Welcome to Big John Bates & the Voodoo Dollz


	Click on a photo above to send a message to Brandy Battery, Big John Bates, Little Miss Risk or JT Brander Excerpt from 'Blues Fell This Morning' by Paul Oliver (CAMBRIDGE PUBLISHING): "Some blues players worked in the medicine shows and the touring carnivals ... in these shows vaudeville singers and tent-show burlesque entertainers met the blues singers and absorbed the elements of their music. Bringing to it the professional qualities of deliberate artistry, they laid the foundations of the 'Classic Blues', which bridged the gap between blues and the world of entertainment." FLAMETHROWER: 2001-2003 - the beginings of BJB's punk blues Flamethrower was recorded in two days at Vancouver's Columbia Academy for $200 on 4 spools of used 2" tape. It was mixed at Mushroom Studios by Pete Wonsiack and Big John on a long weekend for another grand, like hard-tail rawk ‘n roll should be. Bates was playing with bassist Sandy "Sandman" Matusik & drummer Brian "the Drum" Irwin and they had done maybe 20 shows across the west coast to SLC. At the same time John's wife aka Bombshell Betty (not from the '66 Fury incident at the drive-thru Chapel in Vegas) was an exotic dancer playing it straight and she & John were hip to the second wave of burlesque rolled thru Vancouver. John had been gifted a broken old upright by his friend 12 Midnite when Betty introduced him to Caroline Helmeczi. And Caroline wanted to learn upright and tour so he nick-named her sCare-oline and started teaching her the songs while she picked the brains of the upight players she met on the road. BJB & the Dollz hit the stage NYE 2001; Big John, sCare-oline, the Drum with dancing from Bombshell Betty & Veronica Vicious. They did couple of short tours down the coast where they were filmed for a French TV show on Las Vegas while playing an early show there. But after getting a talented burlesque dancer from the UK named L'il Baby Chaos (and a spiffy red Suburban she named Sherman) they started to really kick up the show. On that trip they were asked to play at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City between gigs and got a big article in Mclean's Magazine back home in Canada. The tour also saw the band performing early on around L.A. with bands like Robert Gordon, the Guana Bats, Slim Jim Phantom and Deadbolt. And BJB's early style had started getting critical reviews through the kustom kulture scene. There was nothing like this show anywhere and Flamethower was soon picked up by Spain's El Toro Records. After finding the next drummer, Calgary's Ricardo Calderon, at a McDonald's in Vancouver, El Toro invited BJB to Europe for the first time. And the first show? The 10th Annual Psychomeeting in Calella. This amazing festival also featured bands like Demented Are Go, Frenzy and Restless and afterwards Sparky from Demented proclaimed to anyone listening that BJB was the best thing at the festival. Killer old-school sound with a sexy show that no one had tried before. Thru friends like the Raymen the band was developed by Jens Pruditsch from Truemmer Promotions in Germany. The 2002 EU tour saw the band play Belgium, Holland and Germany including BJB at Belgium's Sjock Festival, playing a headlining slot between Belgian roots-rockers the Seatsniffers and America's New Bomb Turks. Mystiki is where the band's original style really took off but that could be because the record was actually recorded TWICE. Over a 9-month period, in three studios with two different drummers (Kermit & Ricardo) and engineers, the whole picture was brought together sonically by Big John & Todd Simko (Pure, Xavier Rudd). Financed and released worldwide by BJB's own Devil Sauce Recordings, Mystiki took the band a lot farther sonically and away from the old-school psychobilly rock of Flamethrower. They played with time signatures, electric and upright basses. Jesse James of the Spectres co-wrote and sang Pure Evil with John while he wrote the song that would help incorporate sCare-oline's belly-dancing into the group; Whiplash. But before Mystiki was even released the band needed a new drummer. Stuart "L'il Bastard' Quayle had just weeks to learn the 75 minute set before being onstage to headline a Vegas show at Mandalay Bay/House of Blues. The infamous 2002 Hellbilly Halloween apparently even impressed Danzig as he walked out of his show on the previous night. But it was a monster in the making, the dancers were stopped during the show by management due to complaints that the show was too risqué. Maybe the vinyl nurses and nuns were a bit much for the Vegas Disney aspirations, but either way the girls still did their final number on the floor in front of the stage - and the security. MYSTIKI: 2003 - 2005 After its 2003 release Mystiki wound up all over internet playlists and charted for weeks in the top 50 College Charts. Vancouver was really a supportive home to the band even though a lot of people from there thought the