Sunday, September 23, 2012

BLONDE AMBITION - "Down At Yogurt Park" - Tape - 2007

   I'm always bummed that I missed out on the short life of BLONDE AMBITION during their time as a band in the Bay Area. I was 3000 miles away in Indiana, living in a tiny little room and sewing contact mics into stuffed animals while they were out in California playing their songs in backyards and alleyways. Gaybob moved out from New York, where she formerly played with DIRTY LOOKSCRYBABY MACARTHUR and BEER GARDEN. She takes care of the guitar and vocals. She hooked up with Northern California native, Naomi who formerly played drums for the teen destruction group known as HEY GIRL. They're rounded out by the solid bass stylings of Mason. I'm sure Mason played in bands before this one, but I don't know what they are. I do know that she went on to play in the jaw-dropping band LIVID.
   Anyhow, the eight songs on this tape are short, to the point and vicious. Gaybob's unmistakable voice growls and screams over the whole thing as they play direct, fierce punk. In my opinion, a lot of the charm of this recording is that the rhythm section is fairly tight while the guitar fluctuates between solid and "I don't give a fuck". It's raw and cannot be tamed. The demo tape format was invented for bands like this.
   In addition to giving us this great recording, BLONDE AMBITION is also responsible for being the subject of one of my favorite photos of a contemporary band....
Live on top of Bernal Hill. Photo is believed to be taken by Tony Rojas.

      These days, Gaybob is back in Brooklyn playing with PURE JOY. Naomi is still destroying the drums in San Francisco and playing with CHER HOROWITZ (probably 5 other bands too). Mason played drums in ENDEMICS and guitar in LIVID. We lost her to L.A. for a little while, but now she's back and hopefully planning something exciting. 


and now some more photos.......

Thanks to Bob for the photos.

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