Venus & the Razorblades

Considered among L.A.’s early punk rings, Venus & the Razor Cutting blades had been a creation of Kim Fowley–the manufacturer/supervisor/songwriter/vocalist who gave us everyone in the Hollywood Argyles (&”Alley Oop”) towards the all-girl hard rock and roll/metal music group The Runaways. Iggy Pop and THE BRAND NEW York Dolls had been among the performers who inspired this short-lived, mainly female clothing, whose best music had been as fun and funny as they had been trashy and decadent. Fowley set up the music group in 1976, when he auditioned a number of artists and finished up employing guitarist/vocalist Steven T., tempo guitarist Roni Lee, bassist Danielle Faye (who was simply with an L.A. music group called Atomic Child), drummer Nickey Defeat (who was simply soon changed by Kyle Raven) and performers Dyan Gemstone and Vicki Arnold, aka Vicki Razor Cutter. Arnold was just 17 when Fowley employed her, and Gemstone was just 14–although her gritty belting sounded just like the function of a female in her early 20s. Fowley created and co-wrote several singles for the music group, including “I Wanna End up being Where The Guys Are” and “Punk-A-Rama” on Bomp and “Pet dog Meals” on Spark. While those singles weren’t big retailers, Venus & the Razor Cutting blades managed to get a small underground cult pursuing before splitting up in 1977. Gemstone went solo the next season, when Fowley created her exceptional but neglected single album, AT NIGHT, for MCA. It had been also in 1978 that Fowley set up the Venus & the Razor Cutting blades collection Music from sunlight Jungle for the Visa label.