Cheap Perfume
New York City’s first all-female punk band discusses the joys and hardships they faced while paving the way for the next generation
By Bess Korey
Published: June 13th, 2007 | 11:50am
Thirty years ago, rocknroll was still a boys’ club. Though all-female rock bands existed prior to 1977, many were driven into obscurity. Most had short-lived careers, were seen as novelty acts, and/or were not given a proper chance to record their music. This rich musical history remained lost during most of the mid-’70s, and female musicians who wanted to play in bands had to create a path for themselves.
The members of Cheap Perfume (vocalist Lynn Odell, bassist Susan Palermo, drummer Brenda Martinez, rhythm guitarist Nancy Street, and lead guitarist Bunny), an all-female quintet born out of the 1977 New York punk scene, certainly felt like that was what they had to do. “There were so few female musicians at the time, and that proved to be helpful,” Bunny says. “But we felt we had more to prove to our audience — that we could play as well as the next band of male musicians — so, in a way, there was more pressure on the band to shine musically, as well as visually.”
Aside from performance issues, there was the element of being in a rocknroll band with all women, something that — outside of punk — was an anomaly in 1977. “Before punk, the music scene was mainly male bands and disco,” Bunny says, “with female singers, but without all-female bands.”
To understand the implications of what it was like to be a female musician at this time, one has to go back to the ’60s and the musical origins of the members. Both Bunny and Palermo started playing guitar at 13. Palermo tried to form her first all-girl band at that age as well, but she didn’t have much success. And while Bunny stuck to her playing, Palermo gave it up for a number of years. It wasn't until closer to the formation of Cheap Perfume that Palermo learned to play bass. At the time, she was dating Tuff Darts’ bass player, John DeSalvo, who played a role in Palermo learning the instrument.
But it was punk’s DIY mantra that proved inspiring to the formation and morale of the group. “I was working as a waitress at CBGB,” Palermo says, “and after watching several other bands perform, I decided to form Cheap Perfume. I thought, ‘Hey we could do this just as well.’ Everyone was eager to hear and watch female musicians, and I was just as anxious to get the music out there.” Through CBGB’s bar scene, Palermo was fortunate enough to meet two other musicians who shared a similar goal and assembled the rest of the group through auditions.
Cheap Perfume went on to be one of the most popular bands in the late-’70s New York City punk scene. But it wasn't a tale of overnight success. Palermo says, “When we started, Brenda [Martinez], Alison [Cheap Perfume’s original lead guitarist], and I would play for three hours every Saturday afternoon, no matter what. It took us almost a year before we were competent and confident enough to start looking for a singer. You have to remember, there were few female musicians. We really had no role models at that time. Once Lynn and Nancy joined the band, we auditioned at CBGB about three months later."
When they began writing songs, the band used influences, both past and present, to carve out their own sound. They were five unique individuals with different musical tastes, which showed in the versatility of their limited recordings.
“You Won't Stop Me” is a straightforward punk song, loud and fast, with defiant lyrics. The song could be considered feminist in its stance, since the girl in the song refuses to let a boy stand in the way of what she wants to do. “Forever Damaged” verges on metal. It rocks hard, but it also tells the tale of a woman who has lived hard. “Boys” pays homage to an earlier girl group, the Shirelles. The song comes across as a gender-bending response to the Chocolate Watchband's “Let’s Talk about Girls” and has a bit of Tommy James and the Shondells’ “Hanky Panky” and the Capitols’ “Cool Jerk” thrown in for good measure. Like “Boys,” “Bittersweet” also has a pop feel. Its verse is reminiscent of Johnny Cash’s “Ring Of Fire,” but more in the style of Blondie’s cover of the song than the original. Yet these limited recordings — despite their success, the band never put out a full-length album — don’t come close to reflecting Cheap Perfume’s impact within the punk scene or the impact of their live performances, particularly on the men in the early punk scene.
CREATING A PATH TO POPULARITY
Once the group was gigging on a regular basis, it would go back and forth between CBGB and Max’s Kansas City every weekend. Peter Crowley, Max’s Kansas City’s manager at the time, remembered Cheap Perfume as being one of the most popular groups to play at the club. The fact that boys found the band attractive only helped its popularity, but Crowley feels there was more to it. “I remember they had lots of boy groupies,” Crowley says via e-mail in late April 2007, “but because they played with as much energy and skill as any of their competition, they attracted a much bigger following than they got [just] from being pretty girls.”
