The Pandoras

Pandoras at the pool

The Pandoras were an all girl punk band from Los Angeles, fronted by long-time scene maker Paula Pierce, who passed away in 1991 after suffering a stroke. Although they didn't release records until the early 1980's, all the girls in the band were active in the scene, playing in other bands and going to all the shows.

Considering their relatively short active life as a band, The Pandoras certainly upped the ante for all girl rock bands with some seminal recordings such as the "Hot Generation/You Don't Satisfy" single pictured below, cover photo by yours truly! The move from cool indie to major label was detrimental to the Pandoras as it is for so many DIY type bands and the stress caused the band to implode.

If you were lucky enough to cross paths with the Pandoras live show, then you know that the trashy b-movie bikini-clad anti-heroine was resurrected by those ladies and brought to new life for a whole new generation of garage rockers. The Pandoras ripped up the old mold and forged new ground in true feminist form. They were not your sweet girls next door. No, they were the bad girls every boy wanted to date. Let's just hope that boy didn't have his own band, lest he get his musical ass kicked by these lady rockers. Fierce Paula Pierce was a formidable front person.... all sex and fury. The line-up pictured here (the one that recorded the ultimate sound that defines the Pandoras) is clockwise from top left: Julie Patchouli, Paula Pierce, Karen Blankfeld, and Melanie Vammen. All sorts of notable punk rock ladies came in and out of the Pandoras and into other bands... you know the names...Leaving Trains, The Muffs, L7.... Kim Shattuck, Jennifer Finch....

Take time to visit Pandoras bass player, Julie Patchouli's lovingly constructed OFFICIAL Pandoras website for a complete history of the band in all its permutations and line-ups... including the Paula-doras and the Gwyndoras - all sorts of local color and urban myth demystified for you by Julie who was there and lived it!

My Pandoras Picture Sleeve

I wish I had more Pandoras photos to show you. We spent a fun and completely Gidget-silly day at the beach doing these photos for Bomp, who released the "Hot Generation" single and those pictures made it into the likes of Playboy magazine's little sister, Oui! and many other places...but I don't have the photos.... they are safely stored in the Bomp Archive.

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