The Mydols have been a solid presence on the Detroit scene for a few years, and have also gained national attention, appearing on The Today Show, Inside Edition and CBS Early Morning, as well as in People and the Wall Street Journal.
The thing that initially grabs people's attention is that they are on the forefront of a musical movement that has been referred to as "momrock", suburban moms who are forming a bands and rocking out while still taking care of their kids. The Mydols may fit into that niche, but the fact remains that they also play great punk rock.
I connected with singer Kara Rasmussen, and we chatted about momrock, and their upcoming Mamapalooza show.
RC: How did you guys get together?
KR: It started with Judy, our guitarist, and we each know her from something different. My husband has been friends with her and her husband for twenty something years, and Judy and I, when I first had my kids, started going to shows together, seeing bands.
RC: And what lead to you forming a band?
KR: I think it first started out as kind of a joke, like Judy said, "We should have a mom's band", and we started talking about what we'd call it, and we came up with the Mydols. One of our favorite bands is the Cramps, and Mydols was cramp relief.
RC: How much musical experience did you guys have leading up to that?
KR: Nobody in our band had really played an instrument before. Paige had played cello at the university, other than that none of us did. Judy had just got a guitar for Christmas and started taking guitar lessons. I think she had taken a few lessons and decided that she wanted to be in a band.
For me, when I first started in the band I was going to be the drummer, and then the bass player and then the singer. We all had to figure out which roles we were good in.
RC: So you guys just picked it up and started playing out?
KR: Yep.
RC: And now you have two albums and a couple of singles that just came out recently.
KR: Actually three. We had a Christmas single called "Merry Frickin' Christmas", our Super Bowl song "Thank God For The Super Bowl," and then "Roller Derby Queen".
RC: You did "Roller Derby Queen" for the Detroit Roller Girls?
KR: Yeah, originally my husband wrote the song for the girls when they first started talking about starting a league. He wrote and recorded the song, and they adopted the song as theirs - his version of it. Then the Mydols stole the song from him, we recorded it, and we started getting attention from other roller girls. We went and played to 5,000 roller girls in Minnesota, and the Detroit Roller Girls adopted our version as their song.
RC: And "Thank God For The Superbowl", you put that out because Super Bowl was coming to Detroit?
KR: I don't think we had anything going on, and Jimmy Kimmell was in Detroit, and someone said to us, "I bet if you had a funny Super Bowl song, you could get on Jimmy Kimmel." So my husband, overnight, rewrote one of our earlier songs, rewrote the words and changed the tempo, and it became "Thank God For The Superbowl". We never got on Jimmy Kimmel but we got a lot of attention.
RC: A lot of times when the Mydols get mentioned, they use the word "Mommyrock" to describe you. What does that mean?
KR: I don't know. Sometimes I think we only get attention because of this shtick. You know, we're moms, and we're doing something different, we inspire other women. And you know, the different age groups in our band, picking up an instrument when you're 40 and learning to play it. I think it's inspiring to women. What do you think Momrock is?
RC: I think maybe too much attention gets put on who you are outside of the band. When I hear the Mydols, I don't hear a shtick. I hear good rock and roll.
KR: That's what I think, too. I mean we try to make our songs funny and different, but we're definitely not a kids' band. We have a few kids' songs, maybe, but I don't feel comfortable playing in front of kids.
RC: So the mom and the band is two separate worlds?
KR: Two separate worlds.
RC: And now you guys have a box set coming out?
KR: We have our Pop Tartz box set, which has everything that we've done - Sally Has A Kitchen Accident, Born To Iron, and all the singles we've put out.
