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Recently, we had an interview with Trevor Valentine and Ron Lapse of "The Marzipan Bunnies," a San Francisco-based band with a growing following. Here's what they had to say. BS: So tell me about your band's sound. TV: Well, imagine that Jim Morrison had been born in 1973, in the Ukraine. It's kind of like that, except more punk. With banjos. RL: Right. It's kind of like ABBA goes hardcore, but without the blond ones. It's as if you took everything we learned from ska, and ignored it. It's like a speed-metal Squirrel Nut Zippers. TV: But without the squirrel. RL: Right, without the squirrel. It's as if you replaced the squirrel with a hedgehog or a small side salad, and backed them up with the horns from Huey Lewis and the News and the synths from the first half of "Rio." TV: And had Natalie Merchant sing it. RL: First getting her really drunk and playing "Mall Madness" for a while. TV: And then stuffing her in a trunk with a microphone and having her do a Tom Waits impression. RL: Basically, it's a Bananarama for the nineties, only with a early eighties rockabilly-meets-Kraftwerk sensibility. Except more so. TV: It's like you did an electrified cover of an acoustic version of Soul Coughing doing "Horse With No Name," but with new lyrics that were more like Jack Kerouac getting slapped around by a sort of folk-rock En Vogue-- RL: --or Michael Stipe wearing Grace Slick's undergarments circa 1978. TV: And you took all that and used it as the backing track to a sort of The-Ventures-meet-Van-Halen-at-the-Lilith-Fair techno/Arabic track that kind of floats in and out of your consciousness like some kind of hairy insect on Ritalin. That, plus a sort of Elvis Costello minus Cyndi Lauper stage presence, is basically our band. BS: Ah. I see. Well, I think that just about does it for my questions. "The Marzipan Bunnies" will be at The Pillbug Club this Thursday, opening for "Rorschach Hot Plate Vanguard." TV: We will? RL: Yeah, you remember. They're that sort of Meatloaf-meets-The-Archies band, only without the guitars. TV: Oh, them. I always thought they were more of an industrial version of Fun Boy Three with sort of an R&B Tori Amos on lead vocals. RL: Well, that too. |
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