TINA LUCCHESI
As the legend of the Trashmen grew over the years, it was perhaps inevitable that somebody would create a band called the Trashwomen. Whereas the Trashmen were clean-cut Midwestern teenagers, the Trashwomen were apparently conceived with the term “white trash” in mind: They are all big women who are often decked out in leopard-print costumes. Michael Lucas with the surf revival band the Phantom Surfers approached Tina Lucchesi and Dannielle Pimm with the idea of having an all-female band to perform Trashmen songs as the opening act for their band for a 1992 show. Once the two located a guitarist – Elka Zolot – the Trashwomen were born. Zolot was a talented musician, but that was not true of the other two: Pimm became the bass player because she happened to own a bass guitar, while Lucchesi became the drummer because she happened to be dating a drummer. They had only 4 weeks to learn how to play their instruments before the show.
Over the years, all three women have been in a variety of bands, both during and after the Trashwomen period. The three women along with Rusty Quan released a single under the name the Count Backwards; later, without Elka Zolot, the other three were members of the Bobbyteens. Tina Lucchesi was probably the busiest of the three; besides running Lipstick Records, she was also in several other bands, including Top Ten, the Glamour Pussies, the Deadly Weapons, and AC/DShe.
Those are all just names in a list from what I know, but I do have an album by one of Tina Lucchesi’s bands – this time fronting an otherwise male group – called Tina and the Total Babes. The “total babes” backing Lucchesi on lead vocals are Johnny O’Halloran (bass), Jacques Wait (guitar), and Travis Ramin (drums); Wait and Ramin also helped out in the studio as the engineer and producer, respectively. O’Halloran and Ramin had previously been in a band called the Short Fuses with Miss Georgia Peach, who provides background vocals for Tina and the Total Babes.
Their only album She’s So Tuff came out in 2001 on the Sympathy for the Record Industry label. The campy front cover – with Tina Lucchesi wearing a button showing the album name and stretching a long string of bubble gum from her mouth – is perfect to illustrate the fun that is found on the music within.
(May 2012)
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Items: Tina Lucchesi
