There have been rumors for a number of years about a new Bitch album, and we are happy to report that the rumors are true! 

This new album is currently untitled, but it is already looking to be the best album that Bitch has yet recorded.  The album will feature a radically-reformulated ALL-STAR LINEUP that features original members Betsy Bitch and Robby Settles on vocals and drums respectively, with the addition of Steve Gaines of thrash bands Abattoir, Bloodlust, and Anger As Art on bass, and Steve Kara (aka István) and Jay Dean, the twin guitar players of the garage/psych/sixties punk band The Electric Prunes, on guitars.

Initial Progress Update:

Over the spring and summer of 2009, current all-star lineup guitarist Steve Kara and original drummer Robby Settles collaborated on thirty-three tracks for possible inclusion in the All-Star Bitch Album, and have the guitar and drum parts for all thirty-three tracks recorded. 

We will be updating on the album’s progress as we receive information, so watch this space.

Update November 9, 2009:

The 33 tracks have been edited down to fifteen. Steve Gaines is currently preparing to go into the studio to record his bass parts, and Jay Dean will simultaneously be recording the lead guitar parts. The two hope to have their parts finished by early December, and next it will be Betsy's turn.

Update March 1, 2010:

More progress! We just confirmed that Betsy went into the studio yesterday (February 28, 2010) to record vocals for the new Bitch album. This was her very first trip into the studio to record vocals for the new album. Betsy commented that "None [of the songs] are complete yet as far as vocals go. [S]ome more instrumentation on some of [the songs still] needs to be recorded."

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The End of the Classic Lineup of Bitch

The last album to be released by the classic Bitch lineup was the A Rose By Any Other Name EP in 1989.  Contrary to popular belief, Bitch did not break up after this release. When the Nineties turned into the infamous anti-metal decade, Bitch wisely kept a low profile instead of going “industrial” or “nu-metal” as the trend dictated.  The band continued to play shows sporadically through the 1990’s and early 2000’s. The members also contributed to some small-time side projects outside of Bitch, with David Carruth founding the more Nineties-friendly band Norman and Betsy joining the all-female ensemble Sister Strange.

At one point in 1999, Bitch was discussing releasing another album with Metal Blade Records.  This ultimately turned out to be an unrealized project, but several songs were written and demo’ed for the album during this time.  The song “Infatuation” was one of the songs the band recorded in this period, and it appeared as a previously unreleased bonus track on Metal Blade Records’ massive 20th Anniversary Box Set (2002).

The classic lineup of Bitch ended with the departure of founding guitar player David Carruth.  The classic lineup played its final show on June 27, 2003, at the Bang Your Head Festival in Balingen, Germany, with a line-up of Betsy, David, Robby, and bass player Johnny Zell. That performance sent the classic Bitch out on top, with their first ever European appearance and their largest audience in attendance to date.  One song from this performance, a version of “Live For the Whip” with a newly written pseudo-rap interlude, appeared in the 2-DVD set The Best of Bang Your Head Festival in 2006.  

The Unusual Reformation of The Electric Prunes

As the classic lineup of Bitch was in its final years, another classic group from Los Angeles had come back together and were going strong.  This band reformed with a vision to purposely turn the concept of the proverbial “oldies act” on its head, operating instead as though they were a young band establishing themselves for the first time.  The band in question is The Electric Prunes, the garage/psychedelic/sixties punk band best known for the 1967 hit “I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night” and the Easy Rider (1969) soundtrack entries “Kyrie Eleison” and “Mardi Gras (When the Saints).”

Original band members Mark Tulin (bass), James Crowe (vocals), and Ken Williams (guitar) added some newer members and released two new studio albums, Artifact (1998) and California (2001), and a handful of live albums.  In 2004, the band hired veteran touring guitarists Steve Kara and Jay Dean to fill out the band’s guitar sound.  The band has toured regularly throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe, released a third LP in 2006 entitled Feedback, and is currently working on a new album that is being produced by Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins fame .

