Star Pimp were interviewed by Krk all photos by Lance
Krk: Name, instrument and the last movie you saw?
Eric Grotke: (Who really wasn't there) I play guitar and the last movie I saw was "Aladdin." I liked It a lot, the music was good.
Tom: I play guitar, Ihe last movie I saw was "Bad Lieutenant". That was good. It was in a very small theater.
Jamie: I play drums and I saw that movie "CB4" and It "as really good. It was a cute movie.
Marcelle: I sing and the last movie I saw was... It was "Bad lieutenant." It was good, especially that part where he makes the girl simulates a blow job!
Krk: Are you guys movie people?
Jamie: I watch more than I ever used to.
Tom: I always try to rent videos. I can never think of the one that I want to get. I always have one in mind, and they never have it. I get too confused. I get scared and I leave.
Krk: So what's there to do In San Francisco?
Marcelle: Go see my friends bands. Eat a lot of burritos.
I always want to eat out, everyday!
Jamie: Yeah, I eat out everyday!
Krk: Does Ihe band drink the same beer or do you each: drink something different?
Jamie: I don't like beer. So I don't care.
Marcelle: I like Snapple but if I'm drinking beer I like Red Tail.
Tom: I like Becks and St. Paulie Girl and I get made fun of by Marcelle.
Marcelle: I hate Becks! It tastes too musky!
Jamie: It's good.
Marcelle: It tastes like German sweat.
Krk: I wanted to ask you what size calibre the gun is on the CD, But Tom said it was a sample.
Option:
Star Pimp. The name suggests sleazy promoters and record industry flacks - the people who make their livings turning musicians into sex idols and money-making machines who manufacture the rock star mystique. It's a perfectly ironic name for a punk rock band that hates image mongerers and the rock star mentality. The only problem is that in San Francisco even anti-rock stars can be rock stars. And there's something about Star Pimp that inspires awe and lust, that makes even a cynical local DJ blush and giggle like a regular groupie. By most accounts, that something is frontwoman Elma Marcelle's enchanting presence. "I've heard someone say it feels sexual, but I don't get it," the 25-year-old singer says. "I don't feel like I put that across that whole sexy singer thing." Marcelle, who wears dorky black-frame glasses during the band's performances, has been known to get her long, dark hair tangled up in guitar strings and mike stands. She shuffles nervously across the stage, ranting about her day job and, according to one review, screaming "like a monkey in its first heat." But despite - or perhaps due to - her awkwardness, Marcelle has become the local underground's leading sex symbol, possessing what one record store clerk calls "that weird, nervous, sexy angst thing." Marcelle balks at such a reputation. "I guess you can suit their particular little fetish or whatever," she moans. "I don't know, I actually feel kind of asexual." Adds 32year-old drummer Jamie Spidle, "It's just some weirdos out there." The two women, along with bassist Tom Flynn and guitarist Eric Grotke, have played together as Star Pimp for more than two years. Marcelle met Spidle in Austin, Texas, while on a pilgrimage in search of the Butthole Surfers. At the time, Marcelle was playing in an LA. band with Grotke called K-Tel Wet Dream. All three eventually wound up in San Francisco, where they ran into Flynn, owner of the Berkeley-based Boner Records, former label of the Melvins. Star Pimp's debut EP Treasure Trail (Boner), is full of fuzzy, loose-limbed punk and distorted drug rock. From the clangy, Gang of Four-sounding guitars of "Sap" to the sweet, buzzy "Virginia" to the bratty-thrash of "Prado," the six songs are noisy, manic and twisted - but definitely songs. This summer, the band plans to release a full-length album. Like the group's music, a conversation with the two female members is fragmented and full of surprises. You have to just go along for the ride as Marcelle and Spidle bounce from topic to topic, hitting astrology, their shared fascination with the barely-veiled display of genitalia in Camel cigarette ads, and the appearance of Spidie's ex-husband in Slacker, the 1991 film about Austin's lazy misfits. Somehow, they manage to meander back to the subject of Star Pimp's collective stage persona. "We've had some disastrous shows, really inconsistent," says Marcelle, with a sigh. At one performance at Oakland's now-defunct Heinz Club, things went out of control. During Star Pimp's cover of Paul McCartney's "Jet," Spidle's drum set got thrashed. Apparently, Spidle lost it during the song's refrain. "We were doing, the 'Jet wooo, WOOO, wooo,' and we'd practiced it, and this is a great song, and it was going to sound really good," she says. "But something happened. I don't know what. It was weird." Fortunately, Marcelle insists, "You could figure out we were playing it. The audience knew it was 'Jet,' so that was good. I think some people were even singing along."
by Jason Fine
Boner, Box 2081, Berkeley, CA 94702
Pandemonium:
Chuck Woolery Handcuffed to Vanna White on Acid.
Listening to the music of San Francisco's Star Pimp is like haaving sex in the middle of the
Indianapolis 500. You find yourself enthralled in hard, slightly psychedelic discordant
guitar, shaking nervously, but uncontrollably attracted by strangely beautiful and melodic vocals.
It's an Intoxicating swir1 of sound that has a distinct and enticing androgynous sexuality, banging your head and libido at the same time. According to drummer Jamie Spidle, "It's Love Connection meets Cops:
"With a little Free Willy," adds vocalist Marcelle Poulos.
