The Green Lady Killers song "My 45" is about a badass chick with a big gun who’s having a real bad day. "If I see you walk by / You better run and hide" sings guitarist Lady Van Buren about this most un-lady-like behavior. Together with bass player Annie Venom and drummer Cherry Bomb, the Green Lady Killers sound brings to mind the bad girl pre-Punk of the Runaways and the British Punk Metal of Girls School but filtered through a hard edged style that is all their own. The Green Lady Killers were interviewed on a rainy February night in Arizona outside of a Mesa dive called Hollywood Alley. BOB: The line up was different the first time I’d heard your band. How did this line up come to be?
LADY VAN BUREN: We started out as an all girl band, three piece. And then we went to the line up with the two guys. That was cool, it was a bigger sound. But then we went back to being an all girl three piece. Annie moved here from Chicago a few years ago and we found her on line.
CHERRY BOMB: She had ads up and stuff.
LADY BAN BRUEN: I think this is the best line up that we’ve had. It’s been a little over a year and a half.
BOB: So Lady Van Buren and Cherry Bomb started the band?
LADY VAN BUREN: Yeah, we grew up together.
CHERRY BOMB: Across the street.
BOB: How did you get hooked up with playing the Warped Tour?
LADY VAN BUREN: There’s a band out of New York City called Shiragirl, it’s like crazy rock and pop weirdness. They had a stage at Warped Tour. They wend and demonstrated how there were no women at Warped Tour and crashed it one year. So the guy that puts it on said I want you to be in it now and have a stage.
CHERRY BOMB: They played in the parking lot before that for a couple of years.
LADY VAN BUREN: We entered and out of I don’t know how many bands, but we got selected and we played a couple of dates. Also, our song "Psycho Ellen" was put on their compilation. It was the older, rougher version. It was cool.
CHERRY BOMB: It was fun.
BOB: Where were the dates?
CHERRY BOMB: We did Las Cruces, New Mexico and Phoenix, Arizona.
LADY VAN BUREN: It was so super hot...
CHERRY BOMB: And we partied the night before.
BOB: What time did you go on?
LADY VAN BUREN: 2 pm.
CHERRY BOMB: When it was hot and muggy.
LADY VAN BUREN: Still, it was good exposure.
BOB: What brought you here from Chicago?
ANNIE VENOM: My family, originally. I stayed because at this point, that’s all I got. I’m trying to make it work in Arizona.
BOB: How long have you been playing bass?
ANNIE VENOM: For about sixteen years now.
BOB: Then you’ve been in bands before?
ANNIE VENOM: Oh, yeah. I was in a lot of bands back home.
BOB: Did you always play Rock ‘n Roll?
ANNIE VENOM: Sometimes. Sometimes Emo and Indie rock. I loved Indie rock.
LADY VAN BUREN: She’s a great singer too.
ANNIE VENOM: This is the only band I’ve been in here in Phoenix.
BOB: They found you right away?
ANNIE VENOM: Cherry Bomb located me on MySpace.
BOB: I read that you opened for Missing Persons, did you get to meet Dale Bozzio?
CHERRY BOMB: Dale was there.
LADY VAN BUREN: They were very "all business."
CHERRY BOMB: We saw them backstage.
LADY VAN BUREN: She talked about her cat situation on stage. I thought that was kind of weird.
CHERRY BOMB: Yeah, she’s in a "cat situation."
ANNIE VENOM: She’s got about thirty cats or something and there was an article on Google that she got arrested or something. She went off on that trying to clarify that, I guess.
CHERRY BOMB: As a drummer I was looking forward to seeing Terry Bozzio there with his huge drum kit but he wasn’t there, it was a different drummer. It was still good, though.
BOB: How did you end up with that gig?
LADY VAN BUREN: The promoter just contacted us.
CHERRY BOMB: It was at Club Red.
LADY VAN BUREN: That’s in Tempe, we’ve played there a few times.
BOB: Have you played everywhere there is to play in Phoenix?
LADY VAN BUREN: Pretty much.
CHERRY BOMB: I wish there were more venues downtown.
LADY VAN BUREN: It’s hard...
CHERRY BOMB: A lot of Phoenix venues have shut down.
ANNIE VENOM: I miss the Ruby Room. That was awesome.
BOB: You have an EP out and that’s actually your first recording?
LADY VAN BUREN: Yeah.
BOB: Was it recorded with this line up?
LADY VAN BUREN: No. The EP was recorded with the line up that was four people, two guys and two girls.
CHERRY BOMB: There’s six songs on there, including "Psycho Ellen" which is on the Warped Tour compilation.
BOB: And it’s still available?
LADY VAN BUREN: Yeah, it’s on i tunes.
BOB: And you have a new full length?
LADY VAN BUREN: Yep. We just released that in late September and we did a West Coast tour to promote it.
BOB: What’s the song "Psycho Ellen" about?
LADY VAN BUREN: That was about someone I knew who had a psycho ex-girlfriend. It’s a true story, the lyrics are true. It was about a relationship gone bad. Not my relationship, though.
BOB: What will the band be up to next?
LADY VAN BUREN: We’re in the process of writing a lot of new songs. We’ve had a couple of months off from gigging to concentrate on writing new material and recovering from our tour.
CHERRY BOMB: And then we’re going to play some more tour dates in the summer.
