Mydols

Keller Middle School sixth-graders, with the help of a moms-turned-rockers band, the Mydols, created their own brand of schoolhouse rock.
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And that got them the attention of CBS.

Television crews were in Royal Oak last week to tape the collaboration between the Mydols - four local moms who regularly rock out - and Keller band students. The group performed the song "Run Crazy Baby," which is being featured as part of a Mother's Day spot on "CBS Sunday Morning" from 9-10:30 a.m.

Funnyman correspondent Bill Geist of "CBS Sunday Morning" plans to include the Mydols and Keller kids as part of the seven-minute segment, as well as the Candy Band, another bunch of local moms from the Royal Oak area who jam to nursery rhymes.

- Oakland Press

For Mydols guitarist Judy Davids, being in a band is good old-fashioned rebellion, mom-style.

"As a mom, you are expected to be a role model, certainly while your kids are awake," Davids said. "And then you get into a band, and you find that there are no rules at all. If your legs can pull it off, you put on a miniskirt. You can even say bad words on stage!"

It's been a learning experience, too. None of The Mydols had ever played a musical instrument before forming the band two years ago. That fact helps shape their playlist choices, said Davids.

"We write our own songs. If we play cover songs, everybody would say 'that's not how that song goes!' We would be so busted," she said.

The fact that Davids was 42 when she joined the Mydols is all part of the appeal. Ageism? Sexism? Never.

"It's almost like you are perceived as being hot by people because you are so old," said Davids. "It's like the whole Mrs. Robinson thing. It's a surprise, when we come on stage. We definitely dress in clothes that are inappropriate for a PTA meeting, and everyone wonders 'what is this about?'"

When Davids expressed an interest in seeing a Mamapalooza event in Detroit, Joy Rose swiftly appointed her local coordinator.

Davids met with band members Kara Rasmussen, Paige Gilbert and Pat McGough-Wujcik and agreed that the event should benefit a local non-profit. On the suggestion of Candy Band, proceeds from the suggested $3 donation at the door will go to the YWCA Interim House, a safe haven for women survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault on Detroit's west side.

- Daily Tribune

Let’s get one thing clear: the Mydols don’t take any lip. When the four-woman rock band recently hit the stage at a club in Detroit, lead singer Kara Rasmussen instantly put the crowd of rowdy twenty-somethings on notice. “We’re an all-mom band, so we don’t have time to practice,’ she snarls. “If you don’t like what you’re hearing, go to your room!”

Okay, so the truth is that the foursome who make up the Mydols are still learning how to play - and gigs take a backseat to kids’ soccer games and music lessons. but with attitude-heavy screamers like “Take Out the Trash” and “Never Mind the Laundry,” Rasmussen, 33, and her bandmates Judy Davids, 44, Pat McGough-Wujcik, 39 and Paige Gilbert, 39, have cut a debut CD and are making some noise in suburban Detroit and beyond.

“They are driven by a love of playing.” says Gary Graff, music critic for The Oakland Press, a suburban Detroit publication. “To me that’s as valid as any of these other bands who are sleeping on the floor and starting.”

...”families come first,” says McGough-Wujcik - even when the band went out on a three-day tour last April with a Norwegian girl group called the Launderettes. All in all, it’s been quite the trip, says Gilbert: “If we were 20 years younger, we wouldn’t be doing this. We wouldn’t have had the nerve.”
- People Magazine 10/11/04

Soccer moms are getting hip! They’re swapping their aprons for guitars and rocking out in down and dirty garage bands.

“You're good all day long so it’s really nice to cut loose,” explains Judy Davids, 44, a devoted housewife and mother of two sons, who says the inspiration for her group, The Mydols, came to her at a neighborhood get together.

In short order, she recruited a group of of mamas who quickly became a popular act around suburban Detroit.

