The Pandoras

The Pandoras were an all-female rock and roll band from Los Angeles, California from 1983–1991, who found a following in the Hollywood "Paisley Underground" scene and later adapted a more contemporary Sunset Boulevard, hard rock look and sound. The band ended when, on August 10, 1991 Paula Pierce came home from the gym, suffered an aneurysm and died. She was only 31 years old but the legacy the band left is still felt today.

The Pandoras (1983–1991)

The Pandoras It's About Time

The Pandoras were an all-female rock and roll band from Los Angeles, California from 1983–1991, who began in the hard '60s revival garage rock style and later adapted a more contemporary Sunset Boulevard, hard rock sound a la Poison and Mötley Crüe. They were originally associated with the Paisley Underground era in Hollywood's alternative rock scene, along with bands such as Redd Kross, The Three O' Clock, The Dream Syndicate, The Morlocks, and The Rain Parade. These bands shared an aesthetic heavily influenced by 1960s garage rock and psychedelia, and most (but not all) of the members tended to come from the west side and beach cities area of Los Angeles County and Orange County. Pierce, a resident of Chino, California, was a notable exception. Pierce had been a member of the Hollywood music scene as a young teenager. She idolized bands like The Runaways and Aerosmith and she once dated Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols on the Sex Pistols' first U.S. tour.

The Pandoras were formed when singer-guitarist Paula Pierce, a member of Action Now at the time, met singer-guitarist/bass player Deborah Mendoza aka. Mende/ Menday, at Chaffey College in 1983. Mendoza, an art major, answered an ad that Pierce, a graphic art major, had posted on the bulletin board in the cafeteria. The ad read, "Wanted, another female musician to jam with! Influenced by sixties garage punk." They got together and clicked, and started bringing their guitars to school jamming between classes.

Pierce and Mendoza threw band names around including The Keyholes and Hole. Finally, Pierce thought of the name The Pandoras, naming the band after Pandora's Box, a Hollywood nightclub from the 1960s. Pierce brought in musician Gwynne Kahn on keyboards (the granddaughter of 1920s/1930s Tin Pan Alley songwriter Gus Kahn), and Mendoza brought in drummer Casey Gomez; thus forming, the original Pandoras. After recording their first Demo EP "It's About Time," Mendoza left the group, and was replaced by bassist Bambi Conway, who then appeared on the Pandoras debut album, "It's About Time," on Greg Shaw's Bomp! Records.

The Pandoras went through many personnel changes, over the years, beginning with the bitter departure of Kahn in 1984, that became the talk of the town, on a KROQ radio show hosted by Rodney Bingenheimer and in the local music zines such as BAM, Music Connection, and the LA Weekly (and their "L.A.DeeDa" gossip column). Kahn formed a rival, yet, very short lived Pandoras of her own, nicknamed the Gwynnedoras. The band did have a song called "Worm Boy" released on an Enigma Records compilation, "Enigma Variations" and recorded an EP for Enigma that was never released, but Kahn moved on to another project after losing her battle with Pierce over the band's name.

Pierce's Pandoras, included Melanie Vammen on keyboards, Julie Patchouli on bass, and Karen Blankfeld on drums, they went to enjoy modest success with the release of Hot Generation on Bomp! Records. They toured the east coast with the Fuzztones to promote the single.

The Pandoras were signed to Rhino Records and began recording the basic tracks for Stop Pretending during the winter of 1985 with producer Bill Inglot. Kim Shattuck joined the band in July 1985, after Patchouli left the band because of a difference in opinion in the bands new direction. Briefly, after Patchouli left the band, a temporary fill-in played just two shows with the band before they brought in Shattuck permanently. In 1986, Stop Pretending was released.

Los Angeles became a hotbed of major label signings of bands that had grown out of the so-called "paisley-underground" and the Pandoras were no different. The pop sensibilities of Pierce and being labeled 'one of the bands that matter' by the LA Weekly helped the band to be signed by Elektra Records. The band continued to play live and record new songs for their major label debut and continued to be a top live draw outside of Los Angeles, touring with Nina Hagen, and gigging with the likes of Iggy Pop, The Fuzztones, The Beat Farmers, Johnny Thunders, and The Cramps. They played the first ever LA Weekly music awards and showcased a slightly harder sound and were interviewed on the roof of the Variety Arts Center for a top French TV Show but as the bands major label debut, to be titled Come Inside, was being readied for release the A&R person who had signed the band was fired from Elektra causing the label to also drop both bands he had signed - Jetboy and The Pandoras (though the recordings they made eventually surfaced on the Psychedelic Sluts bootleg CD). During this period Karen Blankfeld left the band and was replaced with Kelly Dillard. The band continued to play live while looking for another deal however Dillard did not last long and was replaced by Sheri Kaplan. When another label made an offer but Elektra would not let them have the master recordings album Pierce decided to turn to an even more hard edged sound and added guitarist Rita D'Albert to the line up and record new songs and put out an EP on Restless Records called Rock Hard. The band also made a video for "Run Down Love Battery" which received airplay on MTV's Headbangers Ball, which expanded their audience to include metal fans.