band was American because they were playing more shows on the road than at home. But with supporters like Ray Condo and the Railway Club’s roots scene the band was doing well. Two new dancers were recruited by sCare-oline, Jailbait Jenny and Rowdy Rosie. Bad Girls Go To Hell indeed. In one hard year these two hipsters helped the group begin to take the underground by storm and see themselves featured in a number of major articles and even in a coffee-table book on burlesque. John flew to Los Angeles as part of the A&E/Discovery documentary on Russ Meyer just before his death. Why? Because B-movies were a huge part of BJB's lyrics and many early performnces were from celluloid 60's exploitation flicks. Touring kicked way up and the group was now playing over 100 shows a year in North America and Europe, supporting bands like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Dave Alvin and Los Straitjackets. They did their first two shows in the UK with King Kurt and the Waltons. John also began working with Frank Weipert, a major fixture in Canadian music (Mathew Good, Lowest of the Low, Jim Rose Circus Sideshow). Another successful European tour in 2004 culminated in a sold-out Zurich show at Mascotte to 500 that they considered their best to date. Then Gregory "Stagecoach" Mcdonald took the throne after he had supported BJB playing keys with local Vancouver heroes John Ford. They did a short Western tour that saw them play with the Southern Rock All-Stars (the encore was the singer from Molly Hatchet and Big John doing a duet to Kiss' Rock And Roll All Night) before they were introduced to a wide-eyed audience in Scandinavia in December 2004. TAKE YOUR MEDICINE: 2005 - 2006 Touring was hard with many different dancers but now a pair of well-loved sisters known as the Luvrocs joined the group - and they have been back again and again. And sCare-oline inducted the third-long-term member of the group, Little Miss Risk - pin-up, burlesque dancer, model, art student. That's a lot of hats. She and her first touring partner, Starlet Bourbon (now a writer for music magazines) pulled out all the stops while the group relentlessly criss-crossed North America. Playing 120 live shows in a row to many different audiences led the band to experiment a lot. Musically as well as visually. Some of that showed up in the spreads on teh band in the infamous Bizarre Magazine. John had also been bringingin a lot of new songs to reflect those changes and he decided it was time to begin again and track the newest songs. Shooting for a real lo-fi production with a strong live feel they began by recording the vintage drums of Take Your Medicine straight to mono with engineer Marc Lesperance. The feel was continued by John's customized vintage Guild Thunderbird amp, '59 Gretsch and by scalding the vocals through tube compressors. Coming from somewhere between the White Sripes, Go-Getters, Eagles of Death Metal and SCOTS - was Take Your Medicine. The Medicine CD started off with an angry, cursing, female voice mail and busted wide open into a song that got a lot of underground attention - Aren't You Pretty. It also included the band’s first video number - Burlesque Is Dead. The album was released on Germany's Wolverine Records which meant the band could return to the continent where their name and popularity had been growing while they were away. But first ... Stagecoach left the group to play keys with Sloan so Chris 'The Baron' Warunki was recruited for a tour with L'il Luvroc and Little Miss Risk who delighted in tormenting him, continued across Europe by Darla Divine. The band also had their first experience touring with a support group, the Glasseyes. Just off shows with the Dresden Dolls, the Glasseyes were a breath of fresh air for Western Canada. When they got back to Europe, clubs were more than ready for the BJB & the Dollz new live show. The record charted on blues radio, college radio, internet radio and specialty shows. It was featured on playlists from rock'n'roll to blues to garage. This led to bigger, faster and tighter shows than ever. At the end of the tour they returned to Vancouver to document the first chapter in the world of Big John Bates & the Voodoo Dollz with the DVD Live at the Voodoo Ball. LIVE AT THE VOODOO BALL: Live at the Voodoo Ball was an astonishing undertaking as the band was in Europe during the inception and only arrived back in Vancouver a few days before the June 2006 concert. Marcus Rogers from Cinestir Productions was in charge of the five-camera crew, the Hive brought in the RADAR and the venue was arguably the best live club in Vancouver - the infamous Richard's on Richards. Two levels seated over 400 and were decorated by friend from the devilish Sin City in the best macabre fashion. The DVD features 15 tracks (from all three albums) selected and mixed by John and Todd Simko from including seven infamous Voodoo Doll numbers and at least six different dancers. The band was rolling fast & hard