"Good Bad, But Not Evil"
Get on, Rock, Get Off with the Rotten Apples

The band is like a long-distance love affair. The good songs come together like true love. And the side projects are when your steady goes out; nails the bartender at the Gulp ‘n’ Grope; and winds up stumbling sticky, drunk and ultimately unsatisfied into your cold, lonely bed.

Their debut full-length, Real Tuff: Durable Plastic, is built Poltergeist-style over an ancient ex-significant-other burial ground, with once-mushy-now-rigor-mortised relationships bursting through the floorboards into hideous (and new wave-y) life. Without these tales of doomed romance, we’d be left with half an album; with sex and single-woman-hood constantly bearing down on Colantuono’s brain, Real Tuff stretches into something determined, honest and passionate.

Rotten Apples w/ Right On!, Party Time, w/ The Spits, The Lashes, DJ Chris @ Chop Suey

…a band like Rotten Apples rocks as hard as any punk band while singing about unrequited love, bad boys, and fights in voices sweet with layered harmonies. The bad boys are most likely on the receiving end of the beat-downs, however, because lead singer and songwriter Dejha (just Dejha) has had it up to here with their stupid behavior. However, like most women, she’s willing to give the next guy who comes along a hopeful chance. And if nothing comes of it romantically, a new song surely will.(Kathleen Wilson)

Rotten Apples, The Ones, The Vexers, Bantam @ The Sunset Tavern

With their perfectly balanced sound that conveys both sassy and sweet, Rotten Apples embody the soul of a gal anyone would be lucky to hang out with. Though she calls Los Angeles home for the time being, singer Dejha has a long musical history in Seattle, having played in a couple different bands, including 3-D S&M. (Kathleen Wilson)

The Rotten Apples don’t want to be your goody-two-shoes girl group; the Seattle four-some instead wants, as Sleater-Kinney might say, to be your Joey Ramone. Nodding to the raucous speed of the brothers Ramone, mixed with early Blondie’s attitude and a dash of angular post-punk, the supercharged Real Tuff has snarling guitar riffs, shrieking vocals, and tough-as-nails melody. Highlighted by vocalist Dejha’s nicotine-raw rasp, “F.W.A.K.” features jerky, Elastica-like start-stops, “Road Rage” is buzz-sawing punk, and the hollering “Love Career” highlights fist-pumping drums and a punchy garage-rock attack. Yet Tuff isn’t all fast and furious. Waterfalling harmonies highlight “My House,” and “Heart Candy” takes Psychedelic Furs guitar swirl and throws in the synth sense of Missing Persons. Indeed, when the Apples pay tribute to MP on an apt cover of “Noticeable One” (“I am one of the noticeable ones, notice me!”), its commanding chorus has never been so easy to oblige – Tuff is simple, pure rock. (Annie Zaleski)

Born too late to visit CBGB in its heyday? Well, so were Rotten Apples, but that hasn’t stopped them from cranking out some amazingly authentic ‘70s New York-style punk. This possibly all-female band (their CD lists women on all instruments, but their promo materials suggest a male participant) variously evoke Patti Smith, Jim Carroll, and Blondie while thundering through 10 candy-coated razor blades. But where’d they get those harmonies? How’d they make that guitar sound like that? And whose bright idea was it to cover Missing Persons’ "Noticeable One" (layered vocal counterpoint and all)? Mysteries of the cosmos, my friend. Mysteries of the cosmos.

Our Small Tribute To Blondie
This eclectic international tribute to the legendary Blondie contains quite a few gems. Here is a sample of some of the juiciest tracks: Shark Soup kick out a spiky, snotty rendition of Denis. Genepool bring a delightfully dark, 80’s Goth atmosphere to their apocalyptic take on War Child. Rotten Apples, convincingly poptastic on Picture This, are blessed with a soulful vocalist reminiscent at times of Concrete Blonde’s Johnette Napolitano. It is worth checking out the band’s fab pop punk album Real-Tuff (Durable Plastic) which features a posterior-bootin’ cover of ye olde Tears For Fears number Mad World plus a plethora of catchy original tunes played with passion, attitude and conviction; the eleven-piece Die Tornados give Heart Of Glass a big, brassy ska make-over that sounds mighty fine to me; punk super group Stiff-O-Matic-Fingerdogs, consisting of members of The Automatics, The Stiffs, Stiff Little Fingers, Slaughter And The Dogs and Blondied, are tight and rockin’ on Just Go Away. I love the vocal interplay, punchy drumming and sizzling guitar work; K-Mob’s ska version of Dreaming has light, laid-back vocals bubbling upon a gentle, summery vibe; Ragazza’s Fade Away and Radiate would fit nicely on a chill mix with its warm beats, dreamy vocals and rejuvenating wash of sound. Like all great tribute albums, Our Small Tribute To Blondie, has inspired me to revisit the original versions of these classic songs whilst enjoying the creativity of the interpretations. If you would like to find out more about Trash 2001 Records, check out: www.trash2001.de. (Graham Blackley)

