Much has been written about San Francisco double act Girls. On the most part this is due to the band`s willingness to discuss their propensity for prescription drugs (on the band`s MySpace page it lists www.drugs.com as their official website) and singer-songwriter Christopher Owens` upbringing in the Children Of God, a religious cult whose reputation includes reports of child molestation, a practice known as Flirty Fishing (where women would "show God`s love to men" in the hope of evangelism), and River Phoenix as one of its former members.
In Owens` songwriting, the product of these dysfunctional influences manifests itself, for the most part, as large slice of sun-baked, hazy, San Fransisco stoner pop. What on paper could have easily turned itself into a solipsistic nightmare manages to sit just the right side of pretentious -- and it`s all the better for it.
Lyrically we`re presented with the usual suspects of love "
I only want to be with you all of the time," rock `n` roll "
I`ve got a cool guitar and a bag of marijuana, man," and, on the album`s seven-minute centerpiece `Hellhole Ratrace`, the lust for life "
I don`t wanna die with out shakin` up a leg or two."
With Girls taking a very literal approach to the making of a lo-fi album (the band report that for the most part the album recorded in rehearsal studios after hours, as it was cheaper) Chet White, the other half of the duo and at the helm of production duties, has turned in quite the performance. It`s hackneyed for sure but this record sparkles. The width of sound achieved is remarkable. At the heart of almost every track here is a lackadaisical guitar part full of small mistakes and idiosyncrasies. Building on this White has employed all manner of vocal harmonies, percussion, sepia-tinged reverbs, and thick distortion. `Big Bad Mean Mother Fucker` takes 60`s California pop and throws a shitload of Kevin Shields at it, Yo La Tengo would love to have written `Laura`; it sounds like Girls didn`t even try.
By wearing so many influences on their sleeves (the surf-pop of the Beach Boys, shoegaze introspection of Spiritualized and the scuzzy rock n roll of Iggy & The Stooges) the album falters by lacking any obvious coherence, which can make it difficult to pinpoint the record -- or the band for that matter -- with any real "sound".
An example in point can be seen when taking a look at the album`s track lengths; six of the 12 on offer here clock-in under the three minute mark: ostensibly, we have a pop record on our hands. In contrast to this, the remaining tracks fall between just shy of five minutes up to a full seven minutes. With this in mind -- and with Girls` minds rooted in the halcyon days of 60s/70s San Francisco -- we have a record which deserves a format befitting its maker`s musical roots: 12" vinyl.
Played out on MP3, downloaded in seconds from high-speed broadband ready to be discarded if it fails to tick the box of instant gratification, the album falls into an incoherent jumble of influences trying to pin down a sound of its own. Listen to "Side A" on repeat and you have lo-fi pop record full of catchy hooks, melodies and good time rock n roll. "Side B" presents a more thoughtful, sleepy, spiritual(ized) experience. And that`s this record`s double edged sword: the sum of its two individual "sides" prove to be greater than the whole.
Parri Thomas (View Original Article)
