Dual Reviews: Grass Widow “Past Time”, The She’s “510 (Single)”

Because good old pop music deserves as much analysis as multilayered conceptual music

From Left: Lillian Maring, Raven Mahon, Hannah Lew (Grass Widow), Sami Perez, Eva Treadway, Hannah Valente, Sinclair Riley (The She’s)

This week, two prominent Bay Area female garage groups are slated to release new work. Grass Widow, an adult garage band, often referred to as “riot grrl” will release Past Time their second full length album and “major” label debut on Kill Rock Stars this Tuesday, August 24th. Grass Widow are embarking on an extensive national and international tour this fall, and will swing by their home city San Francisco several times. The single “Shadow” has been Stereogum’d and Forkcast’d and PitchforkTV’d along with getting pre-release accolades from blogs and review sites such as cokemachineglow and Fader. The second band, The She’s, a teenage garage-pop (or less garage-y in this case, you’ll hear later) have finished a week in the studio working on three new singles, under the main title “510″ or “510″ b/w “Wonder Band” and “Surfer Boys”, or the EP’s name, whose working title is “/\/\ /\ Y /\.” We don’t have a release date for The She’s work yet, although they mentioned that there is still mixing and mastering to complete. It will be up via internet sometime in the next few weeks (and hopefully, I’m prodding them so, to release it on vinyl at a later date, along with their debut full length Carnawhore-that’s not really the title of it, but it’s my suggestion).

I both have special relationships with Grass Widow and The She’s—both personally and musically. I was introduced to Grass Widow by a friend and creative mentor Justin Carder, the drummer for the now temporarily defunct Strip Mall Seizures, on the eve of February 5th, 2010. I felt so happy to discover them, that I had been broken of my Pitchfork Best New Music only listening habits, and could find myself immersed in another world of music that was unknown to Pitchfork’s aggressive love, hate, and fan boosting abilities. Grass Widow have started my knack for discovering what is around my neck of the woods, and I feel as much despair for missing a local show because it’s 21+ than I’d miss a larger show by an out of town band that I missed due to lack of money. I’ve been opened to a world of record label owners, music writers, musicians, promoters, and figures in the Bay Area’s music and underground social scene. And it wasn’t until recently did Pitchfork move up to speed with me, giving blurbs about San Francisco in their news section, passively referring to it in ways such as “yet another band from San Francisco…”

Several months after I heard Grass Widow’s music for the first time at the Great American Music Hall, and had bought a vinyl of their EP and a cassette of their full length, I had been professing love for other Bay Area garage groups such as Sonny & The Sunsets, Ty Segall, The Sandwitches, Trainwreck Riders, The Fresh & Onlys and whatever was featured on the compilation In A Cloud: New Sounds From San Francisco. In early April, I experienced one of the most epiphanic weekends ever, one that I spent surrounded by cigarette smoke, art galleries, North Oakland, and the wonderful sounds of the lovely Sandwitches. Experiencing that inside weekend I was struck with how I much I knew of the scene, and the advantage I had to document it and help it grow.

It was around that time that I had just found who had become to be my most musically and analytically alike collaborator Daniel Bromfield. And why do I love The She’s? Well, aside from them being some of the sweetest, smartest, and coolest people ever, they mentioned that Daniel was also a music writer. I ended up meeting him in person, which added another whole level of musical partnership and exploration of the Bay Area sound, introducing to each other the stylings of twentysomething bedroom DIY artists to aspiring teenage rock n’ roll.

Both the She’s and Grass Widow have paved the way for me to be surrounded by opportunity with the Bay Area music crowd. I have discovered more bands, organizations, and reasons to write about my city and the music within it. I have cultivated a whole new circle of friends and acquaintances with stepping inside the scene, and I want to help broaden and influence it by contributing my writing and interest to draw attention to my friends, whose music can be hidden away by the hierarchical music industry, and even the hierarchical paradox of “independent” music.

This is why I am writing a dual review of their albums, so I can share and also compare two sides of San Francisco’s music, and possibly introduce one to the other. Also, I haven’t blogged in a while and want to start with something more definitive and broad than just a plain old review, which is why I added the anecdote.

