Remember When: An Early Lineup of Vixen Appeared in the Sex Comedy “Hardbodies”

Sometimes bands cameo in the damnedest places. During the 1980s, teen movies were a great vehicle for pop and rock soundtracks along with guest appearances by both known and rising stars. Famed pop metal quartet Vixen were four years away from releasing their Gold-certified, self-titled debut album when they surfaced in the sex comedy Hardbodies. It was a ridiculous T&A affair for horny teenage boys that cost between $1 million and $2 million and grossed over $7 million. It was additionally profitable through home video rentals and movie channel airings.

Despite the overt salaciousness of the script, this was a rare chance for a band to get musical exposure. Thus an early version of Vixen appeared in the movie portraying the fictitious band Diaper Rash. The quintet actually show up in several different scenes with screen time amounting to approximately eight to 10 minutes, which wasn’t bad for a 92-minute feature. Their music also plays in the background of two party scenes in which they are performing.

Tease with Sleaze

The movie’s premise was classic exploitation sleaze: Three middle-aged creepers rent an L.A. beach house to score with younger women but need to hire a young stud to help them get laid. In real life, they wouldn’t have had game even with guidance. It was a typically raunchy sex comedy of the time without a lot of plot but with plenty of dumb jokes, and it had one of the largest counts of bare breasts in an ‘80s R-rated movie. (It’s streaming for free on Tubi in (in)glorious HD.)

About a half-hour into the flick, the main character of Scotty Palmer (Grant Kramer, later of Killer Klowns from Outer Space fame) appears at the group’s rehearsal in a garage where the Vixen ladies are working out the song “Computer Madness.” He desperately needs someone to play a party that night and soon decides to manage them. But to seek interest from a local promoter he has them change their movie band name from Diaper Rash to Hardbodies. They’re both lame names.

The group play two parties and a beach gig in the movie. A majority of the six songs that Vixen wrote and performed (and different members composed different tracks) were more in a pop-rock vein. The jangly, peppy “Maria” might have been a song The Bangles would have played, and that performance features a fair bit of lead singer Janet Gardner dancing.

The ladies sport more of a jeans and T-shirt look, which was quite different than the tight spandex and voluminous hair that defined their late ‘80s heyday. However, the ladies adopt a more rock ‘n’ roll look by the movie’s end and two much heavier songs, “Runnin’” and “Give It a Chance,” are featured at the final party. A couple of other tunes heard during the parties are not from Vixen, including the dark goth-punk anthem “Partytime” by 45 Grave, which they are briefly seen miming to. That track was featured prominently the next year in Return of The Living Dead.

By the way, Hardbodies has two more horror movie connections. Kane Hodder, the future Jason of four Friday The 13th movies, plays an “Older Geek” and does some jet ski stunt work. Courtney Gains, who played the major supporting role of Rags, also portrayed the sinister Malachai in Children of the Corn, which was released earlier in 1984. Both he and Hodder have appeared in numerous horror movies since.

Thankfully, Vixen did not have to interact much with the sex-crazed characters that populated Hardbodies. Scotty probably showed them more respect than even the girl he adored, and the band had fun with the scenes they were in. The Vixen lineup for the movie included vocalist Gardner, lead guitarist Jan Kuehnemund, rhythm guitarist Tamara Ivanov, bassist Pia Miaocco, and drummer Laurie Hedlund. Founded in 1980, the group was reportedly still based in St. Paul, Minnesota, and then moved to L.A. in 1985, a year after Hardbodies came out. The classic Vixen lineup of Gardner, Kuehnemund, bassist Share Ross, and drummer Roxy Petrucci solidified in 1987.

No doubt Vixen—who were credited with their real band name in the Hardbodies credits—forgot that low-budget tripe rather quickly. Ironically, they would later speak of how, despite their overt musical talents, they were expected by their record label to project a more sexy image in order to market their music to the masses in the late ‘80s. Luckily, it was nothing lewd like in that movie. This was the unfortunate reality female rockers had to contend with back then. MTV was far more style than substance by that point.

Rare Vintage

As fans know, classic Vixen did two albums, Vixen and Rev It Up, before disbanding in 1991. But they returned in the late ‘90s and have since played with different incarnations and released two other studio albums, Tangerine and Live & Learn. Sadly, Kuehnemund passed away from cancer in 2013 before a full classic lineup reunion could happen. But her bandmates got back together for a few years—mainly with guitarist Gina Stile—and then Gardner quit the band in 2019. Their current incarnation features Petrucci, guitarist Britt Lightning, bassist Julia Lage, and new singer Rosa Laricchiuta, who recently replaced former Femme Fatale frontwoman Lorraine Lewis, who fronted Vixen for five years. Before Lewis departed, the group recorded the new high-energy anthem “Red,” which is worth checking out.

Some Vixen fans might not know that the group released a 10-song compilation in 2018 called Rare Vintage that features unreleased cuts from different eras, including a live track and a raw sounding demo. Four of six songs from Hardbodies are on there—“Computer Madness,” “Maria,” “Give It a Chance,” and “Runnin’”—while “Be with Me” and “Mr. Cool” are not (although the latter is featured in one of the above movie clips). Since no official Hardbodies soundtrack was released, Rare Vintage is how fans can tap into the early days of Vixen without needing to see the movie.

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