Southern heavy petting

Nashville Pussy are high energy and anarchic.

Karen Cuda's dad calls his daughter's band by its initials. He can't bring himself to say Nashville Pussy. To him, they are NP.

"My parents are totally supportive, but I'm not sure if my dad actually likes it," laughs Cuda from her home town of Denver, Colorado.

"But he comes to our shows and listens to the record. He's never been too stoked on the raunchiness of everything though. It's not the first raunchy band I've been in, so he's been exposed to it before."

Nashville Pussy play tonight at the Kings Arms and you can expect an evening of titillating rock'n'roll chaos.

But, says Cuda, it's not as raunchy as it used to be in the band's early days when original bass player, Corey Parks, and guitarist Ruyter Suys made out on stage.

"It's not like that anymore. Now it's just a lot of high energy, powerful rock'n'roll," says Cuda.

Her dad will be happy.

Nashville Pussy was formed in 1996 by the hard livin' husband and wife team of Blaine Cartwright (guitar/vocals), and Suys (yes, the one that used to make out with the bass player). Put simply, the pair just wanted to rock hard and get sleazy.

As Cartwright says: "Nashville Pussy is like AC/DC making out with Motorhead while Lynyrd Skynyrd watches."

Cuda joined the band on bass two years ago. Cartwright and Suys heard about her through friends, so they organised an audition.

"They sent me eight songs that I learned. They flew me out to Atlanta, I played, and the rest is history. It was just like band practice," she says.

But not just anyone can fit into the band's ranks. They sing songs like Raisin' Hell Again, She's Got the Drugs, and Pussy Time, and if there's one band who live by what they preach then it's Nashville Pussy.

So are they hard to keep up with?

"No," says Cuda. "Not in the least. Not for me anyway. Sometimes they have to keep up with me," she cackles.

"We get along really well, our personalities match and my band [Hemi Cuda] has a similar reputation for being raunchy, and rock'n'roll and all that stuff. And they were doing what I wanted to do - travel all over the place, tour, and rock and roll."

However, she makes life on the road sound anything but glamorous. They're woken up in their hotel by house cleaning, get in the van, drive all day, get to the venue, sound check, eat, have an hour to chill, play the show, party a little afterwards and do it all over again the next day.

But since releasing their 1998 debut, Let Them Eat Pussy (which clocks in at a feisty 17 minutes), that is what they've done - toured the world.

On their new album, Get Some, the band branch out, show us more of their musicianship, and have more fun than ever.

"All the stuff before Get Some totally rocks, too, but I think it had a more simple punk rock approach than the super-mega-riffy rock'n'roll stuff on Get Some. I don't even think it's intentional either, it's just how it all came together."

Cuda's own band have released a new album and they plan to reconvene soon. But playing in two bands is the best of both worlds.

"They're both quite different really, in terms of image and sound. Our reputation is a little naughty, which is the same.

"But Hemi Cuda is definitely a little more camp. We wear crazy outfits, wigs, and little vinyl costumes. But the music is a power trio based on vocal harmonies and kind of poppy.

"I've always liked lots of stuff, but my fondness for straight-up rock'n'roll has definitely grown in recent years."

And it's even stronger now thanks to Nashville Pussy. Are you ready to rock?

* Who: Nashville Pussy

* What: Sleazy, straight-up rock'n'roll

* Where & when: Kings Arms Tavern, tonight