Lesbian hunters

Lesbian alt-rock band Hunter Valentine is about to get a lot more exposure, care of the first bicoastal season of Showtime’s The Real L Word.

Showtime recently announced that all four members of the band, who spend most of their time in Brooklyn these days, are going to be featured on the upcoming season of the show. For the first time, it will include cast members from both the East Coast and the West Coast.

According to a recent poll conducted by Showtime, the show’s audience is predominantly composed of straight women.

“I find that really interesting,” says Laura Petracca, Hunter Valentine’s drummer and cofounder. “I’m wondering if they want to be lesbians? I want to ask them: Is the drama better? Is the sex better? What makes you want to watch it?”

The reason for the unexpectedly straight audience might have to remain a mystery, but the tell-all nature of the show won’t leave much else to the imagination. From March until May of this year, members of Hunter Valentine were followed around and recorded by The Real L Word’s camera crew, including during a two-week tour through the United States.

“That was really crazy,” Petracca says. “Everywhere you go, there’s a film crew of eight people that come with you — following you around and asking you for your schedule. When you’re on tour, things go wrong all the time and schedules change frequently. And a lot of people want to know who you are, but you’re not allowed to say what you’re filming. A lot of the time we’d say, ‘Oh, it’s a documentary on my band.’”

The Real L Word, which is distributed by Showtime Originals and is now heading into its third season, airs in several countries around the world. The girls from Hunter Valentine hope that kind of visibility will help to take their project to the next level.

“It’s a really exciting opportunity to have a platform like that to expose your music and your band and what you do,” says Kiyomi McCloskey, the vocalist, lead guitarist and cofounder of Hunter Valentine. “That’s the whole reason we did it. As a band, our biggest goal has always been to play to as many people as possible in as many places as possible. We’ve done some tours in Europe, but we’d really like to take it to Asia and Australia.”

Hunter Valentine first formed in 2004 when Petracca and McCloskey, who are best friends, decided to share their sound with Toronto’s indie music scene. They’ve since been signed to New York’s Tommy Boy label. Their third album, called Collide and Conquer, is now being mastered and is due out in August. The band has got a Canadian tour in the works to launch the new disc, including a headlining spot on Capital Pride’s main stage on Aug 26.

“All the major cities in Canada,” Petracca says. “We’re going to make it up there somewhere between August and September!”

Word is that they’ll soon be leaking a song from the new album. Keep your eye out for a new track called “Liar Liar.”