Venus and the Razorblades were a short-lived punk band. The Los Angeles based new wave rock band was put together by Kim Fowley after he severed professional relations with The Runaways. Fowley sought to put together a band with a teenaged male singer and teenaged female musicians. The band put out a single called “Punk-A-Rama” on the independent label Bomp! Records trying to capitalize on the popularity of the punk rock genre of the late 1970s and then broke up. (More from Wikipedia)
After Kim Fowley lost control of the Runaways. the early all-female rock band that he helped found and also managed, he sought to form another band that was counter to the conventions of the day: a male lead singer that was backed by female musicians. Called Venus and the Razorblades, bandmembers were Steven T. (vocals and guitar), Roni Lee (rhythm guitar), Danielle Faye (bass guitar), Nicky Beat and later Kyle Raven (drums), and two more vocalists, Dyan Diamond and Vicki Arnold, aka Vicki Razor Blade. As with the Runaways. the musicians were teenagers; Arnold was 17, and Diamond was only 14.
Venus and the Razorblades released “Punk-a-Rama” as their first single on Bomp! Records, a terrific song that provided an overview of the early punk rock scene. I first encountered the song on Bomp’s initial compilation album, Best of Bomp, Volume One, which I recently cleaned up from Katrina. Venus and the Razorblades made several other singles, such as “I Wanna Be Where the Boys Are” and “Dog Food”; they broke up shortly thereafter. Kim Fowley eventually put together a retrospective album in 1978, Songs from the Sunshine Jungle; Wikipedia says that the album is extremely rare today, and I was delighted to find a copy at Criminal Records in Atlanta a few years ago.
Dyan Diamond released an acclaimed album in 1978 (produced by Kim Fowley), In the Dark that brings rockabilly and roots music to her new wave oeuvre; Allmusic gives the album 4½ stars and called it “a perfect example of an LP that was a creative triumph but a commercial disappointment”.
(December 2013)
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Items: Venus and the Razorblades
