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Music Feature |
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She wants revenge
5AM and after a night of live original music at three different downtown
clubs ranging from rock to funksoul to Latin alternative-and-one pretentious
lounge located in NYC's upper twenty's [known in certain downtown circles as the
"Bottle Services buys you cool Marquee's"] I've called it a night and find
myself opening the door to my apartment.
I always leave the tele on with music channel playing. I'm beat tired and
sober. Only thing on my mind was the brief affair I had to end with a forward
slash type. You know the Singer/Actress/Model type with lots of loot and a
powerful husband with no time to pay her attention. Completely out of my league
being that I'm a broke filmmaker. "I will have my revenge motherfucker" are the
last words I remember coming from her lips.
Once in my apartment all of a sudden little hairs on the back of my neck and
arms are at attention. I look around and think the culprit is an open window
in the other room. Not wanting to miss the cool looking new video on the tele
or at least the music, I turn the volume up and run to the other room to close
the window. Strange, the window is not open. It was then I realized it was the
music and visuals causing this involuntary physical reaction.
Mark of the band "Astra Heights" had mentioned they were on tour with this
great 2 piece band called "She Wants Revenge"
I fell on the floor cracking up laughing once the music video was over and the
credits read
"She Wants Revenge"
"Tear you Apart"
This band is absolutely brilliant and I believe they are here to take it all.
All of it when it comes to music. Yes, "She Wants Revenge" is here to avenge
us all for the lame ass music we been bombarded with lately. Check out their
press release:
Adapted from a March 16, 2005 article for Sheffield Rock Times
by Johann Wellesley Daughters
Gossip is whispered, cigarettes are smoked, arms are crossed and
uncrossed, and then the band takes the stage. An anticipation and hush
that could only be described as electric takes hold.
A beat begins - minimal, sparse. Single white beams cast shadows against
the ceiling and crowd. What could either be hours or minutes later, the
kraut-rock intro turns to verse and the crowd begins to sing along: "Sick
of trying to find a way inside, sick and tired of all the after." A
shriek-like scream builds from the back of the crowd and moves to the
front where a congregation of girls are camped in anticipation. And just
about this time a peculiar thing starts to happen, everyone starts
dancing.
And suddenly we are saved. Saved from the legions of samey-sameson
throwback bands, saved from another night of being too hip to dance, and
saved from ourselves. She Wants Revenge have come to save us all.
"We just wanted to make a record that would make girls dance or cry."
Justin sips his coffee, sits back in his chair and smiles.
Adam 12 chimes in, "Or both…… we're both fans of music and we made the
album we wanted to hear. Everything you get on record and live is very,
very honest. And artistic output that is truthful can only elicit truthful
responses... people know, the kids know when they're being lied to, when
something feels manufactured as opposed to being made. We are those kids."
Justin laughs. Then, obviously wound up, jumps in: "There’s plenty of
bands operating within a context and genre right now, but if you take
away the wardrobe, belts and make-up, what is really being said? If it’s
nothing that’s OK too, some music is just for dancing or wallpaper. But we
are trying to speak to people as we were once spoken to, and whether that
results in dancing, crying, or people wanting to fuck to our music, then
so be it. We take this very serious.”
And they ARE serious. Usually grand pronouncements from new bands are just
so much hype coupled with false bravado and the kind of copy that makes
for good record sales and "YOU HEARD IT FIRST" sound bites... but with
these two I sense something far more sinister, and it's statements like
these that belie the two's hip-hop roots. More than the clothes (which are
more uniform black, hooded, and vaguely militaristic than b-boy) and more
than the beats (which, though they speak of post hip-hop, probably owe
more to Manchester than the South Bronx), it's the ATTITUDE that truly
reveals the band's best kept secret and what may very well be their secret
weapon: they are two b-boys from the Valley who came together to make
hip-hop and somehow ended up making the best 80's album we've never heard
before. Instead of making nostalgia rock, these two valley boys have
unwittingly crafted a masterpiece of a record that will be looked at for
years to come as nothing short of inventive, groundbreaking, pop-perfect
dance darkness that will have future generations harkening back to their
salad days of clubbing, make-outs, break-ups, and long nights.
Conversation turns to girls, the infamous "crush list" and a host of all
things sex, and suddenly, an hour's gone past. The two stand up, gather
their things, politely shake my hand and thank me for my time. They leave
with a humble wave, and sitting back down to my tea I think back to
something the guys said earlier.
Adam - "Our music is a modern extension of a time in the late 70's and
early 80's when music was colliding in ways it never had before. We're
talking about New Order hearing what Arthur Baker and Bambatta were doing
in New York and what was going on with Chicago house, then taking that
back to the UK and incorporating that into their dark Northern view of
punk rock. Then there's the birth of early hip-hop in NYC coinciding with
the club music coming out of Danceteria, Nels, The Palladium, The Latin
Quarter, and The Mudd Club. You had Madonna, Basquiat, Blondie, John
Lurie, the New York City Breakers and the Rock Steady Crew... Liquid
Liquid, James Black and ESG all in the same time and place - it's
unheralded."
Justin - "There's been no other time in the culture of art and music where
you could you be dancing to a Nile Rogers disco classic at Studio 54, then
hop in a cab and ten minutes later be watching The Voidoids at Max's
Kansas City with Warhol, Bowie and Schnabel in attendance. This is what we
are doing today - only there are no flashing cameras or Legs Mc Neils
following us around documenting the shit we're doing...."
Not yet maybe, not yet.
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She wants revenge
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