Grass Widow, Past Time

Grass Widow have endured a big year. They accepted a deal with influential record label Kill Rock Stars, opened for Sonic Youth at their annual show at Prospect Park in New York, and debuted a music video for their phenomenal single “Shadow” on Pitchfork tv. They have gone from releasing CD-R’s and playing in old studios and warehouses (well, they still do that) to releasing vinyl on Captured Tracks to headlining shows at larger scale Bay Area venues. Aside from the year being big attention wise, Grass Widow have also changed personally and musically. Singer and bassist Hannah Lew lost her father this year, which the band altogether mourned. The loss was an inspiration for sound and tone on the new  record, and is also a recurring lyrical and sonic theme. Aside from the loss and it’s impact on their lyrics and tone, Grass Widow have changed by developing their sound, polishing tracks by eliminating throwaway scuzz and refining their songwriting skills—with more precise harmonies, meter, and hooks yet still retain their unique personality and edge.

Past Time opens with “Uncertain Memory,” which unveils a developed and evolved Grass Widow, with a song structure and instrumental embellishment more diverse than they’ve ever created. It’s darker, wider, and more polished, with much more central focus on particular sections and instruments, such as the string laden violin bridge towards the end. Yes, the song still contains the walk on the beach boardwalk riff that is delivered one way or another in most of their songs, but it’s definitely spookier, more minor key, with the drum shuffles being sparser and more intensely played at certain intervals. Their vocals are also cleaner cut, with a higher register uttered. Their signature three part harmonies are replaced with chants of unison for the verses, with less lyrics and more vocal restraint. The emotional center of “Uncertain Memory” is it’s climatic intertwining of the violin, clattering cymbals and snares, and the weary, stark chords of the baritone guitar.

And, ironically enough, the fading of “Uncertain Memory” is brought by an abrupt start of “Shadow”–with warmer, sunnier chords opening the song, which causes a direct shift in mood, and an interesting juxtaposition for the album. “Shadow” feels like the beginning of the record, and that “Uncertain Memory” was a slow and introductory teaser for an album of more upbeat and faster tempo songs. I discovered Shadow when it was leaked onto Stereogum in late June, and I listened to it more than twenty times. It’s a catchy garage pop song with plenty of overlapping harmonies and melodic transitions, which makes it a complex work of guitar and songwriting, yet a straightforward and listener friendly tune. All of the instrumental forays in “Shadow” are met with excellent precision of tying together in the end. It’s a work of spaciousness, complexity, but is also grounded, cohesive, and restrained. I love the vibe I receive every time I listen to “Shadow”—I find it to be their best song to date, a single that is timeless and that deserves more recognition. It’s existence amongst plenty of other self-proffessed catchy garage songs stands out. It’s distinctive harmonic and melodic patterns give my ears the illusion that it’s a completely whole new territory for garage music, yet I find hints of familiarity with each listen. It’s both a new revelation for garage rock, and also a clear staple of it’s representation in the 21st century.

Past Time deepens and moves around, with tempos, tones, and moods changing with each song unveiled throughout the course of the album. Random interludes of down-home and twangy string arrangements are revealed in tracks such as “Give Me Shapes” and “Old Disguise” plays out another match made in heaven cacophony of trio harmonies, that borrow from songwriting and stylistic conventions of more retro sounding girl group music. Along with “Shadow” and “Uncertain Memory”, “Fried Egg”, the sixth track on the record, is all over the map structure wise, being 3:32 (above average for their song lengths) and including moments of well recorded vocal solos to the powerhouse trio of overdubbed vocals featured in the chorus, backed by rollicking and heavy guitar work. The chorus is an excellent juxtaposition of their soft sounding and restrained voices to the power of the instrumental background. “Fried Egg” is scattered in the garage sense, it’s not scattered or opaque in the Owen Pallett opus sense, but it has more depth than the average surf-guitar 2 minute repetitive sunny garage track.