Spidle, Poulos, bassist Tom Flynn and guitarist Eric Grotke have assaulted the San Francisco scene with their savory swill for over two years now, drawing critical praise out of the gates with their first EP, Treasure Trail in 1992. Presently, the band is preparing to tour in support of a debut full-length release on Boner Records, Seraphim 2802, an album that will make Star Pimp the swank topic of coffee shop conversations everywhere. While your mind is thoroughly entrenched in the band's melodic psychocandy, you can't help but wonder how the unique sound is generated.
"It's basically four people fighting over how a song should sound: explains Flynn. "It's not supposed to be laid back or blatant, but its supposed to mean something maybe not literally though."
I think there's a little intent in the sound," adds a complacent Spidle. Sometimes we'll avoid sounds that have already been done:
It's difficult to Imagine this band having to Intentionally avoid mass-market sounds. While Star Pimp's swir1lng, chaotic guitar sound is enough to set the band apart from the pack, Poulos' poignant yet pretty soprano applies the Star Pimp trademark with true distinction. It's no surprise that Poulos has become somewhat of a sex symbol in the indie rock wor1d.
"Sex is there,. admits Poulos. When I see bands, I relate to them sexually as well as musically on some level. I'm watching them going, 'yeah, I like this.' I'm wondering whether I like it because he's cute, or because he plays guitar. Whether I like what she's wearing, or I like what she's saying."
Sex may not be an integral quotient in Star Pimp's music, but its certainly a strong under1ying theme. For instance, the band's bio hits as hard as the music, boasting of sexual escapades with members of many Indie bands including the Jesus Lizard, Babes In Toyland and the Melvins to name just a few.
"It's all true. We don't have proof of it and all, but you'll just have to believe us,' sarcastically admits Flynn.
The band's name alone is a sexual reference. According to Spidle and Poulos, there may not be a specific intent related to the name, but there's certainly some relevance.
"I think it definitely relates to the band: states Spidle. "You could say we pimp ourselves to be stars."
"Every time you perform, you're just buying into the whole star thing just by definition of getting up in front of people, asserts Poulos. What is it inside you that makes you do this In front of people? People who say, 'I'm just happy playing music and pleasing myself - that's bullshit, why not just do it in your room? Why put out records? Everyone's a whore to the audience to some extent, in a figurative way."
Sexuality may be a theme entertained by the band, but its definitely not overtly apparent according to Poulos, there are times she will wear unflattering clothes in an attempt to look ugly - to make some sort of feminist statement.
"There are certain things we just don't buy into, like wearing tight pants: asserts Poulos. "I even had surgery to remove my, well, nevermind."
Poulos is a woman with a lot on her mind. While her voice floats effortlessly and beautifully above Star Pimp's chaotic stew, she's not singing about ponies and dolls. Poulos is definitely an angry woman.
"Yeah, I feel angry," shyly admits Poulos. "Everyone carries psychic baggage. I can't always pinpoint why I'm mad with people, but I just can't say It's society either."
"I think its more personal," interjects Spidle.
"Yeah, it only means something if the same thing happens to you" adds Poulos.
When she's not venting a personal experience, Poulos entertains herself by taking a different approach to writing.
"I like to write like I'm a different person in a situation, and I write what I'd be thinking If I were that person in that particular situation: explains Poulos. "Like if I were Vanna White or something, I'd think, 'what would Vanna do now."
Despite Poulos' apparent ease with the integral role she plays in Star Pimp, there are some aspects of being in a band that bother her. Surprisingly, she's not very comfortable performing for an audience.
"She can't stay on stage for too long: explains Grotke. "All our sets are really short - we have to beg her to play more songs."
"Sometimes I have to run to another room," admits Poulos.
"Last show, she sang the last three songs from back stage", adds Grotke.
"The audience eye contact makes me feel weird - the whole getting up in front in of people thing bothers me," explains Poulos.
Poulos had better work on her stage shyness. Star Pimp is currently gearing up for a national tour that will take the band through the Northwest this Spring, and end up in the deep South sometime later this Summer - a schedule similar to their last outing.
We do everything at the wrong time,. explains Grotke. "Canada in Winter and Texas in Summer."
We go for extremes" states Poulos.
"Why do we do that? I don't like it when we do that," pleads Grotke.
"Because that's the way it is," asserts Poulos, the group's den mother of sorts.
While the tour will reach across our fine country, don't expect the band to visit our neighbors to the North again.
We got searched at the Canadian border: explains Grotke. "Jamie's boyfriend has this weird tissue fetish and the cop had to spend about five minutes going through all of his used Kleenex. It was hilarious - this guy's tissue fetish was exposed, and there was nothing he could do."
"He kind snorted and said, 'sorry, I have a cold,'. adds Poulos. "He's not her boyfriend anymore, but he's got a new dog that Jamie's in love with, so who knows what'll happen now."
"I think, he got the dog to fetch his tissues." jokes Grotke.
Don't miss Star Pimp when they grace the Offramp on April 1st. If the pollen counts high enough, you may see a lot of wadded-up tissues around the stage. Regardless, you'll experience one of the most intriguing, energetic and unusual bands around.
By DAVE SHELDON