Stop Pretending

The year is 1983. The scene: in the wake of poppy, glossy, girl bands with crimped hair, electric eyeshadow, and cowboy boots, a gaggle of badass chicks with a penchant for 60s psychedelia, style for days, and too much attitude to bottle straight up killed the paradigm of innocent chicks with Fenders. They were the Pandoras, and, in a way, they were the predecessors of the Donnas. With spunk like the girl garage band successors Thee Headcoatees (and, more recently, the Coathangers) and guitar shred-ability like the Gore Gore Girls, the Pandoras were the epitome of the kind of "fuck you" attitude that spawned abso fabso frontwomen like Karen O, Jemina Pearl, and Beth Ditto.


(The Pandoras circa '85. Walking Urban Outfitters poster children.)

The 1986 LP, Stop Pretending (via thee head vein), recorded with frontwoman Paula Pierce, but with a new band, is an amazing blend of 60's surf rock and 80's pop that makes you want to simultaneously jump on your bed with a hairbrush microphone and slip into a leather jacket and smoke a cigarette.

Muh-Hollaaand!

Your electric bird,
Erika