Ratka says they are not trying to attach themselves to any specific genre (peace-punk, anarcho, death rock, goth, post-punk) however the group's desert island picks in a 2014 cvltnation.com interview were intriguing enought that I was inspired to check out their music for myself.
Q:A question I ask all bands: If you all were stranded on a desert island, and somehow magically had the means to play records, but could only take 5 records with you, what would those 5 records be?
Natha: Big Boys records and definitely Ramones.
Laura: Hahaha, maybe Cólera Pela “Paz em Todo Mundo” LP, Crass’s 7’’ EP “Nagasaki Nightmare,” Gauze’s “Fuckheads” LP, Las Otras’ “Devolver el Golpe” LP, and Ras Michael and Sons of Negus LP. Nyahbinghi compilation.
Paula: This is so hard. Om, “Advaitic Songs“; Pedro Santos, “Krishnanda“; Spacemen 3, “Playing with Fire“; Dead Can Dance, “Spiritchaser“; Pink Floyd, “Live at Pompeii.”
Carla: Melody Nelson, Serge Gainsbourg. Universal Consciousness, Alice Coltrane. Ramones, Ramones. Black Ark in Dub, Lee Perry. Garlands, Cocteau Twins. Future Days, Can.
Ratka's music definitely reminds me of an '80s crust punk band slowed down with a delay pedal and extra reverb to a speed better suited for slow motion head banging in a cave.
Ava Luna has always interested me because this 5 piece NYC group gracefully combines the impossible - Prince and the Revolution recreating a Dirty Projector's album.
Member Felicia Douglass is also one half of Gemma who released As Ever last October. I can't decide was I like most about this smart, modern R&B duo; the undeniable chemistry or fresh song structures that are complex and strong without being dense much like a spider's web. The backdrop is lacey, clever electronics paired with a soulful voice that avoids showy acrobatics by tactfully weaving herself into the body of music. This versatile body of work bridges the likes of Stones Throw Records art-hop to Domino Records electro-pop.
Bands like Kiss, The Stooges, and the Ramones never appealed to me as a kid mostly because it seemed like a boys club. I liked heavy music but by the late '80s most of the hardcore and metal scene felt almost exclusively made by men and for men. The audience included women however at shows women were rarely up front by the stage where the pit was often violent or targeted any girl who dare enter that frenzied male dominated arena.
It was frustrating to like a style of music, have the same aggression and teenage hormones as the boys in the room, but still feel pushed to the back of the room and unwelcomed. It wasn't until 1990 that I discovered bands like L7, Babes in Toyland, STP, Hole, and Lunachicks who were the first women I had ever seen not just play heavy music but dominate it. These bands were a tight unit of girls that looked like a gang (minus Hole who had a male member) and I wanted to be a part of. They were tough, loud, could play their instruments, drank, spit, cursed, screamed, had tattoos, performed in filthy dark clubs, and proved to me that there was room in punk / grunge / metal for ladies too.
These women all seemed fearless and each member took on a slightly different shade of rebellion so there was room to be as feminine, masculine, or anything in between you felt best fit you. This is the stuff of awe to a teenage girl who didn't think there was room for women in hard rock. Riot Grrrl was just starting to bubble up on the other side of the country so for those of us who were teens in the '80s looking for women to inspire us on a stage who were loud and angry, these were our heroines and they came first.
The Lunachicks were perhaps the biggest influence to me because I could see them perform the most often. They were a New York City all female band who played NY and NJ relatively often from the late '80s through the '90s. I enjoyed that they played heavy / fast music and looked tougher than any guy I knew. I mean this was a band that looked tougher than any local male musicians I knew and they were heavily tattooed before this was cool or accepted in popular culture. Hell, one of the members was a tattoo artist, something incredibly bad ass to teenage me.
Their vocalist Theo Kogan depending on her over the top theatrical costume choices could also rival an exoctic runway model. She could magically morph herself into any freak character, had a sense of humor, carried kitsch like an extreme version of the B-52s, but was still insanely strong. I had never seen a women present such a intense balance of feminine and masculine characteristics.
I worshipped the Lunachicks but sort of feared for my life in their presence too. It was a lot to process while I was in high school trying to feel comfortable in my own skin but they were the perfect storm of bold to give me the inspiration to join a band a few years later. They are also probably why I got my first tattoo as a senior in high school much to everyone's horror. They and L7 are also why I had dreads in 1990. They were also the first band to deliver a mosh pit that welcomed women which is something to this day I rarely see. Thanks ladies.
I don't have many fears but being locked alone in a tight space without light would be on the short list. A deep depression is much like this, it can feel like you are alone, lost, and trapped in a place of darkness with not hope of escape. Daughter's new and second album is an unabashed display of sadness and varying scales of black and grey. Thematically this does not stray far from their debut If You Leave however the music and the production this time around place a magnifying glass to the ripples of quiet gloom and here you have amplified swells of heartache bringing them closer to a post-rock band like Mogwai or Sigur Ros with the voice much like Margo Timmins from from Cowboy Junkies (smokey hush).
My introduction to the band came through the film A Long Way Down and their single "Youth". It seems in hindsight that this match of film to band couldn't have been more appropriate. It is film dedicated to the concept of suicide of what it takes to step back of that ledge to keep on living. If there was a body of music that places you teetering on that ledge, feeling the combination of grief and the weightlessness of leaving it all behind, English band Daughter's catalog is that.
My only complaint is that after two records of heartache going from subtle to a little louder, I would like to hear other colors in the band's emotional pallet. It doesn't matter how gorgeous your hamster wheel is, you are still going around in sad little circles.
The '60s offered quite a few campy beach movies with ginchy musical numbers featuring kids dancing along in wild appreciation. One of my favorites of this genre stars Nancy Sinatra who also performs a song in the 1966 classic The Ghost Of the Invisible Bikini. It's packs a one two punch of comedy-kiddie horror meets an excuse to parade good looking college kinds in bathing suits who writhe with pleasure to those crazy sounds of surf guitars. Yummy!
(Nancy performs at the 13:50 mark but here is the whole film for your viewing pleasure)
The She-Devils are a boy/girl Montreal duo that electronically reproduces these retro beachy tunes to perfection. They have even mastered the snap, crackle, and pop of an old record to make their brand of dreamy pop all the more vintage. I highly recommend checking out their new EP which is out now. The lead single "Come" is posted below.
A group like Noonday Underground have come before them to blend mod, soul, and bubblegum to sophisticated UK breakbeats but this is the first time I have heard someone come this close to recreating Nancy Sinatra's dead pan sex kitten voice. If you loved Mad Men for their thoughtful recreation of another time, The She-Devils will be the olive in your martini.
I have a review to post but that will happen tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy one of my favorite bands Girls at Our Best. They were from Leeds, England and existed from 1979 to 1982. The are perfectly pop but still rough around the edges. Fun fact, "She Blinded Me with Science" artist Thomas Dolby was a guest artist on their 1981 LP entitled Pleasure.
Some folks might recognize this song because the Wedding Present covered it.
