Female-fronted Hollywood Punks Invade Highland Park

May 10, 2009 - PRLog -- (Los Angeles, CA)  – Dubbed by U.K. Journalist, Sarah Dobbs as “…shout-along stuff, sleazy rock for playing loud, in darkened rooms", Bull Lee’s origins as collaboration between horror director (BC Furtney) and musician (guitarist, John Dissed) have come around full circle this year. The band has contributed a song to Furtney’s upcoming feature New Terminal Hotel, starring heralded scream queen Tiffany Shepis, Fright Night’s Stephen Geoffreys, Ezra (Hills Have Eyes, Halloween 2) Buzzington and Corey (Lost Boys) Haim.

As shown by The Ramones (“Chainsaw”, “Pet Cemetery”) and The Misfits (“Halloween”, “Vampira”), punk rock and horror have a history of going well together, and this only further establishes the link.

The two friends started writing songs in 2002, and before they knew it over 50 were demoed. Beginning as a hoax studio project with sexy Suicide Girl-types posing as band members online, the band was offered a slot at the 2005 Long Beach Car Show. The girls couldn’t play and singer Rachael Slurr lived in NY, so the guys only had a few months to assemble a real band, and for BC to learn an instrument. He chose bass.

The first recruit, and current backbone of the band’s thunderous live sound, was drummer Kevin Pope, whose punk rock credentials include a stint with Boston’s The Snots, later known as The Dropkick Murphys.

After a drunken and debaucherous desert tour with a new lead singer, the band rocked the car show that summer, and was asked back the following year. Mission accomplished. The only thing missing was the right girl out front…

Enter Trisha Hanudel. Shortly after arriving in Los Angeles in ‘05, following her NYC gallery success as a painter, she was lighting-up stages (sometimes literally) as a member of the sexy-twisted performance art troupe, DMT. Fire-spinning, belly-dancing, anything physical became fair game. Fashion design also crept in, and Trisha launched her own line of clothing, Redrawn Arts (www.redrawnarts.com). Her re-birth as rock n’ roll frontwoman came during a trip to a beachside karaoke bar, where she caught the eyes of BC, Kevin and John.

For the next three years, the quartet destroyed venues throughout the Southwest and released a 2nd album (Bull Lee) in ’07 on their own Bull Lee Records label.

In the meantime, two of Furtney’s shorts were discovered and distributed by Fangoria on their Blood Drive DVD series. He decided to switch his focus back to film and moved to Pittsburgh, PA (where such horror classics as Night of the Living Dead and Martin were born). The move proved successful and in less than 6 months he had written and shot the feature-length psycho-thriller New Terminal Hotel.

With BC gone, the band wasted no time, settling on Mo Berg for the open bass slot. The band’s only LA native, a young Mo was a staple in the classic LA punk scene, and is featured in the film Rock n’ Roll High School as an extra during the band’s historical Roxy performance. A singer-songwriter in his own right, Berg contributes songs and occasional lead vocals.

On February 24 Mohawk Bomb Records released their compilation No Lip Vol.2 featuring Bull Lee’s “Fairfax Ave”. The comp is available via all major online music stores and mohawkbomb.com.

“Enjoy. Share. That’s our motto,” says Mohawk Bomb Records founder, Ivan Pena. “[We are] a new kind of label, focused on sharing new music with the World. Finding new ways to make our artists known. Adopting technology to provide better distribution. We are still a young label, but we hope to bring new music to music lovers all over the World. Spread the word, spread the love.”

Catch Bull Lee live at the Mr. T’s Bowl on Thursday, May 14, or go to myspace.com/bulllee to stream “Fairfax Ave” and other original songs. This band has plenty of rock n’ roll morsels of love to spread.

The Bull Lee CD is available online at www.cdbaby.com and at the iTunes Music Store.

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Bull Lee Records is a DIY label established in 2004 by Bull Lee guitarist John Dissed and original bassist/writer/director BC Furtney.