and there were no overdubs. More proof that this punk blues/rock'n'roll/burlesque show is one of a kind. BANGTOWN: 2006 - 2009 Summer 2006 saw L'il Bastard back to hold the reins until JT Brander could get ready. JT had been interested in the band for a few years and the moment John saw him playing the plan came together. But even though John and sCare-oline liked JT’s playing they had to turn the ex-pounder from the Real Mackenzies into a swing player. Plus it was time for a complete re-vamping of the performance art/burlesque. Choreography and costumes are always changing but Little Miss Risk was developing a real focus and the Voodoo Ball had put a lot of numbers to bed. Also Gretsch Guitars had recognized and begun sponsoring John and he made a splash in their calender, topping the Falcon page. Another 100+ shows in '06 and '07 and the band began playing large North American festivals. Their favorite Canadian show was headlining Alberta's 2007 North Country Fair with Little Miss Risk and Camero Luvroc. Imagine 4000 people & their shrooms having one hell of a good time. The next morning the promoters thanked John and said they were unprepared for a show of that much impact, and that they had no way to top BJB’s show for the following year. The band followed that with more performances at festivals that were outside of the scenes they were used to, finally they were over being a genre band. Their daytime appearance at Santa Monica's Summer Strummer festival was the biggest surprise of the entire event and they were becoming almost regulars on Vancouver's Urban Rush TV show. 2008 saw the year begin with the Second Annual Voodoo Ball (18 months after the first), a midwestern US tour then two months in Europe. The band was still finding their best audiences in Europe but there were great pockets of support developing everywhere. BJB & the Dollz were also notable at the biggest Kustom Kulture show around - the '08 Ink & Iron Festival on the Queen Mary - in Long Beach, CA playing with bands like Mad Sin, Junior Brown and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. So it was time for a new album and even more of a departure. John wanted a house-rockin' feel so they found a real house in East Van and loaded it with gear. The list of players on this release is a total A-team including Jimmy Roy on pedal steel (Ray Condo, Big Sandy), Jenn Chycoski on 60's Yamaha (Choir Practice) and Braden McNichol (Cuban Neckties) singing with John on Priest's "Breaking the Law". As on Mystiki there are two drummers, L'il Bastard sits in for two songs and JT does the rest. Todd was the man with the plan although John again chose to have other engineers. Plus the relaxed atmosphere gave them a chance to record extras such as the slightly hilarious BJB Xmas song "One Horse Slay", a rocking version of "Poppa Spoonful" (originally on Take Your Medicine) and a kick ass mix of Johnny Cash's mighty, "Boy Named Sue". As a co-release between Germany's Rookie Records and Stag-o-lee (Glitterhouse), the album was released in Europe in April. It was also released by Devil's Ruin in the USA. And it was time for sCare-oline's final tour. After touring for 8 years with John she chose not to murder him but to take some time to herself and hang up her well-beaten upright. The first six months of '09 were relentless, touring across North America from Seattle to Vegas to Florida to Chicago and back across Canada. Then Europe for six weeks, highlighted by Holland's Ribs & Blues Festival with the Blasters & Solomon Burke. Or maybe the Blues Festival that saw them between th' Legendary Shack Shakers and Koko Taylor. There were suddenly a lot more places that wanted Big John Bates & the Voodoo Dollz at their festivals and parties. The European tour did so well that the band returned two months later with a different bassist, Missoula MT's Brandy Battery. Her band had opened for BJB & the Dollz on the first date of the US tour & John realized she was a natural. So a short Canadian tour in July '09 was booked to get Brandy perpared for the road and ready for the biggest shows of the band's career. They were supporting Germany's Boss Hoss, a million-selling band playing amphitheatres on a summer tour for audiences from 2,000 to 13,000. And just to sweeten the deal, Jens had them headlining the first Stag-o-lee Festival with the Fuzztones and to 10,000 people at the 33rd Stemwede Festival. CLOCKWORK BLUES: 2010 - present Little Miss Risk's production of the final Voodoo Ball went down on Feb 5th at the Rickshaw Theatre in Vancouver in front of over 300 people, 5 HD Cinestir cameras and with Todd Simko again in charge of BJB's audio. The 2010 DVD "Clockwork Blues" is slated to be released for the September world tour. Meanwhile, back at the Tarantella, BJB & Miss Battery have been writing some wicked new songs for the upcoming tour. Plans are for a new 7" release on the tour and it will get everyone ready for a big new album in 2011. Stay tuned!!