Two of the “boy groupies” who went to see the band play were Michael Zuko and Freddie Katz. Both men look back fondly at the Cheap Perfume shows they witnessed in the ’70s. In a mid-April 2007 interview, Zuko says, “I used to see CP back at CBGB and Max's Kansas City. Yeah, yeah, all-girl band … very cute, but the songs really struck me. [They had] very hooky choruses, harmonies, good musicianship, etc.”
“I would remember them from time to time. I would talk to people about them and remember the titles of the tunes: ‘Tommy,’ ‘Ordinary Girls,’ ‘Overnight Angel.’ So their songs did stay with me. I remember our girlfriends would get in a huff, ‘Oh, you wanna see Cheap Perfume ’cause they’re cute, right?’ Well, yeah, sure! But they were great live — five girls, full sound, always an element of ‘Uh oh, what’s gonna happen here?’ In my opinion, better than similar groups that were out there at the time.”
Their music also left a lasting impression on fellow Cheap Perfume fan Katz. “They were a great rocknroll band,” he says. “Part of the proof I can offer of this fact is that, although I have no recordings, I still can remember many Cheap Perfume songs all these years later. Titles like ‘Haunted,’ ‘Too Bad,’ and ‘Tommy’s such a Tease’ — I could play them on the guitar and sing them for you right now!”
Currently a sound engineer in New York, Katz has kept in touch with the band after all these years and feels that, despite its popularity in the city, not having a chance to record an album made it difficult for Cheap Perfume to gain recognition outside its hometown.
Not having an album to promote wasn’t the only slight that hurt the band in the end. In general, they felt very misguided at the time. “We were a young band,” Bunny says, “We really didn’t have the management [we needed]. We had no knowledge of which direction to go in a field that was not really open to female musicians until later.”
As a consequence, the gap that had always existed within the band — primarily due to musical differences — grew larger over time, and some personnel changes followed. Bunny left, and Palermo never quite gelled with her replacement. When Palermo left in 1981, the band broke up, unable to recover from the loss of two essential members.
STEPPING BACK INTO THE SCENE
Flash forward 25 years later to 2006: Max’s Kansas City is long gone, and CBGB is on its last legs. The members of Cheap Perfume come together again, feeling a common bond of heartbreak over the closure of CBGB. With Bunny as lead guitarist, Palermo as rhythm guitarist, and Martinez again on drums, Cheap Perfume regroup and play the infamous club, wowing both new and old fans.
"I remember standing in the back area with my friends when Cheap Perfume went on,” says one new fan named Shaunda via e-mail. “I could not take my eyes off the drummer and the guitarist. The entire band performed with such confidence and flair. I mean, New York Dolls–unspeakably cool. Brenda and Bunny made me want to get up and play right at that moment!”
Since reuniting at CBGB, the band has gained several new fans like Shaunda, ones it may not have had at the height of its fame. “I feel like we have a lot of new, young female fans,” Bunny says, “so our audience is pretty well-balanced now. There are so many female musicians performing; the audiences now are very receptive.”
The band still has a hold on its former “boy groupies,” as well. Zuko, a musician himself, recently had the opportunity to play a gig with them and had this to say about their set: “When the girls took the stage after midnight, it all came back to me: the raw energy, even as a trio — Bunny’s straight-ahead, locomotive guitar (she also handled lead vocals), Susie’s stylistic bass lines, and Brenda’s powerful backbeat (that girl packs a wallop!). They did a few of the songs I remembered — hell, I sang along! Cheap Perfume played the way I’ve always liked it: fast, loud, kinda sloppy rocknroll; and no encores, dammit!” Almost as a side note, Zuko added, “OK, they’re cute, too!”
The reunion’s success encouraged the group to continue playing, with shows scheduled at NYC venues during the spring and summer of 2007. They’ve also started to work on their long overdue album. “We’re currently working in the studio, recording some new and older material,” drummer Brenda Martinez says. “We weren’t able to record all that we wanted in the ’70s and ’80s, which is something to look forward to now because recording has changed and improved so much. We’re really excited!”
Whether Cheap Perfume will ever get the credit it deserves in rocknroll history is anybody’s guess. The group, however, doesn’t seem to be too worried, at least when it comes to longevity and recognition for the band. "Rocknroll never dies,” Bunny says. “We believe the spirit of CBGB and the New York punk scene will always live on. That’s proven if you listen to some of the more recent punk bands out there that have kept that spirit alive. Hopefully everyone will help keep it alive by supporting Cheap Perfume and all the other bands that are keeping that message out there.”
—
ADDITIONAL STORIES BY BESS KOREY
Lesbians On Ecstasy
Team Gina Interview
Kerry Davis Interview
Issue #35
Comments
Please login to be able to comment on this article.
more