Kim Shattuck, Melanie Vammen and Palmyra Delran have just announced the formation of The Coolies, a supergroup made up of this trio of legendary indie rockers. The three women will be releasing their debut EP later this month on Wicked Cool Records.
Kim Shattuck is most well-known as the frontwoman for The Muffs, a 90s rock band that has released six studio albums. Their most recent release, Whoop Dee Doo, is their first album in ten years and came out in 2014 to positive reviews. Melanie Vammen is actually also a founding member of The Muffs, but she left the group in the mid 90s to pursue other musical ventures, including the all-female garage rock group, The Pandoras. Palmyra Delran founded The Friggs, another all-girl band named The Friggs. While the group only released one studio album (Rock Candy) and disbanded in 2000, they reunited in 2008 after “Shake”, one of their earliest singles, was featured in the hugely successful teen comedy Superbad.
Wicked Cool Records and The Coolies have also announced that 100% of the proceeds from the debut EP will be donated to The ALS Association, an organization focused on the research and discovery of stronger treatments, and eventually, a cure for ALS. In reference to their decision to help out The ALS Association, Shattuck said, “[ALS] runs on my dad’s side of the family and it would be amazing to find a cure for my relatives and everybody else who gets it!”
Shattuck and Vammen worked together on the EP in their West Coast studios, sharing work and ideas back and forth with Delran on the East Coast. Delran recorded her parts of the record with Geoff Sanoff, a Grammy Award-winning engineer behind the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Fountains of Wayne, and Nada Surf. Sanoff also mixed the EP.