In early gigs Karen used olive oil all over her face and body so she looked sweaty. It was messy and stung her eyes. Beer seemed a better option and she began to spray herself and the audience. She’d fire up before the show with tequila or champagne using the alcohol to fuel her onstage persona—in retrospect, her wild performances shocked even herself.
In March 2002 they performed at the annual South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas, where they were the hottest band on the bill. In June they toured Britain as a supporting act, along with the Liars, for the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and performed their debut headline show at the Metro on Oxford Street in London. Karen credits Jon Spencer, and his wife Cristina, lead singer of Boss Hog, with bringing ‘us into this whole mess’.
Late in 2002 the new offering from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Machine was released. The EP’s title single was crowned Single of the Week by Kerrang Magazine. And Rolling Stone added the band to its Artists to Watch list. Eminent music journalist Reverend Al Friston claimed the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were the new White Stripes. Karen didn’t take kindly to being pigeonholed into any particular music genre: the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were making a new sound all of their own.
The following year the band signed with Interscope who, Karen believed, was ‘more risk taking’ and also bred ‘fine rock star personas’. In the stable were Eminem, Marilyn Manson and No Doubt.
Their debut album, Fever To Tell, was produced by Alan Moulder (Eurythmics, Smashing Pumpkins) in 2003 in London and it became an instant hit. ‘Maps’, the first single from the album, was a stirring love ballad about Karen’s romance with Angus Andrew from the Liars. After the video was put online, radio play followed and MTV2 put the video on rotation. Fans and critics lapped up Karen’s emotional video performance for ‘Maps’, which was complete with real tears thanks to her emotional state about her boyfriend Andrew, who she was leaving to go on tour. She has said one of the reasons she dislikes touring so much is its impact on her personal life. ‘Maps’ showed a vulnerable, soft side to this wild woman as well as her versatility as a musician.
She has said being the front woman of a band that plays ‘hard and noisy’ is exciting for fans, particularly the girls. Of course being a rock chick has drawn other attention also. Karen doesn’t subscribe to claims she’s a sex symbol. She told Playboy when she turned down an invitation from them in 2003 that Karen O wouldn’t be showing ‘any t**ies, d**ks, or f**nies!’
The success of ‘Maps’ was followed by the band’s first hit, ‘Fever To Tell’, which reached gold record status. In 2003 the band went back to Europe and Britain, where they performed on Top of the Pops along with a couple of the Spice Girls, Marilyn Manson and Kelly Clarkson. Karen has said it was ‘strange company ... but fun’. In 2006 she called Clarkson a ‘poisonous varmint’ for using a guitar break from ‘Maps’ in her smash hit ‘Since U Been Gone’.
In 2003 the band also toured to Japan and Australia, where they were part of the Livid Festival. Slightly overenthusiastic in her performance at the Metro in Sydney, one night Karen danced off the stage and injured herself. When it came time for the band to take the Triple J Big Top stage at the festival, Karen was confined to a wheelchair and pushed onto the stage by Andrew. By the following year the pair had split and Karen moved to Los Angeles.
The draw in LA was new lover, the film director Spike Jonze who had directed the band’s earlier video Y Control. And it offered the chance for anonymity. In New York Karen O was a recognised celebrity, but in LA there were more famous faces for the paparazzi to focus on. And she was craving some downtime.
Jonze’s brother Squeak E Clean, aka Sam Spiegel, produced the band’s second album, Show Your Bones.
The accolades and awards continued. SPIN magazine gave Karen her second Sex Goddess award. Blender ranked her one of the Rock’s Hottest Women and in 2007 Spinner.com placed her at number three on its Women Who Rock Right Now list. And rock icon Lee Ranaldo, famed guitarist with Sonic Youth, said Karen was the ‘kind of frontperson who comes along once in a decade’.
A three-year hiatus between albums gave Karen time to regroup. Show Your Bones was released in Spring 2006 and charted at number eleven on the Billboard 200. The album featured a range of musical styles—‘Gold Lion’, the first single from the album, was reminiscent of a pure rock song, other tracks took their cues from Nirvana, Sonic Youth and R.E.M. Dark and brooding were two words frequently associated with this offering.
In 2007 the band released another EP, Is Is, which hit number seven on the Billboard Top Independent Albums. That year Karen performed on the collaborative Dylan piece ‘Highway 61 Revisited’ for the soundtrack of the movie I’m Not There, which also featured Lee Ranaldo, Steve Shelly (both Sonic Youth), Tom Verlaine (Television) and Dylan band bassist Tony Garnier.
Perversion, sex and violence are the three things Karen has said she wanted to get out of her system through music
Karen performed a one-off show under the name Native Korean Rock & the Fishnets in 2008. She has said as a teen she was ashamed of her Asian background, but since then she has visited relatives in South Korea several times and developed a deeper understanding of her mother’s culture. The musical style she chose for this experiment was reminiscent of her and Zinner in Unitard.