Past Time in it’s second half introduces more instrumental and songwriting boundaries that I haven’t heard Grass Widow explore before. “Submarine” delves into what looks like experimental territory in the first 15 seconds. The opening of the song is the drone of what sounds like an organ overdubbed to a more synthetic sound, and it’s repetition sets the stage for what could be an Animal Collective looping-pedal freakout or downtempo chillwave collage. But the organ eventually fades out, leaving it’s echos implanted in your ears as the surf guitars and cowbell clatter of the sharp percussion begin. “Submarine” is ear candy, and has the essence of Galaxie 500 shimmer in it’s early stages. It becomes darker with the latter of the chorus, but turns around again with shimmering guitar and bass strums and glistening harmonies. The bridge features the more wooly and expansive sound of the Grass Widow trio, it can sound nasal, but also very full and hearty. Then, we hear the organ kicking in after we hear the last of the Galaxie 500 shimmer pattern (that I love, obviously) as it fades out with perfect precision to how it begun.

The final 2 songs on the record are “Strangers Come” and “Tuesday.” “Strangers Come” builds the tempo back up a bit and the lyric and voices are more sharply and quickly enunciated. To be honest, I have trouble hearing the details within Grass Widow member’s voices, but can often build a framework of what they are conveying, such as the idea of the shadow in “Shadow” and “11 of Diamonds.” The idea of the subconscious is also prominent in their existential lyrics (why else do you think a blog called the Subconscious would be reviewing them?). In previous recordings, their voices almost feel like vocal warm ups and syllable stretching exercises, since they are buried under several layers of noise, but whether you can hear every strain of every note or not, the members of Grass Widow have expanded their voices to the fullest and freest. There are some songs with such instrumental power that can affect me more emotionally than the lyrics do, even the tone of a voice can affect me more than what the vocalist is actually singing. To me, a beautiful and heart rendering harmony or tone expressed in a song usually has the staying power, and grabs me more instantly than the lyrics. And when I get around to reading or making out the lyrics, they don’t often fit with the tone of the musical component that the song is trying to create, which I find acceptable. Anything that is anthemic in a lush and subtle sense can raise hairs on my neck.

The final song “Tuesday” is a great way to end an album that is brief yet expansive and satisfying. We hear most of what they’ve played stylistically and structurally over the course of the record, the wooly and featured harmonies and overdubs, the slurred and fast tempo chants and the higher register croons. We also hear the string sections weaving together beautifully yet chaotically. It may sound sloppy and sparse to some ears, but it’s lackluster and sometimes off-kilter melodic progression fits perfectly and naturally into the ears of others.

Grass Widow have created yet another great work of simple yet complex music, breaking a dimension that is known to garage rock of being way too simplistic, way too all the same. Grass Widow have matured their sound, replacing scuzzy and analog sounds with cleaner yet still gritty and analog sounds. Past Time is a testimony to their uniqueness and integrity as individuals and as a band. People often consider Grass Widow under the misconstrued category of “riot grrl” or “fem-punk” or whatever category made to separate an individual’s musical vision because of their gender. Grass Wiow are just people, with the same ambitions that male rock and roll bands have. They don’t have overly feminist or knockout political agendas, they aren’t drawing attention to their gender as much as who they are themselves. They may be breaking stereotypes and causing the media to think differently about women in music, but they are doing so subconsciously, which is ultimately the smartest and most mature way to deliver a political message. They are here to make their music, and their act of doing so is a bold and beautiful statement itself.

Grass Widow’s music video for “Shadow” which hit Pitchfork.tv this July.

If I had to review the album upon a numerical scale, I would give it an 8.5 out of ten.

Grass Widow perform at the Cyclone Warehouse in Potrero Hill, San Francisco on September 10th with STLS and with Shannon and the Clams. The show is in celebration of the record release, and will feature an all female backing choir. All ages.

JUST ADDED: Grass Widow will also perform an instore at Amoeba Records in San Francisco at 2pm on Saturday, September 11th. For those of you who cannot make the September 10th Cyclone Warehouse show, this set is STRONGLY ENCOURAGED. You Bay Area people better attend! Or, if you can, go to both!

