L.A. BEAT : PANDORAS--’BAD GIRLS’ JUST WANNA ROCK

“When we played Huntington Beach it was like we were a sex act,” recalls 20-year-old Paula Pierce, founder of the female quartet the Pandoras. “The whole audience was guys and they all sat down in front of the stage trying to look up our dresses. There’s still some of that male thing going on.”

Despite the success of female groups like the Go-Go’s and the Bangles, Paula Pierce and her Pandora partners--keyboardist Melanie Bammen, bassist Julie Patchouli and drummer Karen Blankfeld--have found that there are still some audiences that can’t get beyond the gender gap. At the same time, Pierce doesn’t want fans to ignore the female aspect.

“A lot of them don’t even care that we’re girls,” she says with a grin. “And that’s kind of weird, I think. I like being a girl.”

Indeed, being a girl is part of the point of the Pandoras.

“I always wanted to have this kind of a band,” explains Pierce. “Even when I was playing with other groups, I used to think, ‘Why am I doing this? I know what I really want to do. I want to be the Chocolate Watchband--only with girls.’ There were no girl bands that were influenced by the Standells and the Seeds. Girl bands sounded like girl bands.”

The Pandoras are one all-female outfit that sounds nothing like the cliched image of a “girl group.” There are no pretty harmonies, no delicate pop melodies. On vinyl and on stage the quartet delivers the goods with a garage-band intensity that’s fueled by grungy guitars, raspy vocals and fuzzy, distorted amps. The mixture is made especially raw through the use of vintage Vox equipment, the mainstay of countless ‘60s bands. The result--called “hard-core frug music” by one critic--is timelessly teen-age in spirit and delivery.

And the Pandoras do more than just borrow the musical style of ‘60s punk acts like the Seeds and the Standells. They also reflect some of the same bad-boy outlook--only in reverse.

“We have a really chauvinistic attitude, almost like we were males,” says Pierce. ‘We take a stance like the Standells, like, ‘Get out of here, baby. I’m the best.’ And other girls can relate to that. Instead of being like the Go-Go’s or somebody that talks about guys using them, we’re talking about using guys. Girls feel that way. They’re put into the category of only being the little housewife. Now they can look up to somebody who isn’t a typical girl.”

Just as the Pandoras’ message is atypical, so is their approach to their main influences--the scores of lesser-known ‘60s acts such as the Humane Society, the Durty Words, the Live Wires, the Squires, ? and the Mysterians, the Chocolate Watchband and, of course, the Seeds. And while that link with the past is the spark that lights the Pandoras’ fire, this isn’t mere revisionist rock. In fact, some ‘60s purists don’t care for the band at all.

“I think that people who are trying to be really authentic don’t like us,” says Pierce. ‘They’d rather see bands who play only ‘60s cover tunes and are exactly like Sky Saxon (of the Seeds). We mix up all our influences and come up with something of our own. Anyway, it’s pointless (to duplicate a sound). If it was so great, you’ll never be able to be as good. You should just do your own thing.”

Doing her own thing was not always easy for Paula Pierce, who started the Pandoras in the spring of 1983 after moving to Hollywood from Chino. A year later the band had recorded an EP (“I’m Here, I’m Gone” on Moxie Records) and an album (“It’s About Time” on Voxx Records). Despite the interest that the LP stirred up, Pierce decided to break up the original band.

“The (other original Pandoras) were going in a more heavy-metal direction,” she says. “This band is more compatible musically. We all like the same sort of music and everyone can hear the right parts in their heads.”

Adds bassist Patchouli, 21, who cites the 13th Floor Elevators’ leader Roky Erickson as one of her role models: “I was interested in joining girl bands for a long time but I couldn’t find any that were interested in this kind of music. They were all into pop, like the Go-Go’s and the Bangles--you know, generic rock.”

Within two months of the re-formation of the band last summer, Paula and her Pandoras had recorded a single (“Hot Generation”/”You Don’t Satisfy” on Voxx), debuted live locally, and set off for a tour of the East Coast.

Meanwhile, the former Pandoras, led by keyboardist Gwynne Kelly, continue to play locally, and still use the Pandoras name even though all the original songs on the “It’s About Time” album were written by Pierce. As a result, many clubs have begun labeling the acts “Paula’s Pandoras” and “Gwynne’s Pandoras.”

While the name game has yet to be settled, Paula Pierce and her Pandoras are riding high, continuing to mine the past for future fans--some of whom have never heard of Sky Saxon.

“Some people don’t know what we’re doing,” observes Bammen, 18. “They think we’re punk-rock or new wave.”

It’s not surprising if some fans are confused. In both sound and look, the Pandoras carry things to extremes.

“It was tame back then, the way girls dressed,” says Pierce. “They would wear a dress to their knees and think it was short. We wear much shorter dresses and wilder colors. Guys were cool though, in the ‘60s.”