Rock 'n' Roll 'n' Blues Women!

Hope Sandoval was born in 1966 and grew up in a Catholic Mexican-American family in East Los Angeles, California. She attended Mark Keppel High School. In 1986, she formed the folk music duo Going Home with Sylvia Gomez, and recorded one album produced by David Roback, which is yet to be released.^[67]

 

Besides vocals, Sandoval plays acoustic guitar, harmonica, Hammond organ, percussion, glockenspiel and xylophone. During live performances, Sandoval prefers to sing in near-darkness with only a dim backlight, playing the tambourine, harmonica, glockenspiel or shaker.^[68] She is reputed to have a shy personality, and rarely interacts with the audience,^[69] once stating "I just get really nervous. Once you're onstage, you're expected to perform. I don't do that. I always feel awkward about just standing there and not speaking to the audience, but it's difficult for me."^[70]

Sandoval currently resides in both San Francisco and Ireland.^[71][72]

Mazzy Star - Into Dust

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The Go-Go’s aren’t in the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame. It’s a fact repeated quite a few times in Alison Ellwood’s documentary on the titular band, and “The Go-Go’s” doesn’t just lift the veil on the Los Angeles punk band-turned-pop goddesses but also attempts to cast an eye on the misogyny of a music industry that hasn’t given the band their due. “The Go-Go’s” lit the world on fire, and while Ellwood’s documentary might not do the same thing, it’s a great crash course.

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The band members that comprised the original Go-Go’s lineup were teenage girls looking to avoid conforming to the norm. Lead singer Belinda Carlisle was a perky blonde cheerleader who had no problem cutting her hair short and dyeing it black. The core group of bandmembers all saw themselves as misfits, in spite of their looks, and as they navigated a punk landscape that thrived on non-conformity the band soon realized they were at a disadvantage.

As the band recounts their travels to Europe, they found themselves performing in a series of clubs frequented by white supremacists. To hear them tell it, it was a horrifying nightmare of being spit on, berated and ridiculed, not just because they were Americans, but because they were women. Ellwood doesn’t focus overtly on sexism, but leaves it on the margins. Whether being told to bare their breasts at a show or teased up to be beauty queens in their music videos, The Go-Go’s were always aware of how they were sold as sex objects. The lack of respect from the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame almost reinforces that without strictly saying it.

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Of course, the arrival of fame changes everything, and it does take “The Go-Go’s” down a familiar, VH1 “Behind the Music” path. Carlisle and Jane Wiedlin are the most recognizable members of the band, with Charlotte Caffey being credited as songwriter for most of their material. But where “The Go-Go’s” sticks out is in the names you don’t know, like drummer Gina Shock. Shock steals every interview she does with her tough talk and uncompromising attitude. Shock discusses being one of the oft-forgotten members of the band, as drummers often are, but her eventual fallout from the band showcases how much in-fighting was taking place behind the scenes.MORE

In the early 1970s, young Suzi Quatro made a huge splash in rock music, reaching the top of the charts in countries like England, Denmark, and Australia with glam-rock hits like “Can The Can” and “Devil Gate Drive.” The diminutive, leather-clad Quatro easily won over European audiences with her appealing stage presence as she expertly played a bass guitar almost as big as she was, commandeering her all-male backing band. Curiously, the Detroit native went relatively unnoticed in the U.S.; most Americans remember her now for her stint as Leather Tuscadero on the popular ’70s sitcom Happy Days and her mellow hit duet with Chris Norman, “Stumblin’ In.” Mainstream America may not have been playing close attention to the effervescent Quatro, but future rockers like Joan Jett, Cherie Currie (The Runaways), Debbie Harry (Blondie), and Kathy Valentine (The Go-Go’s) were.

Decades later, it seems Quatro is finally about to get her due in the rock annals as the first woman to front a successful rock band while playing an instrument. New documentary Suzi Q traces Quatro’s explosive career, starting out in an all-girl band with her sisters when she was just 14, then getting discovered and shipped to England only a few years later. Suzi Q offers a riveting, largely undiscovered chapter in rock music, exploring an artist who has sold 55 million records over the course of her long and successful career (which now also includes a number of stage musicals, programs on BBC Radio 2, and a series of books). A few days before , Quatro talked to The A.V. Club from her home in Hamburg, Germany, about being a rock groundbreaker, the secret to her infectious stage presence, and what life was like on the road with Alice Cooper. The now-70-year-old shows no signs of slowing down, still possessing the strong-willed self-confidence that helped her reach those musical heights in the first place.

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Maria Diane Brink (born December 18, 1977) is an American singer and songwriter, best known as the frontwoman of American heavy metal band In This Moment.

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She was born in the state of New York, and her father left the family when she was young. When she was 14, she got pregnant and had to support herself and her son; she also helped her mother to overcome her drug addiction.^[6]
The first band Maria was ever in was an Albany-based band called Pulse, before moving to California.^[7]
In 2002, when she was 25, she moved to Los Angeles to find a band to work with; it took two years to find her now-band member Chris Howorth.^[6]
Maria is a vegetarian and is active with the PETA campaign.^[8]
Brink is also an aspiring artist/painter going by the alias of 'Maria Brink's Wonderland'.^[9]

Name: Sarah Barthel
Place of Residence: Saratoga Springs, NY
Current Jam: favorite new artist is Com Truise (on Ghostly Intl.)
Favorite Food: lobster
Mode of Self Expression: vocals & keyboard

Ark: Hey Sarah. Thanks for taking the time to do this interview with us. Could you begin by telling us a bit about yourself?
Sarah: Well my name is Sarah. I’m 28 years old and play keyboard and sing in a band called Phantogram. I tend to produce music and like making beats, and also attempt to play guitar when I’m alone in my own room (haha). We are currently hanging out in Salt Lake City for a few days then we’re off to Mexico City for the next stop of our tour. Oh, and I like music!

Ark: Awesome! At what age did you start playing music, and are there any other musicians in your family?
Sarah: I started singing when I was very young. I guess it all got started by just singing along to songs on the radio and my cassette tapes. I’ve been playing the piano since I was in junior high but I’m not musically trained so I made stuff up and messed around.
As far as other musicians in the family…My grandmother was a professional piano player and used to do concerts all the time when she was younger (until her 30s I think) but I believe that’s it for musicians in my family.

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