The She’s: “510″ single aka /\/\ /\ Y /\

I have been corresponding with The She’s over the past two weeks, aside from my regular chat with them as friends, about their expected release of a new single. I keep asking when their full length will be out, have they contacted labels, when will they release vinyl. The most recent thing that has happened with The She’s aside from their normal slew of well booked gigs is the recording of their singles “510″, “Wonder Band”, and “Surfer Jam” the now titled “Surfer Boys” which have been performed live and developed over the last few months and we’re finally recorded, produced, and refined this August.

I was talking to lead guitarist Eva Treadway on Facebook, and asked her if I could hear an advanced preview. She emailed the three singles to me. She told me she was interested in reading my review. I have an ongoing joke about the rating scale, so I told her it would probably get a 2.7 (even though I don’t use any scale but words in my reviews) as a joke (even though I hadn’t even heard the album yet) and she said that she only approves star ratings (we have an ongoing joke about me being an, um, Pitchfork whore?) and I said, “what are you, M.I.A?” since M.I.A. loves to decide for the critics how to think of her (at least she tries to). And then I began writing the styling of M A Y A for fun, and and then asked Eva what was the name of the EP. I then couldn’t resist doing the /\/\ /\ Y /\ again, and when she finally answered, she said that that is the name of the EP. So there you have it folks, The She’s have joined the list of people desperately wanting to piss of M.I.A.

The She’s have always been a power pop band, from what I’ve recalled from other people’s sayings, even when I find them so much more than that. What are they the female Weezer? Eww, I have no desire to think of that. But even if they aren’t power pop, they aren’t nitty gritty dirtbag garage rock, especially on their most recent single. The She’s have stopped recording in their bedrooms or with cheap equipment, and have settled into the luxury of temporary studios, with certain sections and aspects of songs emphasized with volume and delivery. The She’s definitely seem like they feel more confident as musicians on their tracks, and the rich sounds penetrated by the recording quality aren’t creating the illusion. Similar to Grass Widow, the She’s have tried a variety of instruments on these three singles, from mandolin to what I believe is glockenspiel to keyboards, creating another paradox to their sound. It’s more complicated than you think, and they add more layers and more unraveling subtleties on these songs. Some of the instruments can sound so clean that they could have been mastered and thrown in by GarageBand, but it’s evident otherwise that The She’s have grown stylistically and in their own songwriting and regular performance skills.

The song “510″ is met with the conventions of the girl group sound, it’s Best Coast without the weed, Vivian Girls without the 4-track. Ooh-wa-ooh-ooh-wa is the repetitive chant on “510″ and it’s the warmest, sunniest, and feel good vibe delivered on the track. “510″s lyrics are clearer, more expansive, with similar girl group emotional territory covered as Best Coast, with really down to basics love songs that use certain four letter vocabulary ten million times in one sentence. Yet, with their lyrics still being simplistic, the delivery of them is more hard hitting, while still being light and playful songs, the way the lyrics are uttered and their own literary phrasing is better, more coherent, and more relatable. Obviously, they’ve listened to a lot of Best Coast. Again, without the weed.

The only thing lacking in “510″ is it’s bridge—the repetition seems to be going so smoothly it could almost fade out like a motown song, yet the song still turns around and adds another whole dimension, one that is good on it’s own, but seems disruptive to the song ending naturally. Yet, the She’s turn it around when they play the bridge a second time, and the song ends on a positive note.

The other two songs, “Wonder Band” and “Surfer Boys” are even more musically developed. The implications of Wonder Band, as straightforward as the lyrics are, have direct connotations to larger ideas about the role of bands in independent music, that is, if I had to use wonder band in a five paragraph analytical essay, I could draw that much out of it, even if there aren’t many words spoken much longer than say 10 letters. Aside from “Wonder Band”‘s cheeky lyrics about stardom and the roles of gender (almost the opposite of Grass Widow’s rhetoric about feminism), the tone of it is very fluffy, light, and more acoustic, it’s almost too filling, too rich and too confined to be as real and honest as the lyrics. Singer Sami Perez utters the lyrics excellently, putting emphasis on the emotions, but the rest of the song can blend in like a lull, almost monotone. I can picture “Wonder Band” with more amps, more tempo, more distortion and I can picture a great headbanger. But right now I don’t see the great lyrics matching up with the background music.

