Talking with Bianca Butthole, from L.A.'s Rock-Hard Betty Blowtorch

Betty Blowtorch

The 80s were prime days for sleazy metal and skintight rock?Mötley Crüe, Warrant, Quiet Riot, Ratt?but images of women were pretty much limited to Vixen's glossy pop metal and Tawny Kitaen waxing cars with her ass in Whitesnake videos. Thank God for Lita Ford's comeback and then L7 in the 90s. Their songs about fighting and fucking proved that there are rock chicks with higher aspirations than waving lighters in Def Leppard videos.

L.A.'s Betty Blowtorch rocks hard. I'm not talking let's dress in matching outfits and rehash Ramones songs for the kitsch value. Betty Blowtorch's debut album, Are You Man Enough? (Foodchain), sounds like what you'd get if the Runaways and L7 got it on with Crüe in the back of a Sunset Strip nightclub. (Throw some Vanilla Ice in there too, because Blowtorch gives the great white dope a shot at redemption when he raps about his "man-sized toys" on "Size Queen.") As the songs veer from pop punk singalongs to heavy metal, frontwoman Bianca Butthole's gargle-with-fiberglass screeching makes Axl Rose sound like an operatic tenor. From the "Hell on Wheels" chorus of "We're in a band, all we want is a one night stand" to "Shut up and Fuck" and "I Wanna Be Your Sucker," there's barely a song on the album that doesn't make you want to chant along and punch the air with your beer.

I caught up with Ms. Butthole in L.A. as Betty Blowtorch teetered on the verge of mass exposure via their record release, a spot on the Warped Tour and a cameo in the summer flick Bubble Boy, wherein the band entices a young virgin with whips, chains and a rotating bed.

Rock is pretty damn happening in L.A. right now. Taime [Downe] from Faster Pussycat and his partner kind of brought it back by opening clubs that play rock music and having rock bands play live. They've really helped bring the scene back. A lot of people are going out to rock clubs too?kind of like in the 80s when there was a different club every night.

Your song "Big Hair, Broken Heart" is really nostalgic for those old days, but it sounds like that community is building up again?

Yeah, I think it's definitely happening again?except I don't think the girls are fliering for their boyfriends' bands anymore. Girls have stepped up to the plate and they're starting to play. They're not little ornaments and fixtures. There are still some cute rock bimbos around, though, for sure.

Did you first get into the music scene by fliering for your boyfriends' bands?

Absolutely.

When did that change?

I had a bass and I just started playing it. It had been a fantasy of mine since I was a kid, when I was playing air guitar to Ted Nugent on my mom's couch. I'd play with a tennis racket and jump off the couch onto my knees, or I'd sing into jump ropes in performances for my parents. It was a childhood fantasy. I finally said, "You know what, I'm gonna do it. Fuck it."

Do you think it's any different playing with all girls than playing with guys?

There's a big difference. I've been in all-boy bands and I've been in coed bands, but this is my first all-girl band. Being in an all-boy band is definitely different when you're on tour. [Betty Blowtorch] likes to get up there and rock and have a good time. Guy bands like to get up there and have a good time after the show, with the girls.

From your songs like "Shut Up and Fuck" you'd think that you guys just want to have a good time with the boys too.

We do, but boys are scared. That's the difference. A guy can get up there and rock and they'll have the girls afterwards. [Girls] get up there and the guys are scared of them afterwards. Guys are just wimpy.

Do you feel like you hit any other walls as an all-female band?

Sometimes there are walls?like sometimes guy bands are too insecure. They're scared that we're gonna rock harder than them, that they're going to be upstaged by girls. It's like that with girl bands too. But I think for the most part, we're just doing our thing.

Among other things, "Big Hair, Broken Heart" pays homage to Lita Ford, who helped pave the way for a lot of female rock bands. Do you have any personal connection with her?

No, that song came after we saw her in a VH1 documentary that inspired us. She was kind of bitter but she was really funny at the same time, going on a whole tangent about how rock 'n' roll will never die and how she's gonna be on the front lines when it comes back. We always talked about that, so it was really fun for us to write "Big Hair, Broken Heart."

It's cool to hear a song that reconnects to the people who inspired you.

Oh yeah. Wendy O. [Williams, of the Plasmatics] was another inspiration. She got up there half-naked with whipped cream on her tits and was basically saying "shut up and fuck" a long time ago.

I love "Size Queen." Guys are always being told that penis size doesn't matter, but the truth is that there are girls who want their man a little bigger. It's great how the band pokes fun of gender stereotypes.

Exactly. I just did an interview with a guy who said, "Aren't you going to be narrowing your guy fanbase a little bit 'cause of that song?" [laughs]

How did Vanilla Ice end up rapping about his "10 inches" on the song?

He was in the same recording studio as us and we just bonded with him. We asked him to be in our documentary and to sing on one part of the song, because we didn't have any ideas for it. We were thinking about putting a guitar solo over it, but then we came up with the idea of asking him to rap about how big his dick is. He was a really good sport about it. He really liked it, which was kinda funny.

You also got to work with Duff McKagen from Guns 'N Roses, who produced your first EP, Get Off. Did he give you any good advice?

He definitely gave us lots of good stories, but none that I'm allowed to repeat. Duff is an amazing guy and it was such an honor to work with him. We had only been together for six weeks when he came into our lives, so talk about being nervous. We went into our practice space and he was there with his whole posse. He's like, "Just pretend that we're not here." That was our first introduction to him, and we were like, "Okay, we'll just pretend that Duff from Guns 'N Roses isn't sitting here watching us."

I was a huge Guns 'N Roses fan. Appetite for Destruction was such a brilliant record.

I love that?and the EP before it. I thought they were great, so it was an honor to work with Duff. Then he brought Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols into the next practice. We had Duff McKagen and Steve Jones jamming with us and we were just shitting. It was very crazy.

Your previous band, Butt Trumpet, was selected by the PMRC as one of the great evils of society. What was it like to go head to head with Tipper?

It was kinda funny to me, actually, but then Krist Novoselic jumped in with his JAMPAC organization and they fought it too. I'm sure we're going to get the same backlash again.

It definitely seems like the Bush administration is moving quickly with their conservative agenda. Maybe that'll help push new movements in music as well.

I think some of the best rock 'n' roll comes out of when politicians try and put their hand in everything. People start getting pissed off and rebelling, like "Fuck off." I think we might get some good, aggressive rock out of that.

So, is there anything else people should know about you?

Yeah, we'll steal your boyfriend and fuck you, too. We'll steal your boyfriend and your girlfriend.

Actually, we're just a bunch of pussycats at heart. I stay home and bake cookies and make lasagna when The Sopranos is on.

Before you go out and sing "Shut Up and Fuck"?

Yeah, well you can't get a date in this town, so me and Johnny Two-Speeds, we get along just fine.