The Trouble Dolls' roots go back to Kudzu, the cowpunk band formed by singer Cheri Leone and guitarist Matty Karas in 1986, when both were attending high school in Huntington Beach, Calif. Three months after their formation, they recorded a demo in the garage studio of reclusive pop genius Emitt Rhodes and sent it to legendary KROQ DJ Rodney Bingenheimer ("Rodney on the ROQ").

Rodney fell in love with the tape, becoming one of Kudzu's first and biggest supporters. One song from the demo, "Death Valley Girl," was Rodney's most-requested song for three weeks running -- managing to hold off the Bangles and the reunited Monkees. The song subsequently appeared on the Frontier Records compilation Thangs That Twang.

In 1988, Kudzu toured up and down the West Coast as the opening act for Rank and File. Later that year, following an appearance on MTV's "The Cutting Edge," they signed to Restless Records. Their Ray Manzarek-produced debut album, California Scheming, came out in 1989, but few copies made it into stores, due to the financial difficulties Restless was undergoing at the time. However, the album did not escape the watchful eyes of lawyers for United Features Syndicate, which syndicated John Neale's comic strip "Kudzu." They promptly issued a cease-and-desist order, effectively putting the last nail in the album's coffin.

Although Kudzu had in fact taken their name not from the strip, but from the Georgia weed depicted on the cover of R.E.M.'s Murmur, they decided that, rather than fight, they would call it a day. Matty and Cheri moved to New York City at the suggestion of a former schoolmate who offered them work writing and recording music for the Cartoon Network. However, the work proved to be something less than steady, and the pair separated for a time to pursue "real world" careers. Cheri studied film at New York University -- while there, she directed the Gutterball video "Trial Separation Blues" -- while Matty became the pop music critic for the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press.

In the summer of 1995, Matty and Cheri reunited to form the Trouble Dolls with guitarist Michael Taylor, a New Jerseyan who was in an early version of Monster Magnet but was unceremoniously fired when he refused to learn any more Hawkwind songs. Michael provided the band's name after discovering trouble dolls, a Latin American charm, on a trip to Guatemala; but he left the band in 1998 to pursue a career in television (Trekkies will recognize him as the writer of some of the best episodes of "Star Trek: Voyager"; they will also probably be angry at us for calling them Trekkies).

For the first two years of the Trouble Dolls' existence, they were solely a studio group, recording soundtracks for spaghetti-westerns-that-never-were on Matty's cranky four-track and making up bios about themselves that seamlessly blended fact and fiction (a practice which continues to this day). One of their bargain-basement epics found its way to the BMX Bandits, who covered the Trouble Dolls' "Love Isn't for the Lazy" on the B-side of a fan club 45. Another track, "Planet Robin," found its way onto the soundtrack of the 1996 indie film "Ed's Next Move". Still another, "Ice Cream Cow," reached WFMU DJs Belinda and Hova, who continue to play it on their Saturday morning show "Greasy Kid Stuff."

On their way to becoming a proper band, the Trouble Dolls recruited Gabe Rhodes, a filmmaker and one-time member of the San Francisco band Scenic Vermont, to play drums after he moved to New York in early 2001. Later that year, they met Pam Weis while sharing a bill with her band, Bionic Finger, at the Ladyfest East festival. When Bionic Finger broke up shortly afterward, Pam became the Trouble Dolls' bassist.

The Trouble Dolls play their aphasic melange of prepackaged, post-Madonna chanson and bubblegum at New York City clubs such as Luna Lounge, Arlene Grocery and the Sidewalk Cafe. Their (they can't believe it's their first) EP, I Don't Know Anything at All, was released in June 2002 on their own label, La La La Unlimited, and their debut album will follow later in 2002. They also recently completed the score for the Tony Daniel-directed indie film "Ame rican Bohemian," in which Matty and Cheri have (totally out of character!) cameos as musicians who wear silly clothes and smoke.