In fact, The Mydols’ brand of raucous rock won them a slot at the famous Little Steven’s Underground Garage Battle of the Bands competition, sponsored by Bruce Springsteen’s guitarist Steven Van Zandt.
- The Sun 7/26/04

There's a new wave of garage bands featuring Mom on guitar, Mom on drums and, on lead vocals... Mom…It's the musical version of the irreverent "memoirs" that are showing up in bookstores, and Web sites that chronicle suburban-mom angst with names like Skateboard Mom, Mamaphobic and Hip Mama. "Mothers are saying no to the notion that they have to devote all their creativity to their children," says Susan Douglas, author of "The Mommy Myth."
For Judy Davids, 44, who has sons aged 8 and 11, the impetus came during a neighborhood Memorial Day picnic in suburban Detroit. While the husbands smoked cigars and talked about sports and the kids ran around in a sugar-induced frenzy, she says she remembers thinking, "This can't be all." She raised the idea of a band with moms she knew from the local school. None had ever played an instrument, but they met at a karaoke club and soon began playing in a friend's garage. After only six practice sessions, they played at an open- Mike night under the name the MydoIs. 'You're good all day long, so it's really nice to cut loose," says Ms. Davids.
Recently, the Mydols toured with a Norwegian girl band, the Launderettes. This month, they took a road trip to Cleveland for Little Steven's Underground Garage Battle of the Bands-sponsored by Dunkin' Donuts and guitarist/actor Steven Van Zandt.
- Wall Street Journal 6/25/04

With voices honed by years of shouting at their children, the suburban mothers of America are forming bands and venting their frustrations on stage. Could ‘Mom Rock’ be music’s next big thing?

Mothers are starting to make a noise across the US. In the past few years, an underground movement has spread from Detroit to Dallas; women who grew up listening to punk, indie rock and alternative folk have had children, but concluded there must be more to life than being a “soccer mom” and baking apple pie.

The Mydols are “suburban, white-bread mothers” who formed at a picnic. From Detroit, they sing of motherhood and fabulous bras. The audience is told, “If you don’t like it, you can go to your room.”
- The London Times 12/11/04

"...the rules of motherhood are being radically rewritten...with a snarl, cymbal crash and power E-chord that would make the lads in AC/DC stand and salute."—USA TODAY

With names like Frump, Mrs. Robinson and The Mydols, these bands range from revivals of rocker pasts to virgin ventures that require acquiring instruments, music lessons and some stage presence. Some players are working two jobs; others are married stay-at-home moms.
- USA TODAY 2/1/05

Imagine thirty- and fortysomething women playing in guitar bands and rapping about PTA meetings and changing diapers instead of one-night stands and broken hearts. If you're picturing the Donnas with toddlers and a station wagon, you're on the right track. Last year, these underground bands - like the punky, Detroit-based Mydols or San Francisco's Placenta (formerly the Lactators) and Housewives on Prozac from upstate New York - burst on the scene with their witty, offbeat lyrics. Add to this the success of the fifth Mamapalooza festival this summer (a rock concert with a kid-centric twist - more than 350 women performing in eight cities while ankle-biting groupies dance along) and the recent release of the first mom rock compilation, Mom Aid, which gives a portion of profits to UNICEF and, it's obvious, mom rock is hitting all the right notes. And charting such successes, it was inevitable that major corporations would also turn to mom rock as a marketing tool. Fabric softener Snuggle has just launched its latest campaign to promote a new set of fragrances. The "Be a Singing Sensation" contest is a karaoke-meets-"American Idol" hybrid aimed at moms. Madonna wanna-bes submit home videos of themselves singing to Snuggle's Web site, then voters choose five winners who perform at a Grammy VIP lounge backstage. Detroit's own Mydols have been signed by Dodge, while Mother Inc.'s entire promotional budget - and six-city tour - was underwritten by Italian furrier and fashion house Fendi, which also hosted the duo's CD launch party at a New York store. - New York Daily News

SUE FABISCH & THE MYDOLS If the acid test of good rock 'n' roll used to be that your parents hated it, what happens when your parents not only like punk rock, but decide to strike up their own band? Some 40-odd years after Betty Friedan asked "Is this all?" of the as-yet unnamed problem that post-World War II women experienced as homemakers, it seems suburban mothers are still desperate housewives, battling the vague dissatisfaction wrought by domestic life. But instead of suffering in silence, some are trading in their mom jeans for guitars and amps to craft humorous songs about suburban life. Sue Fabisch is a Nashville standup comic and singer who met the Detroit "mom rock" outfit The Mydols at Mamapalooza. They've parlayed their domestic strife into a side project, playing catchy, punk-infused songs that hit close to home, like "Mydol Twist," "Soccer Mom Stomp" and "Never Mind the Laundry." The soccer rockers play a Back-to-School for Moms party that promises to blow the lid off the Crockpot. - Nashville Scene