Blast First
"Scratchy punk from all-girl quartet"
These quirky post-punk revivalists have been lumped in with the New York crowd, but actually hail from the San Francisco Bay Area; Just shows you shouldn't always believe the hype. This, their 2001 full-lenght debut, tinkers with shards of spiky guitar, patented post-punk funk basslines and a thrillingly uninhibited vocal performance from Jenny Hoyston : think PJ Harvey being repeatedly kicked by Yoko Ono to a twitchy ska accompaniment and you're almost there. A vicious collection of nervy thumbnail sketches, it can occasionally fall into self-indulgent freeform noise. But maybe that's part of its charm.
Martin O'Gorman