The Bobbyteens

by Chris LarrySan Francisco trash rock supergroup the Bobbyteens bash out hormone-driven songs about boys, partying, and, well, boys again. The songs barely get past two minutes and the priority is rock & roll energy. Trash rock's practitioners and fans want their music stripped to the raw, and power chords, 4/4 time, and a catchy chorus are the limited but potent repertoire of the Bobbyteens; a demented version of Chuck Berry played with amateurish gusto. To the non-fan, music anything like the budget rock of the Bobbyteens would sound painful with its sloppy guitar playing, off-key singing, and general disdain for production value. While those critiques are valid, they ignore the honesty of misfit white kids mangling R&B. Bands like Supercharger, the Mummies, and the Trashwomen gloriously proved that anyone could in fact make rock music if they had enough heart and something to say. The story of the Bobbyteens starts with the Mummies and the Trashwomen. Drummer Russell Quan is a San Francisco legend playing in not only the Mummies (who once recorded an album with a boom-box) but the Count Backwards and the Phantom Surfers. Sassy singer Tina Lucchesi and bassist Danielle Pimm made up two-thirds of the Trashwomen and have also done time in the Count Backwards. With the demise of those bands and the addition of guitarist Lisa Schenberg, the Bobbyteens were born in 1996. The underground supergroup began to release 7" singles at a drag strip pace on Super Teem and Screaming Apple Records. The sound was and continues to be a bratty mess of classic girl-group wailing. The Runaways comparisons are obvious, but overall, the style and feel of all the Bobbyteens output reaches further back to 1960s groups like the Shangri-La's, albeit drenched in white noise feedback distortion. Like older, wiser, wilder sisters, the Bobbyteens showed fellow Bay-area rockers the Donnas a few tricks and helped the younger version begin their climb to becoming one of the most talked-about female bands in rock & roll. 1998 saw the Bobbyteens' debut platter Fast Livin' & Rock 'N' Roll released by both Lucchesi's Lipstick Records and Seattle garage label Estrus, followed by 2000's Not So Sweet on Screaming Apple/Estrus. Both albums continue to glorify the lifestyle of wild youth even though all the band members are near or older than thirty. Like fellow eternal teenagers the Dictators, this feat is accomplished by keeping the tongue pressed firmly in cheek. The Bobbyteens might make musicians squeamish but there is no better soundtrack for crusin' the mall in the middle of a three-day drunk.