Interview with Tijuana Sweetheart at the Rosebud Bar
By Jim Slimedog
Tijuana Sweetheart are an all girl rock’n’roll band that plays music that makes all the young boys want to cut off their penises or maybe make love to Italian subs. Not sure which. But really I’ll just use some quotes, “The Tijuana’s have all the energy, spit and fire of punk but play too well and have too many different things going on to be lumped into that fine genre. I see them more as gutsy rock’n’roll- a mix of hard rock, garage rock and glam with a sprinkling of pop on top.” And, “in my opinion, Tijuana Sweetheart, an all girl rock band, have more balls than almost all the guy rock bands out there put together.” I couldn’t have said it better myself
Slimedog- Just so you know, you’re our favorite all girl band on our site.
All- Oh, thank you very much….wait, How many girl bands are there?
Slimedog- Only you. (He says unabashedly)
All- (Laughter) It’s still awesome.
Slimedog- If there were other ones I know you’d be our favorite, I’ve been to Tijuana before, have any of you been there?
LoWreck (Drums)- I once stole a policeman’s hat in Mexico.
Helen (vocals)- Why did you do that?
LoWreck- ‘Cause I was drunk and I said, “I want that hat,” and I took it off him and he’s like, “What?” and I’m like, “Oh, Shit!,” so I had to, like, run down the beach and hide in a bush.
Julie (bass)- You kept it?
LoWreck- No, I threw it and ran away. It was like ten years ago.
Julie- They’re probably still looking for you.
Slimedog – Why did you guys change your name? (They were called “Vagiant” before)
Helen- It was because of a legal dispute. There’s another band- we’re technically not allowed to talk about it.
Slimedog- I like the new name.
Helen- We thought it kind of sounded like an old timey name for a prostitute.
Slimedog- I’m not sure there are any sweethearts in Tijuana.
Julie- But they will be for the right price.
Slimedog- How did you all get started?
Helen- Me and LoWreck got together in ’05 and we didn’t play well at all and both of our dads had just died and to get over it we were like, “Let’s have a band,” and we’ve been through several lineup changes but it’s been awesome. Our sound has changed a lot and we’re having a lot of fun.
LoWreck- And we’re cute and we have boobs!
Helen- Well, some of us our cute.
Slimedog- You’re all cute.
All- Aww, thanks.
Slimedog- Any plans coming up?
Helen- We’re in the middle of recording now. We’re taking a little break ‘cause I’m getting hitched in the fall, October.
Slimedog- Do you know how many people are getting married in October? Gary and Phil from the Doll Eyes, Kevin from Full Body Anchor.
Julie- Me and LoWreck are getting married to each other.
Julie and LoWreck (simultaneously)- On October second.
Julie (surprised and laughing)- Oh, see it’s true!
(Ian Clark a well known drunk and member of Razors In The Night saunters into the interview area).
Ian- Yes, I’m getting married to, um..
Slimedog- Swid. (Well known pubic hair model and member of Razors In The Night)
Ian- Yeah, Swid and Alcoholics Anonymous.
Helen- Finally making it legal.
Slimedog-Your video is my favorite on our site.
Julie- It’s your only video, right?
Slimedog- No, no, no we have tons of videos if you look at the site.
Helen- We’d like to do another one.
Slimedog- Who writes in the band?
Helen- It’s a group effort.
LoWreck- It’s 95 percent Helen, 5 percent us.
Helen- It’s definitely getting a lot more like, we get together and jam; my least favorite word in the world.
Keri (Lead guitar)- Jamming’s the best word in the world. (She says dreamily) I love jamming where I can throw out a riff-I’m trying to push for that.
Helen- I like doing it, I just don’t like the word.
Slimedog- How about lyrics?
Helen- I do, but we’re mixing it up.
(British fellow they know enters the area, the girls coax him to say something in his British accent and leaves after they all say, “It’s adorable,” “It’s so cute when he talks,” “I love him,” He says to me, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Carry on.”)
Julie- Oh, we scared him away.
Slimedog – How about influences?
LoWreck- Buffalo wings, Beyonce.
Julie (to LoWreck)- Everything has to start with a B.
LoWreck- Boobs, Beyonce and buffalo wings. Beer and Battlestar Gallatica.
(Man who works at the bar comes out and takes Julie’s beer away from her since we are in a non-drinking zone).
Slimedog- Do you find prejudice against you in music because you’re women or have things changed?
Helen- It’s mostly an advantage, honestly. When we started and we weren’t that good, we got called out on it. And that’s fair but people gave us lots more opportunities to try and get better and they were much more supporting of showing us things like about amps, for example. But I think, mostly, people want us on the bill because they want women in rock’n’roll.
Slimedog (who is known to be long winded)- Good, as you know, until punk and new wave came in women were not allowed to play guitars and drums. And I think that in the sixties the girl groups were actually producing some good music and I think the hippies came in and said, “Well, that’s all pop crap, you know, we’re doing the real good stuff.” Which I think the opposite was true and the hippies were, “Oh, everybody can do their own thing,” Dah-dah-dah. But in reality, not if you’re a woman, don’t friggin’ play the drums or guitar.
Julie- Like if we fuck up, it’s because we’re women. If guy bands fuck up, well, they just fuck up (not because they’re guys).
Kerri- But we have so much fun, we don’t care.
Slimedog- Lots of women look to Joan Jett as a hero.
Helen- Oh, yeah, c’mon. Joan Jett made me want to be in a band. I saw her on tv. I cut off all my hair immediately when I saw here.
Keri- She set the bar, I mean guitar wise. There’s so many awesome female guitarist out there now and that’s great ‘cause that wouldn’t have happened twenty years ago. And now they’re popping up all over the place.
Slimedog- Who drinks the most in the band?
Helen- It really depends on the night. It’s unpredictable.
Slimedog- Who is most likely to become a serial killer?
All- LoWreck!
Slimedog- And why is that?
Helen- First of all she’s jacked! So she can kill everyone with her bare hands, second her boyfriend used to be a mortician so they know a lot about how to bury a body and third, she’ll come into practice in a rage because she got stuck in traffic for five minutes and her veins are popping out of her eyeballs and you think she’s so mad at you.
Slimedog- I think it would be Keri, you know, she’s the quiet one. (He says in a timid voice, well aware now of the danger he is in being in LoWrecks presence).
Slimedog- Any funny stories about your practice place? (He wisely tries to change the subject).
Julie- No, we can’t give away our secrets. Let’s just say it’s like walking into a box of chicken that’s yapping about their sex life.
Slimedog- If there was one thing you could change about men what would that be?
LoWreck- No penises! (She says with glee)
Slimedog- I don’t have one, actually.
Julie- Give them boobs!
LoWreck- Make them smarter, (The other girls glare at here until she changes her answer) No, we like them dumb, make them dumber.
LoWreck- Make them smell better!
Julie- That’s coming from women who smell like Italian subs. That makes no sense, you should want them to smell worse. Because then you’d smell pretty compared to them,
And so ends our story of stolen Mexican police hats and personal hygiene. Check out our live and cd reviews of them on our site.
