Girlbandgeek Blog

Lush is the much-anticipated full-length arriving June 8 from talented, and preternaturally self-confident guitarist and song-writer Lindsey Jordan and band. If you haven’t already read about Snail Mail in the NY Times, and fucking everywhere else, now you know: this 18 year-old from DC has come to save rock and roll. Three songs from Lush have already been released on various streaming sites – Pristine, Heat Wave and Let’s Find An Out. I’m not going to pretend to know what they’re about, but the feelings range from heart ache and longing to rage. Lindsey’s guitar playing is amazing, and the vocals are bare and sincere. Do your ears a favor and check Snail Mail out.

I just watched the videos from Speedy Ortiz’s new album Twerp Verse which was released on April 27. I’m going to go out on a limb and say this may be their best album to date. It’s smart, complex, heartfelt, and the band is playing and singing better than ever. Reading the comments on YouTube (almost always a mistake) I was struck how so many dudes, mostly, seem to think that Speedy Ortiz has been going downhill since Major Arcana. I mean, I like Major Arcana, too, but Foil Deer also excellent, and don’t forget to mention the great EP’s Sports and Real Hair, and so on. I can’t help but make a connection between Sadie’s increasingly articulate voice for feminism, consent, gender equality and against racism, fat-shaming, slut-shaming, rape culture, ableism and so on, and the number of dudes complaining that Speedy Ortiz should go back to their grungy “roots” of Major Arcana. Perhaps I am reading too much into it, but I think not.

Anyway, if you’re okay with Speedy not re-making Major Arcana over and over again, give Twerp Verse a listen – you may just like it! I for one think the world is a much better place for having Sadie Dupuis and her rocking band mates in it.

Around 2015 someone told me to give a listen to a band called Joanna Gruesome. I did, and I instantly fell in love with this chaotic, gorgeous noise pop band from Wales. Their great origin story is that they formed after meeting in an anger management group. Sadly, brilliant vocalist and songwriter Alanna McArdle announced her departure from the band shortly before I was to see them in San Francisco. At last Ms. McArdle has joined a new band called Ex Vöid with Owen Williams (also from JG) as well as Laurie Foster, Kester Davies and Jon Coddington (according to Brooklyn Vegan). Ex Vöid’s first single Boyfriend pairs McArdle & Williams’ vocals with with great guitar hooks. You’ll want to listen to it over and over. They’ve got a 3-song EP on Bandcamp, and are currently on tour with Waxahatchee in the UK. Girlbandgeek says check it out!