Gore Gore Girls

Detroit's Gore Gore Girls put on a sensory-shocking show that has to be seen to be believed, as the band, named after a 1972 B-horror movie, combines the early elements of rock 'n' roll and R&B with a lo-fi edge sure to please hipsters, and go-go boots sure to please everyone else. Recoil got a chance to discuss Detroit as a rock city, among other things, with Gore Gore founder/vocalist/guitarist Amy Surdu, as she and the other girls (current drummer Nikki Styxx and fill-in bassist/vocalist Casey Dawson) prepared to open up for Reverend Horton Heat on March 19 at The Temple Club in Lansing and March 20 at The Club Soda in Kalamazoo. Following those shows, the band will then focus on writing and recording their new album, Get The Gore, during the next few months, with plans to release the disc on Get Hip Records this summer.

Recoil: What would you say it is about Detroit that made it such a hotbed for diverse and amazing acts in the past and continues to make it home to such strong musicians and bands now?
Amy Surdu: Detroit was a blue collar destination in the fifties - when all the real music started to happen. A lot of people from the south came up here for jobs. The exodus from the south is captured in the music of that time and I think started the Detroit music legacy. Blues music, songs of people feeling destined to be something. Wanting a better life and struggling through common everyday existence in the process. Fortune Records is my most favorite testament of that time, with both R&B and country acts from the fifties. All recorded in one room with a dirt floor. Then Motown came along and everyone was trained to have style. Looks mattered. The sound is distinctive but so are the looks that [Motown Records founder Berry] Gordy created. I personally find the sound of Fortune Records material more appealing, it's primitive and honest. But I don't think the fact that both great labels came out of Detroit is pure coincidence, I think this town has always bred self-made people who had a vision for what they wanted. And they worked hard to make it a success. That's the spirit which I think the musicians from here have today - they create, they go out and do it. It's a bona fide scene, with clubs and journalists supportive of the people and their music. The two things instrumental to the success of Detroit's contemporary rock music scene are Neil Yee's Gold Dollar Club and Jim Diamond's Ghetto Recorders Studio. A third thing would be that it is relatively cheap to live here. The bands were able to book a show and play at the Gold Dollar, and then record their works at Jim's. I think those two things facilitated the scene and legitimized a lot of bands circa late-nineties Detroit.

R: Would you say that the Gore Gore Girls kind of encapsulate a span of Detroit music history by taking influence from a range of genres and artists often associated with the city (specifically sixties girl groups and early seventies punk)?
AS: My idea with the band was to combine the style and look of a traditional Motown era girl group with the sound of dirty seminal punk of the sixties. The Stooges meet the Ronettes. I love the look and style of the badass girl groups of the late-fifties and sixties: matching outfits, hair, eyeliner, heels - but I love rock 'n' roll, primitive loud thumping beats. Gore Gore could never be just a dress-up novelty thing. It's real rock 'n' roll. People mention Motown and the MC5 when they talk about Detroit music, I think on the surface the combination of the two make up Gore Gore Girls. But I like the Stooges meet the Ronettes much better. I love this city. It's an evil cesspool of decay and dirt that somehow great art is always coming out of. What is the saying, baptism through fire? Perhaps that applies.

R: Where do you think the Gore Gore Girls fit in with the current Detroit scene?
AS: Neither here nor there. We have an eclectic fan base to say the least. Somewhere between Dan Kroha's cheeks and Creepy Rick's eyeballs.

R: Are you writing or recording any new material?
AS: Yes, constantly. I've got about ten new songs and some covers, and a whole bunch of bits and pieces that are going to be something. I love writing songs. I can't help it. I think I'm a channel for songs somehow; this is strange but I really think they come from somewhere else by means of me. The new stuff is part rock, part obscure girl group numbers, a lot of fuzz and some drum thunder. Normal Gore.

R: What are the new cover songs that you will be performing live? What do you like about performing certain songs as covers?
AS: "Fight Fire" by the Golliwogs. We are doing that I think - I like playing new songs and seeing how they come out when done the Gore Gore way. Doing covers makes one a better musician. Learning someone else's material is completely different than doing your own, it forces you to learn new things. It's the ultimate form of flattery to the songwriter, too, that someone else finds their song so good they want to learn and play it. Doing an Earl King number, for instance, forced me to learn a traditional style versus the three-chord punk that I was used to before. Not to say that the three-chord pattern needs anything - it's perfect by itself. But there is merit to learning traditionally styled material, too.

R: Lastly, what should those unfamiliar with the band know before heading out for a Gore Gore Girls live show?
AS: Get up front fast and do not be afraid - even if you're first instinct is to duck and cover!

March 2004