The Venomous Pinks' New Video Is a Punk Tribute to Carrie

Name a more iconic horror movie scene than Sissy Spacek getting drenched in pig's blood in Carrie.

We'll wait.

The signature Brian DePalma split-screen effect, the jeering crowd, the humiliation that gives way to unrestrained female rage — the elements that make Carrie a stone-cold classic are present in the new music video for "I Really Don't Care" from The Venomous Pinks.

"I’m pretty grateful for my bandmates," says Drea Doll, vocalist and guitarist for the band. "They let me run with any crazy idea I have."

Director Alexander Thomas asked her what her favorite horror movie was, and a concept was born.

Doll says, "Carrie is truly, I feel, one of the first feminist horror movies. We figured, 'Let’s do the prom scene, an homage to it where it’s a punk-rock prom.'"

In the video, The Venomous Pinks are the live entertainment at the fateful dance. Dressed in matching pink satin shirts, they finish the song as the room burns around them.

Bassist Gaby Kaos takes lead vocals on the track; she wrote a version of the song years ago in response to a bad relationship. In a press release, she says she wrote the song after leaving a boyfriend who wanted her to give up her dreams of a music career.

These days, the song has taken on an additional meaning — namely, that the band won't let anything stop them from accomplishing their goals.

Not that the coronavirus hasn't tried, of course. The Venomous Pinks, like everyone else on the planet, found their spring and summer plans upended by the pandemic. Gigs at Pouzza Fest in Montreal, Rebellion Festival in London, and Brakrock Ecofest in Belgium all evaporated in short order this spring.

"We’re signed to a little indie label, but we’re still mostly a DIY band, so to land those types of festivals, not really being known outside of Phoenix, it was going to be huge — a real experience for us," Doll says.

They've got the 2021 iterations of those events on their calendar, but in the meantime, they're keeping busy.
Their new four-song EP, I Want You, came out last month on Die Laughing/Golden Robot Records after being on the shelf for more than a year.

"We went through a couple different label changes, and then we kind of battled with ourselves, like, 'Should we just put this out and DIY it, or do we want to find a label? So from March of last year until now, it literally took a little over a year to do this. To see it out on streaming platforms, it’s that feeling, like, 'Wow, we freaking did it."

The band have a podcast, Sound Sisters Podcast, and also are doing a lot of writing in hopes of releasing a full-length album next year, Doll says. They've been asked to do some concerts, but they've declined.

"I want to make sure that the band is safe. And that’s the other thing: I don’t want to risk our fans’ health just to see us. I miss playing music, and I know everybody misses going to shows, but let’s be safe about it," she says.

But in the meantime, Doll encourages fans to buy or stream I Want You, pick up some of the band's merch on their website — and one more thing.

"We need to make sure that our people are registered to vote, because we’ve got to get Donald Trump out. Enough is enough. It’s just frustrating," Doll says. "Every day, I think it can’t get worse and I’m saying to myself, 'What the fuck?' ... It’s time to take it back and take it seriously."