Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 06/17/2003
New wave meets
no wave on a Twin Cities bus, and the next stop is mid-'90s
Kill Rock Stars-style slash and burn
girl punk revivalism. They still make bands like this? From the start to its all-too-quick finish,
the Soviettes' eponymous debut is a treble-kicking trip to the past in glorious fast-forward.
Sturgeon (
Maren Mocosko) ,
Annie Holoien,
Susy Sharp, and Y chromosome ringer
Danny Henry know it's all been done before -- the overdriven, two-minute songs, spazzy drum fills, and
Raincoats-style
girl group vocals. But their skinny fists are packed with melodies, their socks are striped, and every bassline is lovingly shellacked by slashing, barely tuned guitars that make everything sound like
Sleater-Kinney covering
Lush on a crappy AM radio station. Of course, there will be naysayers. The bandwagon scuttlebutt in their native Minneapolis has tended to focus more on the girls' ex-boyfriends' bands, and besides this full-length, there's only one measly 7" to ferret out. But doesn't half-assed exuberance count for anything anymore? It certainly did when
Yo-Yo's
Periscope compilation came out in 1998.
The Soviettes is the spiritual cousin to that album's fabulous amateurism, and carries the torch for the "Hey! Let's start a band!" movement that spawned so many inspired combos during the 1990s
indie rock boom. "Do you know why they hate us?" sing
the Soviettes in
"Clueless," a peppy
punk-wave rocker that clocks in at a minute and a half. It might be the soundbite before
"Land of the Clear Blue Radio" that indirectly proclaims them as the saviors of
rock & roll. But then the neck-nodding song starts, complete with a four-four count-off, white
noise guitars, and squealing vocals. It's hard to hate full-on when your feet are dancing so fast.
~Johnny Loftus, All Music Guide
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