High School Bands: ‘70s Girl Punk Edition
Over the past month we received more than 300 entries to our Battle of the High School Bands contest, from ‘80s power pop to indie-folk. We had to find out the story behind “Debutantes in Bondage” by the ‘70s punk band The Welders.
→ Listen to our High School Bands Mixtape: Volume I below
Kelly Draper was the guitarist for the Welders, but her band name was Rusty Welder — “we were sort of taking after the Ramones,” she explains. Four 13-year-old girls started playing music in St. Louis in 1975. “We knew we liked music and the Marx Brothers” she says. So even as they got older and started playing punk rock, The Welders’ songs maintained a sense of humor. Sung from the perspective of a teenage socialite, “Debutantes in Bondage” satirizes unwanted sexual attention from men in the street: “We were kind of the anti-Runaways.”
As I was making my social debut
I was abducted and held by you
I’m sure this is a social taboo
Just wait ‘til daddy gets a hold of you
In 2010 a St. Louis label reissued songs by some of the city’s punk bands, including The Welders’ four-song single. “We were really surprised by how well received [it] was,” says Draper. “Because at the time we recorded those songs we didn’t feel like it was being appreciated.”
Studio 360's High School Band Mixtape, Volume I:
