It’s easy to describe Austin band Guilty Pleasures in a few easy phrases: hard-working all-lady rock cover band. The labels aren’t nearly enough to describe their sound, a soulful spin on rock staples that’s high on energy, heavy on swagger and always fun to watch.

Lead vocalist / keyboard player Amy McSpadden and guitar player ( / occasional talk-box vocalist) Kristen Hall, have been playing together for several years, through several iterations of the band’s lineup. Now, rounded out with Megan Caillier on drums and Lehra Gordon on bass, the quartet plays an average of three shows a week around Austin, and they’re able to do what most musicians only dream of: they’ve made the band their full-time gig.

“There are a lot of really talented people here in town and they’re playing for nothing, so the fact that we can make a living here, I’m really grateful for that,” says McSpadden.

Guilty Pleasures have built up a solid roster of classic and current rock hits. “Our favorite song to do is our version of ‘Helter Skelter’ by The Beatles,” says Hall, “but we’ve actually had bars tell us we shouldn’t do it as our last song, because not everybody knows it. And that’s part of being in a cover band. We have to consider, if we’re going to pick an artist to cover, that we’ll have to do the song. Like Joan Jett, ‘I Love Rock n Roll.’ We do other Joan Jett songs, but we have to do that one. Especially when you’re a girl band, it’s kind of expected.”

Hall was raised in Greenville, Texas (the same town that Ben Kweller’s from; in fact, the two shared a music teacher, the iconic Trig Ward). She started playing guitar in her late teens, developing style informed by her wide-ranging taste.

“I was a big alternative 90s rock fan; Tool is one of my favorite bands, Stone Temple Pilots,” she explains. “That was my thing. Alice in Chains and Soundgarden and Pearl Jam, basic stuff. Also I got super into girly music, though, like Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow.”

McSpadden giggles a little at the mention of McLachlan, pointing out that her tastes as a teen were a little edgier. “I was more into classic rock stuff: Zeppelin, Stones, Beatles — lots of Beatles. When I was 14, I raided my parent’s record collection and pulled out all the Beatles. I started with Meet The Beatles and went all the way through, laying down next to my stereo. And I’m big into Blondie, she’s kind of my hero.”

But just because they’re a band that happens to feature all female members, doesn’t mean they’re Go-Go-obsessed girl-rockers. Quite the opposite, in fact.

“You know what’s weird,” McSpadden notes, “generally, I don’t like female singers. When I listen to rock and roll, I like most of the guys. Like, Zeppelin is Robert Plant. I always thought that sometimes the women didn’t have that bite I like. People that did — like Blondie, Benetar, Heart — they just had this bigger presence. I just never really got into the other stuff. Besides Madonna. She is a guilty pleasure.”

That notion — that women in rock can’t quite compete with their edgier male peers — comes up a lot, around the band and in rock criticism in general.

“Girls in rock and roll are somewhat of an anomaly, and an all-girl band is like a unicorn, a golden unicorn,” says McSpadden. “People will say to me, ‘I haven’t even seen an all girl band before.’ Which is a shame to me — almost in 2012, really? Is it that big of a deal that you can’t name 25 all girl rock bands off the top of your head?”

Guilty Pleasures are a welcome addition to the list, and they’re branching out to conquer new rock territory, working on some original songs to add to their setlists. It’s been an interesting process for the group, who are used to working with songs they already agree are awesome.

“Think about it like writing a poem that you want everyone in this one group to like, and be a part of,” explains Hall. “It’s a lot of ego, it’s sensitive, because it’s something that you like or you create, and everyone else has their own opinions. Writing as a group is going to be very interesting.”

When she’s not onstage, Hall teaches guitar, and McSpadden rows with a competitive team. But there’s not a whole lot of downtime.

“We do a lot of work for the band; a lot of scheming, planning to take over the world and stuff like that,” jokes McSpadden. “This is our full time job, this is what we do. We’re not like killing it, but we’re all making a living. And on something that started just as fun, but organically grew into something that was just our full time job, which is pretty awesome.”

Some of the finer points of being a working musician in Austin aren’t so awesome, though. One thing Guilty Pleasures can’t stand? Parking downtown.

“There are specific spots reserved for musician loading and unloading, for which you have to have a permit,” McSpadden explains. “And nobody who issues tickets knows where you have to go to get that permit. It’s the live music capital of the world — there really should be some infrastructure to support live music.”

Hall notes it’s not uncommon for bands to end up with hundreds of dollars worth of fines for parking offenses. “You can be in the middle of a gig and you’ll get a ticket because you can’t feed the meter.”

Take note, meter maids: don’t mess with the Guilty Pleasures — they’ve got more attitude than they can fit onstage, and they’re definitely driven enough to shake things up on the stages and sidewalks of 6^th Street.

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Catch Guilty Pleasures Tuesday nights at Whiskey & INK (11 p.m. – 2 a.m.), Fridays at Chuggin’ Monkey (8:30 p.m. – 11 p.m.) and Saturdays at Thirsty Nickel (8:30 p.m. – 11 p.m.).