I Take It Pretty Deep From The Lord

Giant Drag @ Bowery Ballroom 11/10/2005
YFLMD / This Isn’t It / Wicked Game (“I wrote it, it was stolen, I WANT IT BACK.”) / unknown new song / Smashing / My Dick Sux / Kevin Is Gay

Giant Drag “This Isn’t It” – Giant Drag either came ten years too late, or (optimistically) ten years too early. With few exceptions, it seems like a very lousy time to be in a female fronted rock band. Unless you’re a lucky pop star like Kelly Clarkson, Ashlee Simpson, or Amy Lee, there seems to be an ever-dwindling market for this music, and with the exception of Sleater-Kinney (who barely count since they were established as indie stars in the ’90s), critics seem to be largely indifferent to upbeat rock made by women, instead favoring more stereotypically delicate female performers such as Joanna Newsom. Not to get off on a tangent that I’m not fully prepared to detail, but it’s not exactly shocking to me that aggressive, critical female voices would be so far from the mainstream of white American culture in the decade of self-defeating, anti-feminist, hyper materialist Female Chauvinist Pigs. (Read the book, it’s great.)

Giant Drag’s Annie Hardy is very clearly a product of the ’90s. It’s all over her music – references to Loveless, To Bring You My Love, Exile In Guyville, Last Splash, American Thighs, Live Through This, and plenty of other records that I’m sure we both owned as teenagers. She’s an impressive guitarist with a gift for instrumental hooks, though it seems clear that she’s still in the process of finding her own style. In person, she’s tiny and girlish, and delivers witty banter between songs in a nasal deadpan similar to that of Sarah Vowell, but with the comedic sensibility of Amy Sedaris. Many of her jokes on stage were at the expense of her drummer Micah, who often plays one-handed keyboard parts while playing the drums with his remaining limbs. I’m certain the band would sound better with a larger line-up, but the two have a strong chemistry that they are probably wise not to dilute. Unfortunately, the band did not have nearly enough time to play all of the songs I would have liked to have seen them play (my first choice for a song to post was not performed!), so hopefully they’ll be back around here again sometime soon. I strongly recommend that you join me, even if it’s just for her jokes. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Marit Bergman (featuring Cecilia Norlund) “Adios Amigos” – Some of you may remember this track from when I originally posted it last year. For the benefit of newer readers: Marit Bergman is like the clever, selfaware Swedish version of Avril Lavigne, mixing up strong pop balladry with rockers that appropriate from the likes of The Strokes and feature funny, self-deprecating lyrics that address the difficulties of fitting into the pop marketplace. “Adios Amigos” remains one of my favorite songs to ever be posted on this site, and I defy you to not feel giddy when its chorus zooms into overdrive. NYC readers take note: Marit will be performing two solo shows in the area over this weekend – Friday 11/11: Pianos, 8 pm (LES) and Sunday 13/11: Barbés, 8 pm (Park Slope). (Click here for the official Marit Bergman website.)