Click on a photo above to send a message to Brandy Battery, Big John Bates, Little Miss Risk or JT Brander

Excerpt from 'Blues Fell This Morning' by Paul Oliver (CAMBRIDGE PUBLISHING):

"Some blues players worked in the medicine shows and the touring carnivals ... in these shows vaudeville singers and tent-show burlesque entertainers met the blues singers and absorbed the elements of their music. Bringing to it the professional qualities of deliberate artistry, they laid the foundations of the 'Classic Blues', which bridged the gap between blues and the world of entertainment."

FLAMETHROWER: 2001-2003 - the beginings of BJB's punk blues

Flamethrower was recorded in two days at Vancouver's Columbia Academy for $200 on 4 spools of used 2" tape. It was mixed at Mushroom Studios by Pete Wonsiack and Big John on a long weekend for another grand, like hard-tail rawk ‘n roll should be. Bates was playing with bassist Sandy "Sandman" Matusik & drummer Brian "the Drum" Irwin and they had done maybe 20 shows across the west coast to SLC. At the same time John's wife aka Bombshell Betty (not from the '66 Fury incident at the drive-thru Chapel in Vegas) was an exotic dancer playing it straight and she & John were hip to the second wave of burlesque rolled thru Vancouver. John had been gifted a broken old upright by his friend 12 Midnite when Betty introduced him to Caroline Helmeczi. And Caroline wanted to learn upright and tour so he nick-named her sCare-oline and started teaching her the songs while she picked the brains of the upight players she met on the road. BJB & the Dollz hit the stage NYE 2001; Big John, sCare-oline, the Drum with dancing from Bombshell Betty & Veronica Vicious.

They did couple of short tours down the coast where they were filmed for a French TV show on Las Vegas while playing an early show there. But after getting a talented burlesque dancer from the UK named L'il Baby Chaos (and a spiffy red Suburban she named Sherman) they started to really kick up the show. On that trip they were asked to play at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City between gigs and got a big article in Mclean's Magazine back home in Canada. The tour also saw the band performing early on around L.A. with bands like Robert Gordon, the Guana Bats, Slim Jim Phantom and Deadbolt. And BJB's early style had started getting critical reviews through the kustom kulture scene. There was nothing like this show anywhere and Flamethower was soon picked up by Spain's El Toro Records.

After finding the next drummer, Calgary's Ricardo Calderon, at a McDonald's in Vancouver, El Toro invited BJB to Europe for the first time. And the first show? The 10th Annual Psychomeeting in Calella. This amazing festival also featured bands like Demented Are Go, Frenzy and Restless and afterwards Sparky from Demented proclaimed to anyone listening that BJB was the best thing at the festival. Killer old-school sound with a sexy show that no one had tried before. Thru friends like the Raymen the band was developed by Jens Pruditsch from Truemmer Promotions in Germany. The 2002 EU tour saw the band play Belgium, Holland and Germany including BJB at Belgium's Sjock Festival, playing a headlining slot between Belgian roots-rockers the Seatsniffers and America's New Bomb Turks.

Mystiki is where the band's original style really took off but that could be because the record was actually recorded TWICE. Over a 9-month period, in three studios with two different drummers (Kermit & Ricardo) and engineers, the whole picture was brought together sonically by Big John & Todd Simko (Pure, Xavier Rudd). Financed and released worldwide by BJB's own Devil Sauce Recordings, Mystiki took the band a lot farther sonically and away from the old-school psychobilly rock of Flamethrower. They played with time signatures, electric and upright basses. Jesse James of the Spectres co-wrote and sang Pure Evil with John while he wrote the song that would help incorporate sCare-oline's belly-dancing into the group; Whiplash.

But before Mystiki was even released the band needed a new drummer. Stuart "L'il Bastard' Quayle had just weeks to learn the 75 minute set before being onstage to headline a Vegas show at Mandalay Bay/House of Blues. The infamous 2002 Hellbilly Halloween apparently even impressed Danzig as he walked out of his show on the previous night. But it was a monster in the making, the dancers were stopped during the show by management due to complaints that the show was too risqué. Maybe the vinyl nurses and nuns were a bit much for the Vegas Disney aspirations, but either way the girls still did their final number on the floor in front of the stage - and the security.

