Women Who Rock VOX: Melanie Vammen of The Pandoras

At 17 years old and still in high school I joined The Pandoras! I had always been inspired by the coolness, fashion and attitude that the garage bands from the 60s had. That era of music was innocent, raw and before formula. It was badass! Being part of the resurgent garage scene in the 80s is how I met Paula Pierce who asked me to try out as her keyboardist. Everything happened pretty quickly after joining. I bought a VOX Super Continental organ and recorded my first single Hot Generation/You Don’t Satisfy (Bomp!/Voxx Records). Soon after touring the East Coast, we signed to Rhino Records, put out our album “Stop Pretending”, and toured the US and Canada extensively. Enjoying moderate success, we signed to Elektra Records and recorded an album which has never been released. We then put out records on Restless Records and continued to tour. At this time, myself and Kim Shattuck, who played bass (Pandoras) and was my best friend, decided we wanted to start our own band. I had been teaching myself rhythm guitar and playing on a few Pandoras songs live. We wanted to play music we liked and do our own thing. Unfortunately, The Pandoras had gone in a musical direction that I no longer enjoyed.



After parting ways with The Pandoras we started practicing and forming what would become our band The Muffs, me now playing rhythm guitar. I loved buying cool guitars and pedals. One in particular was my 1965 VOX Bulldog along with my Superfuzz and Big Muff pedals. We started recording, touring and putting out singles. We signed to Warner Brothers Records and put out our self-titled album “The Muffs.” Kim and I co-wrote “Eye to Eye” off this album. We toured worldwide. Everywhere I Go was used for the Fruitopia commercials, (3 years consecutively) and various other songs off this album were used in movies. I parted ways with The Muffs in late 1994.



I then joined the Leaving Trains on rhythm guitar. I co-wrote, recorded, toured and put out records with them over the next 10 years. In 2013, I along with my best friend Kim Shattuck, reformed The Pandoras along with the other girls and we recorded, toured worldwide and put out an EP in 2018. I had gone back to playing my VOX Continental again. In 2018 Kim Shattuck, Palmyra Delran, and I formed The Coolies, a band to bring awareness and raise money for ALS. Kim battled and lost her life to ALS. During her sickness we created this beautiful EP on Wicked Cool Records, Little Steven’s label. I played guitar, bass, and organ, sang backing vocals and also co-wrote a song.



I will continue putting out Coolies records with Palmyra, writing, playing, recording and collaborating everything together. I also play guitar with her in her solo band on the west coast. I’ve been playing keyboards for the amazing Josie Cotton in her touring band and some local shows. I’ve been working on a future project with Ryan Hamilton who is a fellow Wicked Cool recording artist. I’ve also guested for some cool musicians on their upcoming releases. There’s also lots of other cool stuff in the future and of course playing my amazing VOX Bobcat guitar, AC30S1, Continental organ and ‘65 Bulldog guitar.



“Always be true to who you are! Never be afraid! Just be you!”



“Live for now! Laugh and take chances! Turn up the volume and create!”



~ Melanie Vammen

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