GOING WILD IN A TIKI LIFESTYLE!
It’s summertime and time to go wild in a Tiki Lifestyle! Dollsquad delivers with a hot new track on their new single release back with their classic Cave Gurl. Pure garage rock n roll from the hottest dolls on the planet!
Lead vocalist Joey Bedlam belts out her beautiful pattened vocals to the sounds featuring guitarist Yolanda DeRose and one listen will have you mesmerized and ready to join the lifestyle yourself!
“It is out now and you can by it from Mole Lambert at State Records, said Bedlam. (https://www.facebook.com/staterecords66) or directly from Birdman Cantillo of Gogo-Bone Rekkidz (https://www.facebook.com/birdman.cantillo.3). The vinyl versions of these songs are different to the digial versions so they are more collectible and more in keeping with the style of the lable that put them out. We gave them licence to mix them how they wanted. We really could not have asked for a better crew to put this out. The quality is outstanding on both the recording remix that Gogo-Bone Rekkids did with Paul Martin as is the artwork and packaging that Greg Gutbezahl did.”
“This is a concept song that is the original vision of DollSquad guitarist Yolanda DeRose. She had a great riff and solo and just the song title and a couple of verse lines because I think she was really into reading about Don The Beachcomber and his exotic cocktails. Yolanda even set up a tiki bar at her practice studio. It was really cool. I just fleshed out the song lyrics with the playful double entendre style lyrics that suited the couple of lines she already had and added the outro rave up and bang, song down! I think its a great fun track and recording it really captured the live vibe that Yolanda was after.”
Bedlam said the song is one of the older tracks from Dollsquad and includes her husband guitarist Steve Lucas of X on guitar. “It was recorded at Bakhouse here in Melbourne after the sextet version of DollSquad had actually folded but I think it was all for the best beause we got some really suitable drumming and bass playing that might not have been up the alley of our drummer and bass player at the time. We used Fiona Lee Maynard on base from Have A Nice Day and many other local musical projects. She is a dynamo of a singer as well as a top notch bass player. We used Duncan from Little Murders on Drums and he also did such a fab job on nailing the correct drum rhythms that the song really needed to nail the genre it was written in. Steve Lucas from X played acoustic guitar and yukale and doubled as producer of the songs.”
Yolanda said, “It’s so funny to hear Joey talking about the competency of the band.. and I have to agree. All of the lineups really strived towards that ends and for the most part we got better and better… But there comes a point when pure competency is boring. At the time we were writing the song I was in the early stages of a jazz degree on electric bass (pretentious!) and I’d started to resent the championship of technical skill over style the course endorsed. I’d been listening to the single note piano played on the Stooges “I Wanna Be Your Dog” and being amazed at the audacity to do something that simple. So the song started with only the chorus. Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Life. Lifestyle. That which was the polar opposite of complex. It was a desire for an escape. The song come into being almost instantaneously when Joey and I sat down together to finish it, it took zero time. She knew instinctively what she wanted to talk about beyond my idiot chorus.”
“So this is actually quite an old song that we never released beause the band had folded but Birdman and crew at Mojo Bone and subsidiary Gogo-Bone Rekkids saw the diamond in the rough and when they said they wanted to put it out I was thrilled and when I told Yolanda she was also thrilled that this gem could finally see the light of day.” Yolanda said, “Steve shot the footage for that video years ago always intending to put the song out with Yolanda but I never did anything beyond shooting the video raw footage of me. So that was the only footage we had and the only one we could use as there was no footage of the band actually playing this song because it had folded by the time the song was recorded. The location was Rancho Mirage, near Palm Springs in an original Alexander Cody house that sits on the Tamarisk Golf Course / Country Club that The Rat Pack frequented back in the day. It was gorgous and Steve shot it during our long honeymoon there when we rented out the house. I collated the footage and edited the video myself using a movie making program I taught myself to use some time ago. Basically the video is campy to go with the playfullness of the song and it works well. I am wearing a vintage bikini of course!”
Cave Gurl is another old track from Doll Squad as well. “The other side is Cave Gurl a song that I wrote which came out on our second CD Lp Lethal in Leather. It is very garagey and suited as the partner song to Tiki Lifestyle. The label remixed it so it does sound different to the album release of about 10 years ago.”
“We always strived for competence and quality recordings and musicianship but with the strong image of a girl gang , said Joey. I think we achieved that because I think we are among the most competent all girl bands that I have heard in my life so far. We are certainly the most renowed to come out of Australia when it comes to sixties garage punk or power pop. I am proud of our achievements with every version of the band I created.”
