The Notorious Patricia Day
It's a good time to invest in Clairol Midnight Black. The dames have been a-dyin' up a storm in the latest frenzy of Bettie Page mania. Of course, that frenzy has never quite died down in New York City's slutabilly scene, where plenty of dotbrain clones have slurred Miss Bettie's reputation while flashing any number of moronic tattoos or piercings beneath their underwear.
So it's perfectly understandable if nobody first took the Horrorpops seriously. To be fair, it was no great loss when Kim Nekroman ditched his veteran psychobilly band to start a tamer offshoot. His commercial hopes-and personal life-had certainly become more viable with the presence of frontwoman Patricia Day.
She was upfront and center with her standup bass on the cover of Hell Yeah! and seemingly as generic as the album title. Her catalog number was Demonic Bettie Page #3886-A. The music was solid enough, even if a Sha Na Na reunion could be rivaling The Cramps nowadays. Day wouldn't be giving unemployed swing-band members any competition in the musicianship department, either.
But there was no denying that Day could sing, howl and let loose like a tortured cat-or, you know, like a cartoon tattoo of a tortured cat. Between her vocal talents and the popabilly slant, the Horrorpops big achievement was mustering up a small window of likeability.
Then we got the unexpected greatness of Bring It On! last year. Day's once again the only band member allowed on the front cover, although there's a lot to be said for her new Whatever Happened To Baby Bettie? look. Her demonic and dazed pose bears an uncanny resemblance to many bottle brunettes picked up in bars, before awaking the next morning to learn they were really more crazy than drunk.
That's still all the psycho you get. The Horrorpops have ignored their bad press amongst rockabilly purists and are keeping it lite in their punk-pop antics. Nekroman remains an ace guitarist-alongside Geoff Kresge-and Day has obviously been practicing her own stage prop. The new songs also offer enough atmosphere to do justice to the frontwoman's voice. Perhaps we got it wrong, and Day has really spent all this time posing as the femme Richard Widmark.