Karen’s love of dancing and disco tunes influenced the band’s 2009 album It’s Blitz, which peaked at twenty-two on the Billboard 200. Zinner’s signature guitar sounds were replaced with electronic synthesisers and keyboards. Karen wanted no guitars on this album and Zinner, who frequently clashed with her, acquiesced. Recorded at El Paso’s Sonic Ranch studio and also on a farm in Massachusetts, It’s Blitz was produced by Dave Sitek and Nick Launay (INXS, Talking Heads). She collaborated on the soundtrack of ex-flame Spike Jonze’s film Where the Wild Things Are and its single, ‘All is Love’, was nominated for a Grammy in 2010.
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs still pull crowds around the globe, headlining festivals such as All Points West and Lollapalooza and are adored by the media—London’s Evening Standard calling them ‘one of the most important bands of the decade’.
Karen hasn’t lost any of the enthusiasm and energy that drove the band’s success. She’s still bawling, screaming and grinning maniacally at the audience, secure in her place in rock history as one of the genre’s most outrageous—and talented—women.
Discography
In some cases, these are not complete listings, but selected works from a large oeuvre.
Chrissy Amphlett
Divinyls
Monkey Grip EP (1982)
Desperate (1983)
What a Life! (1985)
Temperamental (1988)
Divinyls (1991)
Underworld (1996)
Pat Benatar
In the Heat of the Night (1979)
Crimes of Passion (1980)
Precious Time (1981)
Get Nervous (1982)
Live from Earth (1983)
Tropico (1984)
Seven the Hard Way (1985)
Wide Awake in Dreamland (1988)
True Love (1991)
Gravity’s Rainbow (1993)
Innamorata (1997)
Go (2003)
Kim Deal
The Pixies
Surfer Rosa (1988)
Doolittle (1989)
Bossanova (1990)
Trompe Le Monde (1991)
The Breeders
Pod (1990)
Last Splash (1993)
Title TK (2002)
Mountain Blues (2008)
Fate to Fatal (EP) (2009)
Marianne Faithfull
Come My Way (1965)
North Country Maid (1966)
Love in a Mist (1967)
Dreamin’ My Dreams (1976)
Broken English (1979)
Dangerous Acquaintances (1981)
A Child’s Adventure (1983)
Strange Weather (1987)
Bla
zing Away (1990)
A Secret Life (1995)
20th Century Blues (1996)
Seven Deadly Sins (1998)
Vagabond Ways (1999)
Kissin’ Time (2002)
Before the Poison (2004)
Easy Come Easy Go (2008)
Kim Gordon
Sonic Youth
Confusion is Sex (1983)
EVOL (1986)
Sister (1987)
Daydream Nation (1988)
Goo (1990)
Dirty (1992)
Washing Machine (1995)
A Thousand Leaves (1998)
SYR4: Goodbye 20th Century (1999)
Murray Street (2002)
Sonic Nurse (2004)
The Eternal (2009)
Debbie Harry
Blondie
Blondie (1976)
Plastic Letters (1977)
Parallel Lines (1978)
Eat to the Beat (1979)
Autoamerican (1980)
The Hunter (1982)
No Exit (1999)
The Curse of Blondie (2004)
Solo
Koo Koo (1981)
Rockbird (1986)
Once More into the Bleach (1988)
Def, Dumb & Blonde (1989)
Debravation (1993)
Necessary Evil (2007)
PJ Harvey
Dry (1992)
Rid of Me (1993)
To Bring You My Love (1995)
Dance Hall at Louse Point (1996)
Is This Desire? (1998)
Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea (2000)
Uh Huh Her (2004)
The Peel Sessions 1991–2004 (2006)
White Chalk (2007)
A Woman A Man Walked By (2009)
Heart
Dreamboat Annie (1976)
Little Queen (1977)
Magazine (1978)
Dog and Butterfly (1978)
Bebe Le Strange (1980)
Private Audition (1982)
Passionworks (1983)
Heart (1985)
Bad Animals (1987)
Brigade (1990)
Rock the House Live (1991)
Desire Walks On (1993)
The Road Home (1995)
Alive in Seattle (2003)
Jupiter’s Darling (2004)
Chrissie Hynde
The Pretenders
Pretenders (1980)
Pretenders II (1981)
Learning to Crawl (1984)
Get Close (1986)
The Singles (1987)
Packed! (1990)
Last of the Independents (1994)
The Isle of View (1995)
Viva el Amor! (1999)
Loose Screw (2002)
Pirate Radio (2006)
Break Up the Concrete (2008)
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
Bad Reputation (1981)
I Love Rock’n’Roll (1981)
Album (1983)
Glorious Results of a Misspent Youth (1984)
Good Music (1986)
Up Your Alley (1988)
The Hit List (1990)
Notorious (1991)
Flashback (1993)
Pure and Simple (1994)
Fetish (1999)
Sinner (2006)
Janis Joplin
Big Brother and the Holding Company (1967)
Cheap Thrills (1968)