MYSTIKI: 2003 - 2005

After its 2003 release Mystiki wound up all over internet playlists and charted for weeks in the top 50 College Charts. Vancouver was really a supportive home to the band even though a lot of people from there thought the band was American because they were playing more shows on the road than at home. But with supporters like Ray Condo and the Railway Club’s roots scene the band was doing well. Two new dancers were recruited by sCare-oline, Jailbait Jenny and Rowdy Rosie. Bad Girls Go To Hell indeed. In one hard year these two hipsters helped the group begin to take the underground by storm and see themselves featured in a number of major articles and even in a coffee-table book on burlesque. John flew to Los Angeles as part of the A&E/Discovery documentary on Russ Meyer just before his death. Why? Because B-movies were a huge part of BJB's lyrics and many early performnces were from celluloid 60's exploitation flicks.

Touring kicked way up and the group was now playing over 100 shows a year in North America and Europe, supporting bands like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Dave Alvin and Los Straitjackets. They did their first two shows in the UK with King Kurt and the Waltons. John also began working with Frank Weipert, a major fixture in Canadian music (Mathew Good, Lowest of the Low, Jim Rose Circus Sideshow). Another successful European tour in 2004 culminated in a sold-out Zurich show at Mascotte to 500 that they considered their best to date. Then Gregory "Stagecoach" Mcdonald took the throne after he had supported BJB playing keys with local Vancouver heroes John Ford. They did a short Western tour that saw them play with the Southern Rock All-Stars (the encore was the singer from Molly Hatchet and Big John doing a duet to Kiss' Rock And Roll All Night) before they were introduced to a wide-eyed audience in Scandinavia in December 2004.

TAKE YOUR MEDICINE: 2005 - 2006

Touring was hard with many different dancers but now a pair of well-loved sisters known as the Luvrocs joined the group - and they have been back again and again. And sCare-oline inducted the third-long-term member of the group, Little Miss Risk - pin-up, burlesque dancer, model, art student. That's a lot of hats. She and her first touring partner, Starlet Bourbon (now a writer for music magazines) pulled out all the stops while the group relentlessly criss-crossed North America. Playing 120 live shows in a row to many different audiences led the band to experiment a lot. Musically as well as visually. Some of that showed up in the spreads on teh band in the infamous Bizarre Magazine.

John had also been bringingin a lot of new songs to reflect those changes and he decided it was time to begin again and track the newest songs. Shooting for a real lo-fi production with a strong live feel they began by recording the vintage drums of Take Your Medicine straight to mono with engineer Marc Lesperance. The feel was continued by John's customized vintage Guild Thunderbird amp, '59 Gretsch and by scalding the vocals through tube compressors. Coming from somewhere between the White Sripes, Go-Getters, Eagles of Death Metal and SCOTS - was Take Your Medicine.

The Medicine CD started off with an angry, cursing, female voice mail and busted wide open into a song that got a lot of underground attention - Aren't You Pretty. It also included the band’s first video number - Burlesque Is Dead. The album was released on Germany's Wolverine Records which meant the band could return to the continent where their name and popularity had been growing while they were away. But first ... Stagecoach left the group to play keys with Sloan so Chris 'The Baron' Warunki was recruited for a tour with L'il Luvroc and Little Miss Risk who delighted in tormenting him, continued across Europe by Darla Divine. The band also had their first experience touring with a support group, the Glasseyes. Just off shows with the Dresden Dolls, the Glasseyes were a breath of fresh air for Western Canada.

When they got back to Europe, clubs were more than ready for the BJB & the Dollz new live show. The record charted on blues radio, college radio, internet radio and specialty shows. It was featured on playlists from rock'n'roll to blues to garage. This led to bigger, faster and tighter shows than ever. At the end of the tour they returned to Vancouver to document the first chapter in the world of Big John Bates & the Voodoo Dollz with the DVD Live at the Voodoo Ball.

LIVE AT THE VOODOO BALL:

Live at the Voodoo Ball was an astonishing undertaking as the band was in Europe during the inception and only arrived back in Vancouver a few days before the June 2006 concert. Marcus Rogers from Cinestir Productions was in charge of the five-camera crew, the Hive brought in the RADAR and the venue was arguably the best live club in Vancouver - the infamous Richard's on Richards. Two levels seated over 400 and were decorated by friend from the devilish Sin City in the best macabre fashion. The DVD features 15 tracks (from all three albums) selected and mixed by John and Todd Simko from including seven infamous Voodoo Doll numbers and at least six different dancers. The band was rolling fast & hard and there were no overdubs. More proof that this punk blues/rock'n'roll/burlesque show is one of a kind.

