The Pandoras is an all-female garage punk band from Los Angeles, California with a run from 1982 to 1991. The band is among the first handful of all-female rock bands to ever be signed. From the beginning, the band found a strong following in the Hollywood garage rock and Paisley Underground scene, making the gossip pages almost weekly. The Pandoras enjoyed strong radio support from DJ Rodney Bingenheimer. The band graduated from the garage rock sound to a more contemporary, hard rock style in later years, spawning the off-shoot band The Muffs. The Pandoras founder/singer/songwriter, Paula Pierce, died on August 10, 1991, of a brain aneurysm at the age of 31. The Muffs front-woman/founder Kim Shattuck who played bass in the Pandoras from 1985 to 1990 passed in October 2nd, 2019 from ALS. Shattuck had appeared as lead singer/lead guitarist of the reunited Pandoras in recent years, until her passing. Formation The Pandoras began in late 1982 as part of the 1960s garage rock revival. They were associated with the Paisley Underground era in Hollywood's underground rock scene that shared an aesthetic heavily influenced by 1960s garage rock and psychedelia. Pierce, a resident of Chino, California until 1984, had been a member of the Hollywood music scene; playing in bands since 1976. The Pandoras were formed when singer/guitarist Pierce, a member of the mod/garage/pop Action Now, met singer/guitarist/bass player Deborah Mendoza (aka Menday), at Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga in 1982. Mendoza, an art major, answered an ad that Pierce, a graphic arts major, had posted on the bulletin board in the cafeteria. The ad read, "Wanted, another female musician to jam with! Influenced by sixties garage punk." They began bringing their guitars to school and jamming between classes. Pierce, singer/songwriter/lead guitarist, brought in Gwynne Kahn on keyboards/guitar/backing vocals. Mendoza on bass, brought in drummer Casey Gomez. After a band meeting in December 1982, The Pandoras were born, though names such as The Keyholes, Hole, The wHolesome, and The Goodwylls were considered first. Early career and controversy After recording their first EP in 1983, I'm Here I'm Gone on Moxie Records, Mendoza left the group. She was replaced on bass by Bambi Conway, a childhood friend of Kahn, who recalled that the pair "used to go to the Whiskey together and we were like . . . in grade school." In 1984 Conway, Kahn, Gomez, and Pierce appeared on The