The Pandoras Rock Hard at the Roxy in Hollywood,Ca (February 1989)

A tour of the US and Canada followed however D'Albert decided to leave the band to take more of an active part in another band that had just been signed to RCA records, Human Drama. Rather than cancel the tour the band went out as a 4 piece again and at a stop in Dallas,Texas Z Rock recorded the band for a "Coast to Coast Concert Series" broadcast. They also made an appearance on the first episode of The Arsenio Hall Show where they performed "Run Down Love Battery" causing Arsenio to quip "We've all had one of those." A friend of drummer Kaplan's was brought in, Susan Hyatt, for some shows but it was Lissa Beltri who became the newest member after auditions. Rather than try and record a new studio album with the new line up Pierce opted to let Restless Records release the Z Rock concert. Live Nymphomania was released and even though Pierce herself was not happy with the recording the band toured in support of it. Outside of L.A the Pandoras fan base continued to grow seeing sell out shows and multi night stands. As the bands fan base grew in the hard rock world, tours of Europe and Australia were booked, new promo photos were taken and pre-planning was starting for a new album. Keyboardist Vammen was let go because, as Pierce put it in one interview: "Melanie does not want to play guitar and there is not any place for keyboards in our music now." The Australian tour was canceled and on the eve of the European tour Shattuck left the band. Chris Roy, bass player for the Hollywood metal band TAZ, filled in for some live shows but Kaplan quit the band shortly after Shattuck and the band were dropped from their label a short time after.

Alternate take from the final photo shoot (1990)

Over the course of the next year Pierce slowly worked on new material with Beltri and they had hired a new drummer and were auditioning bass players. On the night of August 9, 1991 a bass player auditioned who both Pierce and Beltri liked and was to be brought back in for a rehearsal on August 11. On August 10, Pierce came home from the gym and suffered an aneurysm causing her to pass away. She was only 31 years old. As news of her passing spread the Hollywood community that Pierce had been a part of mourned. DJ Rodney Bingenheimer, who had been one of the earliest fans of the band, dedicated an entire show to Pierce. The Pandoras tour manager, Dave Eddy, started planning a tribute show to be held at the Coconut Teaser and he contacted not only former band members but also artsists who had played with The Pandoras. The night helped to raise almost $3,000.00 to help offset funeral expenses and saw performances by Cherie Currie of The Runaways and her twin sister Marie in their first public performance together in 20 years with the final line up of the Pandoras backing them, Precious Metal, who had broken up but who reunited for the show; Robert Hecker of Redd Kross and Abby Travis, Dramarama with Clem Burke of Blondie and Sylvain Sylvain from the New York Dolls, The Muffs (Shattuck's and Vammen's band), African Violet (D'Albert band), Hardly Dangerous (Kaplan was their drummer) and White Flag. The crowd included Jeff and Steve McDonald from Redd Kross and Charlotte Caffey and Kathy Valentine from The Go-Go's. The artists who played that night and the people in the audience prompted Bingenheimer to exclaim, "Look at the people here! What do you have to die to see who really loves you?"

Clips

Discography

Albums

Videos/DVD

• Slipping Through the Cracks (An Uprising of Young Pacifics) (video); IceWorld Video

Trivia

• Stop Pretending was originally recorded by Pierce with her pre-Pandoras band, Action Now.
• In 1986, The Mr. T Experience recorded a song, "I'm In Love With Paula Pierce", for their album, Everybody's Entitled to Their Own Opinion.
• Kim Shattuck and Melanie Vammen formed The Muffs.
• The Muffs albums were produced by Rob Cavallo who started off producing heavy metal bands in the 80's such as TAZ whose bass player, Chris Roy, played in The Pandoras after Kim Shattuck quit.
• Sandy Sledge, former drummer for Rude Girl and Malibu Barbi auditioned for The Pandoras but was considered "too heavy metal" at the time.
• Karen Blankfeld formed The Rebel Pebbles where she played guitar and sang.
• Susan Hyatt is in Stimulator
• Lissa Beltri joined Lo-Ball.
• Rita D'albert performed with Andy Prieboy and also co-wrote and starred in "White Trash Wins Lotto". Currently she is producer of, and one of the stars of, Lucha VaVoom
• Gwynne Kahn and Bambi Conway were in the band Mad Monster Party.
• Melanie Vammen joined The Leaving Trains after the Muffs.
• Sheri Kaplin joined Hardly Dangerous, a bluesy metal-ish band that covered a Pandoras song, "The River".
• To fulfill an already booked Pandoras gig Gwynne asked friends Michael Quercio (Salvation Army, The Three O'Clock) and Cathy Flanga (Who would later join the Super Heroines) to play a show. Along with Bambi Conway this line of The Pandoras played at the Music Machine in June 1984 opening up for the Mentors. Michael played the Paula Pierce part that night.

External links

• Pandoras Photo Gallery
• A Pandoras Website run by Julie Patchouli, once a bass player in the Pandoras.
• The Muffs official website