Rotten Apples + 64 Spiders + New Luck Toy
This past summer, Seattle Metropolitan profiled Dejha Colantuono as one of our town's hottest singles, and anyone who's heard or seen her band the Rotten Apples can figure out why. It's high time to catch up with the group in its new—and best—incarnation since 2002, when Colantuono was living in L.A. and commuting to work on the music and perform. Back in Seattle, the singer/musician with the sultriest punk style this side of Joan Jett is now teamed with all-star players including Bambi Nutt (the Razorbabes), Laura Derig (formerly of the AC/DC tribute group Hell's Belles), and guitarist Kimberly Morrison, who works double-time in the equally energetic New Fangs. The Apples have just come home after a stint in Europe, where they toured for the first time and worked on their second full-length, Give You Mean. It should be out this month, so ask these badass babes for more than an autograph after they tear the place up. (Rachel Shimp)

ROTTEN APPLES - Real-Tuff (Trash 2001)
I gave this a glowing review when eMpTy Recs in Seattle released it originally and its bubblegum Punk burn has not deteriorated during the intervening period. All too often the band gets compared with Brit-Pop dullards Elastica, which is quite inaccurate. These four gals are much tougher, direct and rock ‘n’ roll driven. They shoot from their collective, cantankerous hip as opener ‘Love Career’ proves before upping the pace on ‘Road Rage’ which is all oestrogen laced fury. The singer has a great voice, somewhere between Penelope Houston’s (AVENGERS) ‘fuck you’ bile and Joan Jett’s cool, laid back sass. There are four additional tracks on this version including a couple of covers - one of which is a fun take on the UNDERTONES ‘You Got My Number’. They may be gals, but this rocks with bigger balls than most of their testosterone laced compatriots.

Seattle band The Rotten Apples have had a bit of revolving door in band members over the years, but their one constant is frontwoman Dejha Colantuono. Dejha's vocals are smoky and powerful, and the band's pop punk meets rock'n'roll is always catchy and fun. The lyrics can go from being tough and strong to hopelessly romantic and back again, often telling a story and painting a picture that really draws you in. Their debut LP "Tuff Enuff" came out in 2002 on Empty Records, it was re-released by Sonic Boom Records in 2004. The album is great and definitely worth picking up. In 2006 they had a single out on German label Trash 2001 Records.

Rotten Apples, an all-female punk band that has songwriting skills as well as wild old-school punk energy. Singer Dejha Colantuono is a manager's dream, dangerously charming even as she's spewing raging lyrics.

ROTTEN APPLES-Real Tuff (Trash 2001 Records)
Fourteen short but catchy songs are on this CD of the ROTTEN APPLES. The four ladies make a good mix of punk, hardcore, riot grrrl music, and they do it with a lot of flair. The ladies can play their instruments, and they’re not just slamming their strings in order to make as much noise as possible, trying to hide the fact that they actually can’t hit a note right. The band sounds raw, but also has a lot of melody in their sound. Variation all over, which makes them appealing to many different music fans. ROTTEN APPLES consist of Dejha Colantuono on vocals, guitar and keyboards, J.J. Henry on guitar, Bambi Nutt on bass and backing vocals, and Heather Jane Anderson on drums and backing vocals. But on the first ten songs, we hear Mandy Reed on guitar and backing vocals and Heather Moritz on bass and backing vocals. Punkier than THE DONNAS, rawer than THE MUFFS or SLEATER KINNEY and more melodic than THE DISTILLERS, the ROTTEN APPLES will sound like a surprise to you and I guess they will look really fresh on stage as well. The European release of “Real Tuff” has four interesting bonus tracks, two of them being covers. First of all, we hear “Mad World” of TEARS FOR FEARS (we also know this song from the recent GARY JULES version, by the way!), which is followed by “You’ve Got My Number” by THE UNDERTONES. The other two bonus tracks are “Heart Candy” and “F.W.A.K” (a.k.a. “Fuck Without A Kiss”), which are both re-recorded with the recent line up. These bonus tracks make the total playing time of this album a little bit more acceptable, beause with its thirty five minutes, the album is not very long. But better a short good album, than a longer album with lots of useless fillers. ROTTEN APPLES don’t look good on a fruit bowl, but they sure sound fresh in your CD player. These girls are ‘real tuff’! [8 points] (Toine van Poorten)