. I mean I even got into the folk thing for a minute, but then quickly got out of that. I mean I listen to The Strokes and The White Stripes and stuff like that. But, I grew up on Debbie Gibson because I’m from Connecticut. I grew up on the mall singers. New wave, too. Then Oingo Boingo hit and it was all over. I loved them.
Deb: I grew up in Detroit, so I was listening to a lot of hard rock. Like hard rock, hard rock. But then my dad was listening to a lot of John Denver and Johnny Cash and so I listened to all of those albums. But I was listening to hard rock until high school and then got into new wave, and punk, not goth, I got into a lot of the hard core bands, but I didn’t have a mohawk or anything. I liked the Dead Kennedys, the Circle Jerks….I was really into X in high school and college. They’re still one of my all time favorite bands.
X is still one of my all time favorite shows. Rocked my face.
Beth: That’s what GNR is all about! Rocking your face! We call ourselves Paradise Titty because that’s what it’s all about… GNR. We are so excited to play.
Deb: Ahhh, there she is!
(Kitty, the lead singer, was late because she had been stuck in traffic for an hour and a half, poor dear!)
Emily: Oh, Kitty!! Come here!
Lori: Come closer, sit down.
Emily: We were like, she’s like Axl, she’s not going to show up!
Kitty, did you sing growing up?
Kitty: There were not a lot of opportunities for me growing up singing wise, so I sang at a lot of oprys doing country music. I love country music.
This is totally not pc, but you don’t look like you would love country music.
Kitty: Oh!! You should see pictures! Me in a cowboy hat and long black curly hair. I used to sing every Tuesday night at this place called Billy Bob’s.
What are your plans for Paradise Titty?
Lori: We need to slap some photos up of the band. I’m ready to put a picture of my cat up on facebook. Although, they wouldn’t let us put Titty in the name. We’re on there under Paradise T. But that’s ok. We haven’t found any evidence of another all girl GNR cover band out there. That market hasn’t been saturated, yet.
So, what is the draw for coming to see you play?
Deb: It really is like going to see a GNR show. That’s how I would describe it. And for people who love GNR and their classic songs, you’re going to love us. Great rock songs, it’s a great show.
Beth: It’s high energy, it’s really a fast, hard show. We have a lot of energy, but more than that, there’s a lot of energy in the crowd. Everybody knows all of the words, and they’re singing and looking at their neighbor going (Beth plays air guitar at this point and hums a lick from a song) Like come on!!! Let’s go!!
Emily: I even had a friend who didn’t really like GNR come to our show and loved every minute of it. Couldn’t get enough.
Beth: There are a lot of secret GNR fans.
Deb: It’s a great rock show, period. And everybody seems to have their personal reasons, whether it’s high school memories, or whatever, but they love GNR. Everyone can relate to where they were when these songs came out.
Kitty: I’m always thinking, I better not fuck these words up! (laughter) Seriously, there are so many words and it’s so fast and I’m running around and out of breath. Then I look out into the crowd and I see everyone singing every single word. I BETTER NOT FUCK THESE WORDS UP!!
Lori: It’s almost like a rap, there are so many words. Like, I was singing bullshit, like "surfing nipples on the side of the street". I am terrible with the words.
Kitty: It’s "Just an urchin living on the side of the street."
Lori: Oh ok.
I have to say, I don’t care if Kitty messes up the words, people! Paradise Titty will, I guarantee, rock your face off. Check them out this Friday, January 15th, at Stubb’s.
–Ellen Green