“Surfer Boys” steps up from the somewhat let down of “Wonder Band” as a fun, rollicking romp through the simplistic mind of a teenager, about wanting to surf, and obviously, about wanting to find surfer boys. And yeah, it’s funny, lighthearted, and very amusing, and when Valente utters the “I want to surf but I don’t know how”, it feels very raw and honest. Then we hear common euphemisms about Malibu. I’m telling you, The She’s lyrics could support a cultural case study. It’s definitely got some surfer jangles, with the opening chords similar to those of Beach Fossils, but then it’s a beachy, retro groove, something that still sounds fresh after it’s been borrowed more than one can count and never given back to the originals.

The She’s songs are witty, and very well written, with the instrumental sections great, and with excellent calibration of volume and focus. Yet they all suffer the same problem, a little too much production and clarity. The songs don’t always seem natural, and sometimes forced by their warm and comforting aura. It’s wonderful to hear how rich and focused they are, but aside from that there isn’t as much intuitively soulful attitude here, not as much grit or punk logic that they’ve had in the past. If they had roughed up the sound a bit, these tracks might have felt more real. The songs were all produced by Nat Keefe, a member of Hot Buttered Rum, a Marin based Americana group known for playing those deadhead inspired Sierra Mountain festivals (which often make me want to puke), which could explain the diverge from straight up lo-fi and the added instrumentals. Listening to Hot Buttered Rum I can’t but help thinking if either the lead singer is singing or whether he’s a genius at morphing together The Wiggles and Jack Johnson vocal parts. Hot Buttered Rum write nice, elegant songs with charming and polished instrumental solos, but their sound quality is very confined and dull, almost as if it was recorded in a factory. When I first listened to them, I saw similarities between the two, like almost exactness in sound quality and probably recording equipment. What Hot Buttered Rum don’t have to save them that The She’s do is their kitschy knack for songwriting, and their lo-fi styling. Yes, even if The She’s aren’t lo-fi quality wise, they can still crank out a great riff.

The She’s will not allow me to stream their new tracks because they are still being mastered (you guys, any more production and it will get worse, the songs are great but they are an inch away from sounding overproduced, so in any way possible with mastering them, my advice is to loosen up the sound a bit). But I do have a video clip of “510″ performed by two of the four members (Hannah Valente, Vocals and Eva Treadway, Acoustic Guitar. The other members are Sami Perez on bass and backing vocals and Sinclair Riley on drums.) live at Hippie Hill at Golden Gate Park. Watch this video before the final cut of “510″ becomes available so you can compare the two versions, from it’s simple melodic backbone as a 1 and 1/2 minute mind exercise to when it hit the studio.

Video filmed by Daniel Bromfield (who on that day was the victim of brutal threat by an LSD dealer)

If I had to review the tracks with numbers, I’d give “510″ an 8, “Wonder Band” a 6, and “Surfer Jam” a 7

The She’s perform at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco September 5th, opening for Memphis based doo-wop revival group Magic Kids and “what the fuck” conceptual art rock band Candy Claws. Show is 21+, which prohibits decent teenage bloggers like I from enjoying and attending a good show. They will also open for one of the Bay’s biggest indie rock exports Girls at the legendary Fillmore on October 15th (which is a lifetime achievement, and these guys are only 16). That show is teenage-blogger-friendly.

Also, Shannon and The Clams: I just discovered you from all the posters for your Hemlock show around the city, I don’t know how to categorize you without being possibly offensive, but I’d straddle your work on the line of too-young-to-be-a-tired-old-fag-hag-queercore-PhilSpector-pop (I’m bisexual, I’m not trying to be homophobic here). Am I right? I think you guys are bodacious, bold, flamboyant, and badass, and your video for “Hunk Hunt” is pure awesomeness. I’m sorry if my dub of you guys is offensive, I’m only trying to make sense of who you are, because you really do deserve it. And just like Grass Widow, just your existence without explanations is delivering a great message.