The Darts: On-Target Rock and Roll

It’s probably the wrong thing to do to start a feature story by griping yet again about the sad state of mainstream rock and roll. It’s just that, to our minds, rock has become so godawful that it borders on criminal. It’s so bad, in fact, we’ve often wished we could get a judge to throw the book at those responsible for making and playing the crap music we have to put up on with on the radio, or at the mall, or blasting from the neighbor’s house.

Turns out, there actually is a judge that is doing something about all this bad rock and roll. Nicole Laurin-Walker is a judge at the Municipal Court in Gilbert Arizona, and she has made national news for those efforts.

No, she can’t do much from the bench. The way she does it is – dare we say it, superior. As Nicole Laurenne, she plays keyboards and sings in an awesome new band, the Darts.

Whether you know her as Laurin-Walker or Laurenne, she has an amazing story, one which is beyond the scope of what we’re doing here but is easy to find and very worthwhile to check out should you so choose.

“I’ve always wanted to an all-girl band, with bad ass girls that are awesome,” Laurenne explained. She talked to Garagerocktopia along with Darts’ bassist Christina Nunez, both by phone from their home in the Phoenix area. “We that don’t have boy drama, but we do have a band that can travel, have fun and be really loud.”

To garage rock devotees, Laurenne and Nunez’ names will sound more than a little familiar. Both were members of the Love Me Nots, a wonderful band whose sound was more in the familiar mid-‘60s garage rock mold.

Alas, the Love Me Nots are not anymore, with Laurenne and Nunez reporting that they are on “permanent vacation.”

Laurenne has also rocked the house in such great bands as Motobunny and Zero Zero. Rounding out the Darts’ lineup is Brainspoon guitarist/singer Michelle Balderrama and drummer/singer Rikki Styxx, who has been a part of such great bands as the Dollyrots and the Outta Sites.

With a fast-paced, gritty sound that’s as garage punk as you can get, the Darts point to a big change of

direction for all members (perhaps except Balderrama), a heavier and rawer sound than we’ve heard them previously crank out. But Laurenne said nobody’s trying to channel her inner Iggy Pop. These are all just the reverberations bursting from four esteemed and accomplished rockers.

“We didn’t set out to have that kind of sound,” said Laurenne, “but Michelle Balderrama does have a harder-edged guitar style. That’s her background and it works fine in this band.” Laurenne and Balderrama are the main songwriters for the group.

Added Nunez: “The Darts are a little dirtier and little angrier than what we’ve done before.”

Photo by Daniel Hargest

The Darts first release is a six-song EP, with a second which just became available for pre-ordering. The band is busy working on a full album they hope to have out by early 2017. Laurenne and Nunez cite a wide variety of influences, from The Trashwomen, the Headcoatees, the Death Valley Girls, Thee Tsunamis, Magic Wands and The Aquadolls.

If you read up on the Darts, you’ll see one word come up over and over: aggressive. The best thing to do is, of course, go buy their music and make up your own mind abut how “aggressive” it is.

Granted, nobody will accuse the Darts of playing elevator music, but from our standpoint, it just seems like good ol’ fashioned rock and roll with a little edge, though a song like “Revolution” does have a certain old-school punk vibe to it. But to the band – and us here at the blog – it seems an odd word to use.

Still, were this a bunch of fellas playing this music like this, one wonders if the “a” word would be used so readily. Laurenne and Nunez seemed to take a teeny smidgeon of exception to the description.

“It’s not aggressive – it’s just music,” said Nunez. “Our shows can be a little aggressive, the way we come and rock out. But if it were guys, I don’t think they would call it ‘aggressive.’”

With Balderrama and Styxx both based out of Southern California, the Darts’ relationship is a long distance one. While the approximately 360 miles separating the two contingents can be a bit of a challenge, Laurenne says this doesn’t present a problem they can’t handle.

“Michelle will send me a completed song, or sometimes I have one,” said Laurenne, “and we work from there. For ‘Revolution’ for example, Michelle sent me the guitar riff, and she had also written the chorus. We took it from there and added our parts. We don’t always know what the other will do, but we add the parts and whatever happens, happens.”

“If we did it all together, we could work it all out right there,” Nunez acknowledges, “but on the plus side, we don’t argue. There’s no way we can fight.”

While all the band members are known quantities, being in a new band and getting your music heard – no matter how good it is -- can still be a challenge, but the Darts do seem to have had a few breaks go their way.

Recently, the song “Take What I Need” powered its way into the rotation on Little Steven’s Underground Garage, and the band got a very glowing shout-out from Steven King via Twitter. These all help the band quite a bit but are no substitute for the grunt work of getting your music out.

“It’s nice and awesome to be recognized,” said Nunez. “There are a lot of people who otherwise wouldn’t have gotten to hear our music, but I don’t think we’ve gotten any kind of spike (from LSUG). We’ve gotten our music out online, on Youtube, and some radio stations who know us have taken on our music.”

Photo by Kelly Sahr

So much work still lies ahead, but Laurenne and Nunez are in something of an enviable position. Because the band is so new, there aren’t massive expectations – especially of the commercial kind -- heaped up on them. They can actually do something rock and roll bands are supposed yet so few able to manage: have a good time.

“Right now, we can travel, have fun and be very loud,” said Laurenne. “In that aspect, we have been very successful. Also, there are no expectations, so there’s no pressure. It’s nice not having to drive across the country to get somewhere you really don’t want to play just because that’s what you have to do. We can do what we want – if we want to put some punk in our set, we can, or do whatever else we want to do just because it’s fun.”

“This is the best band we’ve been in,” added Nunez. “We laugh a lot, the music is awesome, we’re all agreeable and nobody argues about anything. And that people like it is a very good thing,”


If you enjoyed reading about the Darts, you might also enjoy our features on Genya Ravan and New Mystery Girl.

Here at Garagerocktopia, we're always looking for cool bands and awesome garage rock related stuff to report on. We have reason to believe that a fair number of regular readers here are musicians themselves. Please feel free to send us your music and information. We won't guarantee a write-up, but some we've had some very awesome artist step up. Email us or you can visit our Facebook page.

Rock on!