“I think you would have to ask Yolanda that since it was her concept but knowing what she was digging at the time the song was written It is about escapism and the holiday lifestyle that the pacific represents. It is also about the retro fascination or even obsession with tiki culture which I know a lot of politicially correct school marmsy types are poo pooing right now but they are entitled to their opinion. For me at least it is about being a free spirit, barefoot on the beach. It is about nostalgia and holidays and hot summer nights and retro bikinis and creative cocktails that look like sculptures and surfer boys and of course the king of the sufe guitar Mr Dick Dale himself.” Yolanda said, “It’s a craving to transcend the day-to-day. The bar in question at the studio almost succeeded in being transportive, but it always required the suspension of disbelief. It was a horrifically mouldy room with an asbestos office ceiling that leaked brown water when it rained. I tried to cover the leaks with some tall palms from Ikea, but they died because the studio was very dark and dank. So instead I only let people in there at night when it could be lit with coloured fairy lights. The drinks were petri dishes of disease because there was never enough glassware and so most of the cocktails would be served from a large wooden bowl with a number of extremely long straws for a group to share. It was very much not the Tiki Lifestyle dream the song suggests! In the intervening years the whole place was condemned by the local council, but it had a certain charm.”
Looking ahead Joey and Yolanda would like to promote the new single and video. “I would be happy to do another tour with some version of DollSquad to promote this single as would Yolanda but its always like herding cats when it comes to bands reforming. So who knows. If there is interest I am sure we could do it. As for me and Yolanda I am now focusing on solo material the label Laneway Music that represents me here in Australia who are home to some legendary legacy Australian sixties acts. Yolanda is also working her own band under her name and is about to release her debut album so it is an existing time for us both as we grow and develop and being open to new experiences is always satisfying for the soul I think.”
So ready for the Tiki Lifestyle? You will love to be a part of the Tiki Lifestyle once you get a listen to the sounds of Tiki Lifestyle and go wild with these great songs that will hook you on Doll Squad and the great music delivered by Joey and Yolanda here. It is a must have on vinyl and digital in your rock n roll collection!! Tiki Tiki It,s a lifestyle….full of thrills and chills from Joey & Yolanda!
It is out now and you can by it from Mole Lambert at State Records. (https://www.facebook.com/staterecords66) or directly from Birdman Cantillo of Gogo-Bone Rekkidz (https://www.facebook.com/birdman.cantillo.3). The vinyl versions of these songs are different to the digial versions so they are more collectible and more in keeping with the style of the lable that put them out. We gave them licence to mix them how they wanted. We really could not have asked for a better crew to put this out. The quality is outstanding on both the recording remix that Gogo-Bone Rekkids did with Paul Martin as is the artwork and packaging that Greg Gutbezahl did.
It was recorded at Bakhouse here in Melbourne after the sextet version of DollSquad had actually folded but I think it was all for the best beause we got some really suitable drumming and bass playing that might not have been up the alley of our drummer and bass player at the time. We used Fiona Lee Maynard on base from Have A Nice Day and many other local musical projects. She is a dynamo of a singer as well as a top notch bass player. We used Duncan from Little Murders on Drums and he also did such a fab job on nailing the correct drum rhythms that the song really needed to nail the genre it was written in. Steve Lucas from X played acoustic guitar and yukale and doubled as producer of the songs.
So this is actually quite an old song that we never released beause the band had folded but Birdman and crew at Mojo Bone and subsidiary Gogo-Bone Rekkids saw the diamond in the rough and when they said they wanted to put it out I was thrilled and when I told Yolanda she was also thrilled that this gem could finally see the light of day.
The other side is Cave Gurl a song that I wrote which came out on our second CD Lp Lethal in Leather. It is very garagey and suited as the partner song to Tiki Lifestyle. The label remixed it so it does sound different to the album release of about 10 years ago.
We always strived for competence and quality recordings and musicianship but with the strong image of a girl gang. I think we achieved that because I think we are among the most competent all girl bands that I have heard in my life so far. We are certainly the most renowed to come out of Australia when it comes to sixties garage punk or power pop. I am proud of our achievements with every version of the band I created.
Steve shot the footage for that video years ago always intending to put the song out with Yolanda but I never did anything beyond shooting the video raw footage of me. So that was the only footage we had and the only one we could use as there was no footage of the band actually playing this song because it had folded by the time the song was recorded. The location was Rancho Mirage, near Palm Springs in an original Alexander Cody house that sits on the Tamarisk Golf Course / Country Club that The Rat Pack frequented back in the day. It was gorgous and Steve shot it during our long honeymoon there when we rented out the house. I collated the footage and edited the video myself using a movie making program I taught myself to use some time ago. Basically the video is campy to go with the playfullness of the song and it works well. I am wearing a vintage bikini of course!
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