BANGTOWN: 2006 - 2009

Summer 2006 saw L'il Bastard back to hold the reins until JT Brander could get ready. JT had been interested in the band for a few years and the moment John saw him playing the plan came together. But even though John and sCare-oline liked JT’s playing they had to turn the ex-pounder from the Real Mackenzies into a swing player. Plus it was time for a complete re-vamping of the performance art/burlesque. Choreography and costumes are always changing but Little Miss Risk was developing a real focus and the Voodoo Ball had put a lot of numbers to bed. Also Gretsch Guitars had recognized and begun sponsoring John and he made a splash in their calender, topping the Falcon page. Another 100+ shows in '06 and '07 and the band began playing large North American festivals. Their favorite Canadian show was headlining Alberta's 2007 North Country Fair with Little Miss Risk and Camero Luvroc. Imagine 4000 people & their shrooms having one hell of a good time. The next morning the promoters thanked John and said they were unprepared for a show of that much impact, and that they had no way to top BJB’s show for the following year.

The band followed that with more performances at festivals that were outside of the scenes they were used to, finally they were over being a genre band. Their daytime appearance at Santa Monica's Summer Strummer festival was the biggest surprise of the entire event and they were becoming almost regulars on Vancouver's Urban Rush TV show. 2008 saw the year begin with the Second Annual Voodoo Ball (18 months after the first), a midwestern US tour then two months in Europe. The band was still finding their best audiences in Europe but there were great pockets of support developing everywhere. BJB & the Dollz were also notable at the biggest Kustom Kulture show around - the '08 Ink & Iron Festival on the Queen Mary - in Long Beach, CA playing with bands like Mad Sin, Junior Brown and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

So it was time for a new album and even more of a departure. John wanted a house-rockin' feel so they found a real house in East Van and loaded it with gear. The list of players on this release is a total A-team including Jimmy Roy on pedal steel (Ray Condo, Big Sandy), Jenn Chycoski on 60's Yamaha (Choir Practice) and Braden McNichol (Cuban Neckties) singing with John on Priest's "Breaking the Law". As on Mystiki there are two drummers, L'il Bastard sits in for two songs and JT does the rest. Todd was the man with the plan although John again chose to have other engineers. Plus the relaxed atmosphere gave them a chance to record extras such as the slightly hilarious BJB Xmas song "One Horse Slay", a rocking version of "Poppa Spoonful" (originally on Take Your Medicine) and a kick ass mix of Johnny Cash's mighty, "Boy Named Sue".

As a co-release between Germany's Rookie Records and Stag-o-lee (Glitterhouse), the album was released in Europe in April. It was also released by Devil's Ruin in the USA. And it was time for sCare-oline's final tour. After touring for 8 years with John she chose not to murder him but to take some time to herself and hang up her well-beaten upright. The first six months of '09 were relentless, touring across North America from Seattle to Vegas to Florida to Chicago and back across Canada. Then Europe for six weeks, highlighted by Holland's Ribs & Blues Festival with the Blasters & Solomon Burke. Or maybe the Blues Festival that saw them between th' Legendary Shack Shakers and Koko Taylor. There were suddenly a lot more places that wanted Big John Bates & the Voodoo Dollz at their festivals and parties.

The European tour did so well that the band returned two months later with a different bassist, Missoula MT's Brandy Battery. Her band had opened for BJB & the Dollz on the first date of the US tour & John realized she was a natural. So a short Canadian tour in July '09 was booked to get Brandy perpared for the road and ready for the biggest shows of the band's career. They were supporting Germany's Boss Hoss, a million-selling band playing amphitheatres on a summer tour for audiences from 2,000 to 13,000. And just to sweeten the deal, Jens had them headlining the first Stag-o-lee Festival with the Fuzztones and to 10,000 people at the 33rd Stemwede Festival.

CLOCKWORK BLUES: 2010 - present

Little Miss Risk's production of the final Voodoo Ball went down on Feb 5th at the Rickshaw Theatre in Vancouver in front of over 300 people, 5 HD Cinestir cameras and with Todd Simko again in charge of BJB's audio. The 2010 DVD "Clockwork Blues" is slated to be released for the September world tour.

Meanwhile, back at the Tarantella, BJB & Miss Battery have been writing some wicked new songs for the upcoming tour. Plans are for a new 7" release on the tour and it will get everyone ready for a big new album in 2011. Stay tuned!!