photos: Lucky Lawler©

Good Clean Fun! (Yeah, my ass!) Lucky interviews Slunt This month's search for true Waste rock brought us to heavy rockin', crazy, bad, hard as nails Slunt. Down at Finally Fred's on Washington St., this is a really cool hang out where you can listen to bands and tip your favorite bar tender! Charles, drummer for Slunt, happens to be the bartender here at Fred's... (update: Fred's has now closed! Bah, Humbug!) Abby Gennet: I play Guitar & lead Vocals - influences, Jimmy Page. (floating voice in the background with deep echo on the PA: "Barbara Streisand" everyone falls around laughing) Jenny Gunns: I'm bass Guitar, vocals & inspirational cartwheels! Pat Harrington: And that they are, very inspirational. Hi, I'm pat, I play guitar. Charles Ruggiero: and I play the drums. They call me 'Big Chaaahls'. And where does 'Big Chaaahls' come from? Ch: That is info Iím not willing to disclose... Okay, be like that. Jenny, what happened to Dirty Mary? Jen: Dirty Mary just did a gig last week! Nothing is dead! Slunt's just doing a lot of stuff right now. Pat, you were in a boy band before... I mean a 'man' band! Pat: Yeah, 98 degrees Ch: Yeah, 98 inches of loin! (Dirty laugh all round.) Pat: I originate from the Gaggle of Cocks. Ch: We were in the middle of recording our new demo/record and Karen Curious from the New Professionals was in the band at the time and felt like she needed to do her own thing. We love the New Professionals. Pat: I love you Karen... Ab: We love you... Ch: We all do... We wanted to find a bass player and we wanted someone who was preferably female. Ab: Yeah, a hot female with nice jugs! Haha! Jenny, I love you dark! It brings out your wonderful smile and your generous mouth! Ch: It can unhinge too, for the right man... I do want that to go on record. Ch: I still want to get on record that Jenny Gunns was the missing piece to make this band go from just being a really good band to what I feel is being a really great band. What she ads to the groove... Abby & Charles, you two are the originators? Ab: Yes, we started off as a three piece with Adam Small playing the bass. Ch: Who we also love. Ab: Yes, but we went our separate ways and then Karen (Curious, New Professionals) came along. Then we decided to add another guitar so I could focus more on singing and not worry about my hands messing up. And then we saw this motherfucker. Your hands messing up? Oh, you mean the guitar, not your nails. Ab: I don't care about my nails. (in a girly voice) I'm not a girly girl like that! (shrieks of laughter in background, she has to be the most girly girl in all the bands in NYC!) Ab: Well, looks are deceiving. I have that nice Jewish girl look but... Ch: Nice Jewish girl, my ass! That was the last thing I was thinking of! (hoots of laughter!) Ch: Yeah, bullshit! Jen: It's true, we're both nice Jewish girls! Ab: It's true, people look at me all the time, they think I'm just a nice Jewish girl from Miami. Ch: (seriously now) It's amazing, because when we first started, Abby came to me and said 'I have some songs that I want to play, that I want to record' By the way, I must say, Pat too really adds (is really great.) the addition of the two of them is fantastic! Ab: Let me tell you how we found Pat. I was out at Don Hill's and was happened to catch a Gaggle of Cocks show, I was watching him play guitar and thought, you know what, that's what I need! And all of a sudden the stage caught on fire and there was smoke everywhere. Ch: Is this really true? I never heard this story. Ab: Yes! The smoke machine underneath the stage had a mishap and the bartender rushed in with a fire extinguisher. Ch: That is rock'n'roll right there! Ab: They stopped the show, threw on the brite lights which totally ruined the vibe. The white stuff went all over the place. I went over to Pat and said, 'that was hot!' Jen: I met Abby about five years ago at a Ratt show in the parking lot in NJ. I said 'yadayadayada' and she flashed me her boobs! Which is kinda cute too, because five years later we're in Cleveland at a 7/11 and she's flashing me her boobs still to this day! Ab: I'm a flasher by nature! Ch: I'm a ball flasher, I whip my nuts out all the time! Ab: I've seen them! Ch: She has seen them! Jen: I think I've seen pictures of them! Ab: We call him the Flying Squirrel! Ch: I have countless pictures of them as matter of fact. Do you have a hang-up about being Jewish, as in all these Catholic school children that become incredible punks, they have to destroy it and spend their life being anti-christ. Ab: No, but I always wanted to go to confession. JenPat: (A true Irish lad) We want school girls, yeah! Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Ab: I always wanted to be like FlashDancer and sin thinking of a man. Jen: We're doing a gig with Satanacide on December 13th at North Six. They are the best! I really love them! Yeah, with that name they must be Catholic raised! On the NYC Rock n Roll compilation CD that has just been released... Ab: Yeah, Steve Blush is really getting the community together and pushing everyone and getting us out there. Slunt, Sex Slaves, Queen V and possibly Joker Five Speed (who will be in LA) are off to Utah in January. Park City and Salt Lake City. Ah, Mormon country. Ch: You know what though, Mormon girls fuck! I had the best sex in my life with a Mormon girl! Ab: For the record I've never fucked a Mormon girl! But, I'm young. Ch: We're looking to incorporate some LA gigs while we are over there. Pat: The thing is we just finished our five song EP which you can pick up at www.Slunt.net for five dollars. Why is your website, www.slunt.net and not .com? Ch: The real reason is because Abby is partial to fish NET stockings! Slunt.NET! On Moms... Jen: You know what my mom said to me? She was looking at the website and some of the photographs and she's like: 'you didn't dress like that in Dirty Mary!' JenPat: 'Well, I used to be Dirty and now I'm a Slunt.' Jen: My mom is a huge supporter of Rock. My mom Rocks! Ch: My mom would've. She would've been so supportive of this band. She died a few years ago. Pat: My mom loves Cocks, but now she's got a thing for Slunt! All: To Rock'n'Roll moms! Ch: My mom was definitely a rock'n'roll mom. Like when I got into Jazz, she was like, 'never forget that your first ever favorite drummer was Keith Moon!' I was a real Who-head. Jen: I was a huge Dokken fan. Then I went to high school and it was all Punk Rock. It was all Dead Boys and all that crap. Ch: I was too. Ratt, Dokken, they were my two. I would sit and draw drumsets in detention. I would draw what kind of drumset I would play when I finally got there. I was horrible at school. All the teachers loved me, but I was already a real rabble rouser! Thatís why I'm a drummer. I would get detention, and if you skipped detention you would get a Saturday detention which was like a breakfast club. From 8 in the morning til 12. and then I would skip that! Which brought me to 'in school' detention where you would spend the whole day in this little room. And all the detention ladies loved us because we were such bad-asses. They would say to us, 'donít tell anybody, but we love you the most!' You know what I mean? 'cause we were just fun. Abby your history? Weren't you a VJ on VH1? Ab: I was, not anymore though, that was like a year ago. I was on MTV2, MTV also, and VH1. It was just a little summer thing. Right now I'm working on Slunt and doing some commercials. I just did a Sony commercial with a little blue alien who's really cute. Ch: Who you actually have a crush on. Jen: She got jealous the next day when other models were posing with this little blue alien. Ch: 'Thatís my blue alien!' Ab: 'Get off of him, bitch!' Jen: I would like to state for the record that Charles rules! He really is so awesome to work with. Now, remember folks, he was NY Waste's barmen of the month not so long ago! Ab: Should have been 'dirty bar slut fucker of the month!' Pat: With regard to Jenny and I, coming in from different bands, we kinda look at it, well I look at it like this, because of my experience as a front person and Jenny's experience as a front person... Ch: And actually mine also, because I've led bands too. Pat: The point is, Charles being one of the most incredible drummers in this city, this really is a NY Super Group! It's like taking Eric Clapton and the other cats and putting together Cream, this is what you're looking at with Slunt. And I think when you hear the CD, the results show, it's one of the best recorded, best sound... Weíre putting together a Slunt video which is going to blow everyone away! We figure between the NY Rock n Roll compilation and our five song EP, we're basically saturation the market right now and we're going to take the motherfucker over! On women in rock... Ab: NY City is full of hard working women! But for some reason the record companies aren't signing them... Ch: Yes, in the NY City Rock'n'Roll compilation, there's only eight bands that don't have women in them. Jen: And there's only two bands that don't have Pete playing drums. (Laughter all round) Ch: Here's to Pete for being in every single rock 'n' roll band in NY City! Jen: Pete rocks! Pat: Yeah, let's just say right now, for the record Pete from Meow Mix, Pete the drummer, Pete in every band. Where are all the female drummers? Ch: Mary from the Slags is my favorite drummer in NYC. Pat: Mary Katherine is not just an excellent female, she's one of the best drummers in NY. Ch: Absolutely, she's got a big fat groove! I love watching her play! Jen: And Dirty Mary's Carrie. And Sarah Vasil from The Drive is a good one. Describe your music. (pregnant silence) Jen: One of my friends heard our music the other week and said it was like beer and Aquanet. Ch: I used to take Aquanet and spray it on my pants and light my pants on fire. Pat: I did it with gasoline once. Jen: You said 'once'! Pat: I was driving, pulled into a gas station. I needed to get gas. Jen: Oh, no. You mean you didn't pull up to get more beer? Pat: (ignoring that remark) So I was filling up the car and the gas spilled right on my jeans. So now I'm sitting there and I've got gas on my jeans, I need to go out. I'm stinking of gas. I've got gas all over me, and I don't want to go home to get changed, and even if I did that, I couldn't put the gas jeans with my laundry because it would fuck my whole scene up, so I said the only logical explanation is to light the bitch on fire. Which is exactly what I did. I took our my lighter and l lit my jeans on fire. Bitch? Your jeans are female? Pat: So I took out my lighter and I lit up my jeans. Jen: This is rational when you are drunk. JenPat: (still ignoring it) Don't try this at home. Jenny, do you feel smarter as a brunette? Jen: I've definitely gained some IQs. Ch: When I was looking at the NYCRnR compilation and the pictures of each of the bands. I looked and I didn't even realize it was Dirty Mary, and I was 'Who is that blond girl?' and then I was like 'Fuck! It's Jenny, damn it!' The good thing about these girls, not including Charles, because he's not a girl, but, I've been in (man) bands who were bigger pussies that these girls. These girls got more rock than most guys out there! Ab: We've got big balls. Ch: I actually do have a big set of nuts! (hoots of laughter!) Ab: I just have one big one. Where do you keep it? Ab: To the left. I suck it in for the shows. Ch: I tape it down! Merry Xmas & happy Hanukkah. I let them go and they went merrily on to their way to rehearsal where they wrote a new song, no doubt called 'Good Monkey' January 14th Slunt will be hookin' up with Joker Five Speed in LA to do a gig at Dragonfly. They will also be doing a show at the SLAMDANCE Film Festival in Park City Utah on January 17th as part of the Steve Blush's NYCRNR extravaganza. And on January 19th at the Viper Room in LA with Metal Shop, should be a good one! Their 5 song EP is available at www.slunt.net, along with t-shirts and SLUNT panties! www.slunt.net www.newyorkcityrocknroll.com BACK TO HOME