Steve Kara and Jay Dean:
The Two-Headed Guitar Monster
 

The Electric Prunes’ dual guitar players Steve Kara and Jay Dean are both guitar virtuosos with very different backgrounds.  Hungarian-born Steve K. had worked on the final Timothy Leary album, and had a long history working with Jesus Music artists like Larry Norman and Darrell Mansfield.  Jay grew up in LA, was childhood friends with Steve Lukather of Toto, and played in a popular LA club band called The Dirty Dogs, whose lineup featured Nate Winger (brother of Kip) and who recorded a demo with Winger/Ratt/Alice Cooper producer Beau Hill in 1989. 

Steve Kara and Jay Dean found each other and noticed that when they got together to jam, they had an uncanny ability to create a massive, impenetrable wall of sound.  When Steve K. was asked to join the reformed Electric Prunes, he asked to bring Jay with him, and this Two-Headed Guitar Monster has been a powerful weapon for the band ever since.

After the classic line-up of Bitch came to an end, Betsy approached Jay, who was a high school classmate of hers, to fill in on guitar for Bitch.  Initially Jay and another guitar player split guitar duties, but when this guitar player ended up leaving, Jay asked to bring Steve K. on with him, and the Two-Headed Guitar Monster was soon creating another massive wall of sound in Bitch.

Steve Gaines of Abattoir, Bloodlust, and Anger As Art:
Bitch’s first permanent bass player

About the time that Jay Dean initially joined the group, Betsy also asked Steve Gaines to fill in on bass.  The classic lineup always had a rotating bass player issue, and Betsy has counted approximately eighteen bass players that have passed through over the band’s history.  When Gaines joined the group, the rotating bass player issue disappeared.

Steve Gaines is best known as vocalist of the eighties thrash metal bands Abattoir and Bloodlust, and is also frontman of the current metal band Anger As Art.  Steve G. first met Bitch as an admiring young teenage fan, and ended up attending some of the band’s early rehearsals. “I went to a rehearsal, and for the FIRST time, I saw how hard a band worked at rehearsal,” Steve related in an email to the author. “They were drilling the songs, and drilling them hard….A week goes by, and I had become familiar with the[ir] song ‘Riding In Thunder’….The next time I came to one of their rehearsals, Betsy wasn't there.  Me, being arrogant, said, ‘I can sing that song,’ so I did.  I thought I sounded pretty good, but as soon as it was done, Dave Carruth and [Robby Settles] just laid into me about how I wasn't trying very hard, that I should be singing full force at all times, not holding back.  And it stuck with me—how hard I should be working on my craft at all times.  It is a lesson that I live by 27 years later, and I have Bitch to thank for that.”

A short time later, Steve’s band Abattoir was signed to Combat Records, and released the essential early speed metal classic Vicious Attack (1985).  Vicious Attack came under the scrutiny of Tipper Gore’s Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC).  The album’s cover and selected lyrics from the title track were featured in a slideshow presented at the famous PMRC Hearing that took place before the United States Senate on September 19, 1985, and featured testimony from Frank Zappa and Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider.  Steve G. then left Abattoir and joined the thrash metal band Bloodlust, and released the EP Terminal Velocity with them.  Steve would then go on to be involved in a series of bands (including two with Jim Durkin of Dark Angel) before starting his current main band, Anger As Art, in 2003.  

Steve G. first heard that Betsy was building the all-star lineup of Bitch from Bloodlust founder Earl Mendenhall in 2004.  Initially, it was Mendenhall who was going to play bass in the band. When Mendenhall sustained an injury that kept him from filling the position, Steve G. offered to take his place.  Five years later, Steve G. continues to work in the all-star line-up of Bitch, making him the longest-running bass player in the band and their first true permanent bass player.

The band has played numerous club shows in Los Angeles and is now working on the coming All-Star Bitch Album.  Stay tuned for more information…

Written and updated by David Gasten