I Got Dem Ol’s Kozmic Blues Again Mama (1969)
Pearl (1971)
Annie Lennox
The Tourists
The Tourists (1979)
Reality Effect (1979)
Luminous Basement (1980)
Eurythmics
In the Garden (1981)
Sweet Dreams (1983)
Touch (1983)
Be Yourself Tonight (1985)
Revenge (1986)
Savage (1987)
We Too are One (1989)
Peace (1999)
Solo
Diva (1992)
Medusa (1995)
Bare (2003)
Songs of Mass Destruction (2007)
Annie Lennox Collection (2010)
Courtney Love
Hole
Pretty on the Inside (1991)
Live Through This (1994)
Celebrity Skin (1998)
Solo
America’s Sweetheart (2004)
Nobody’s Daughter (2010)
Madonna
Madonna (1983)
Like a Virgin (1984)
True Blue (1986)
You Can Dance (1987)
Like a Prayer (1989)
I’m Breathless (1990)
The Immaculate Collection (1990)
Erotica (1992)
Bedtime Stories (1994)
Ray of Light (1998)
Music (2000)
American Life (2003)
Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005)
Hard Candy (2008)
Stevie Nicks
Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac (1975)
Rumours (1977)
Tusk (1979)
Mirage (1982)
Tango in the Night (1987)
Behind the Mask (1990)
Time (1995)
The Dance (1997)
Solo
Bella Donna (1981)
The Wild Heart (1983)
Rock a Little (1985)
The Other Side of the Mirror (1989)
Timespace: The Best of Stevie Nicks (1991)
Street Angel (1994)
Enchanted (1998)
Trouble in Shangri-La (2001)
The Divine: Stevie Nicks (2002)
Crystal Visions: The Very Best of Stevie Nicks (2007)
Karen O
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Yeah Yeah Yeahs (EP) (2001)
Machine (EP) (2002)
Fever to Tell (2003)
Show Your Bones (2006)
Is Is (EP) (2007)
It’s Blitz (2009)
Pink
Can’t Take Me Home (2000)
M!ssundaztood (2001)
Try This (2003)
I’m Not Dead (2006)
Funhouse (2008)
Suzi Quatro
Quatro (1974)
Your Mama Won’t Like Me (1975)
Aggrophobia (1976)
If You Knew Suzi (1978)
Suzi and Other Four Letter Words ... (1979)
Rock Hard (1981)
Main Attraction (1983)
Oh Suzi Q (1990)
What Goes Around (1996)
Unreleased Emotion (1998)
Back to the Drive (2006)
Patti Smith
Horses (1975)
Radio Ethiopia (1976)
Easter (1978)
Wave (1979)
Dreams of Life (1988)
Gone Again (1996)
Peace and Noise (1997)
Gung Ho (2000)
Trampin’ (2004)
Twelve (2007)
Tina Turner
Solo
Tina Turns the Country On (1974)
Acid Queen (1975)
Rough (1978)
Love Explosion (1979)
Private Dancer (1984)
Break Every Rule (1986)
Foreign Affair (1989)
Wildest Dreams (1996)
Twenty Four Seven (1999)
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Jenni Lans for her honesty and support; Vicki Giordano for picking her brains; my sons Jackson and Lewis who provided a steady supply of hot tea and hugs; my fantastic and dear friends Nina, Angela B, Tasj, Sandy, Sally P-R, Karen, Meredith, Rowena—all great chicks; AB for keeping the faith; Tony Mott for his awesome photographs; Nicole Moore for helping with the photo research; my publishers Lisa Hanrahan and Mark Byrne for giving me the chance to write the book of my dreams; editor Mary Trewby for her eye for detail; David Dalton for giving his time and sharing his experiences with Janis Joplin; and, most importantly, to the rock chicks who a
ppear in this book who inspire with their talent, passion, commitment and sheer determination to do it their way.
The author
Alison Stieven-Taylor, a freelance journalist for over twenty years, has written for a wide variety of magazines, from Rolling Stone through to Cleo. Alison started her working life as a rock’n’roll publicist. Today she is the director of a successful PR consultancy working with leading global brands. She has studied documentary film, narrative form in literature and film and is an accomplished researcher. She is the author of The Price of Love and a photographic artist.
Back Cover Material
ROCK CHICK: A gusty, high-energy female singer-uncompromising driven & doesn’t like to be told ‘No’!
Janis Joplin
Marianne Faithfull
Tina Turner
Suzi Quatro
Joan Jett
Ann & Nancy Wilson
Patti Smith
Stevie Nicks
Debbie harry
Kim Gordon
Annie Lennox
Pat Benatar
Madonna
Kim Deal
Chrissy Amphlett
PJ Harvey
Melissa Etheridge
Sheryl Crowe
Courtney Love
Alanis Morissette
Gwen Stefani
Karen O
Kelly Clarkson
Pink
Avril Lavigne
Rock Chicks Page 26