Bad Candy Biography

As Portland pop quartet, the All Girl Summer Fun Band proclaim in their aptly-titled, "Theme Song": "They're nothing big / But they're nothing small / Just four best friends that you'd like to call / With Kathy, Kim, Arirak, and Jen / When you hear their songs / You'll want to hear them again." The group includes Kathy Foster (drums, vocals), Jen Sbragia (guitar, vocals), and New Mexico transplants Kim Baxter (keyboards, vocals) and Ari Douangpanya (bass, vocals).
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All four have played with other bands: Douangpanya with Def Leopard; Baxter with Young Astronauts, Cherry Ice Cream Smile, and One Two; Sbragia with Pretty Face, Kissing Book, and the Softies, a duo with Tiger Trap vocalist Rose Melberg (after three albums on K Records, they went on hiatus after Melberg moved to Canada); and Foster with Haelah, Hutch and Kathy, and one-woman band, Butterfly Transformation Service.

The foursome came into being after a Softies show in Portland in 1998, when Baxter approached Sbragia with a tape of her music. She and Douangpanya had moved from Albuquerque the year before, a couple of years after Baxter had played a gig with K co-founder, Calvin Johnson. Sbragia liked what she heard, and Baxter introduced her to a couple of like-minded souls: Foster and Douangpanya. That summer, Baxter asked if they would like to make music together. The answer was an enthusiastic, unequivocal yes. She described the potential results as being that of an “all girl summer fun band" and the name stuck.

The group claims a wide array of pop purveyors as influences: The Beach Boys, the Ronettes, the Shirelles, the Shangri-Las, Beat Happening, and Heavenly to start. Personal favorites include Marine Research (featuring Heavenly's Amelia Fletcher), the Flaming Lips, Lois, Stereo Total, and Albuquerque's the Shins. Although Baxter and Sbragia write most of their sweet -- sometimes spicy -- material, everyone contributes. Their first single was a four-song release on Magic Marker, issued on pink vinyl and featuring a cartoon-style cover by Sbragia (who also designs the band's flyers). Next came a split with Japanese band Photo Jenny on Little Red Wagon. Then they contributed songs to the Happy Happy Birthday to Me Vol. 2 and Japanese magazine Beikoku Ongaku's compilation CDs and the Patty Duke tribute 7". Their first full-length, a self-titled effort on Olympia's K, was released in February of 2002. On it, they zip through 13 catchy, candy-coated numbers about crushes, long-distance relationships, and broken hearts. The record won raves from numerous publications, including The Village Voice and The London Times.

Over the years, the band has played with a number of other independent artists, including Dub Narcotic Sound System (which counts K's Johnson among its ranks), C.O.C.O., Mates of State, Modest Mouse, and James Mercer of the Shins. Upon the release of their first long-player, they traveled around the Northwest before heading down to California in March. In September of 2002, they went into the studio to begin work on their next record, followed by an East Coast tour with Johnson in late October. In addition to touring and recording, the All Girl Summer Fun Band has been involved with Portland's non-profit Rock and Roll Camp for Girls (a day camp for female musicians from 8-18) and contributed the song, “It's There," to the camp's 2002 self-titled compilation CD. Baxter also designs a line of handbags under the name Kissycake, while Foster designs T-shirts and stationery as Daydream Factory. Sbragia sums up the band's aims simply and succinctly: "We just want to make music, have fun, and inspire other girls to make music." In April of 2003 they released the album they had begun working on late in 2002. 2 was another short and sweet summer pop record sure to be played at indie kid picnics all summer long.

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