I've been saying this a lot lately, mainly to myself, but nonetheless it bears repeating:
Grass Widow are AWESOME. I meant to detail their greatness on here after I saw them open for Vivian Girls earlier this fall but I have been enslaved to school and various other institutions that own me, but it's not too late!!!
Why should you like them?
Technical ProwessThere's a lot of criticism of lo-fi music today, that the reverb pedal just glosses over a lack of skill, lazy voices/songwriting and no knack for melody outside the simple, upbeat and poppy. Likewise, when there's a girl in the band, or an all-girl band, people start commenting on how they look--Amelia Braekke-Dyer of UK trio Pens has complained of "when people refer to us as, 'Oh people just like them because they’re
cute and they’re
girls and they’re pretty.' But we’re still
so under fire for not being pretty enough and not being cute enough," and Dum Dum Girls sparked
a debate on Brooklyn Vegan for wearing cute dresses and tights to a CMJ gig. People get pissed that bands receive attention for looking good rather than playing well or wrongfully accuse musicians who are attractive or put-together of being talentless, and maybe this is a valid debate for some reverb-heavy bands or stylized pop stars, but this should be no question with Grass Widow.
All 3 of these girls can
sing and
play as the syncopated harmonies on "Celebrate the Mundane" alone can testify. They carry the same doo-wop/girl group nostalgia as other bands mentioned, but with something decidedly more Sleater-Kinney in how the instruments and vocals lock together. (That is my actual favorite band btw*). The hooks are much less stoic than their contemporaries but their choruses are still fit to hypnotize. Lo-fi? yes. Dizzying soprano vocals? Thank You Please. Fun-inspired riffs? I can dance to this. Check out their
LP out on Make A Mess.
They're funny, and culturally informed:At this show, Katy of the VGirlz was wearing the same dress I had just bought and almost wore that very night. When I told Grass Widow's guitarist, she was quick to pick up on the Mariah Carey/Whitney Houston drama that could have ensued had the redheaded bassist and I in fact showed up to an event in the same garment, recalling how Whitney growled, "TRY IT ON MEH!" (Except I am not as important as Kickball Katy, Mariah or Whitney so I'm sure no one would have cared).
All 3 of them can fit on 1 horse:If you ever need to get out of town and you only have a limited supply of horses--not a problem. Observe:
http://myspace.com/grasswidowmusic(
LISTEN to all 6 songs currently streaming).
*bias
Happy Holidays, all. There was no Thalassique last week; I can explain. See, sometime Sunday afternoon I went to the library to write papers, and some time Wednesday afternoon I left. But on that account, I have a question for you:
