The Cows were by far one of the best bands of the AmRep noise-rock era. Not only were the lyrics of the vocalist with serial killer good looks, Shannon Selberg bitingly direct and wonderfully satirical, but the band's distorted ruckus made clever use of folk and blues idioms in creating songs that were more "musical" than typical punk rock, but at the same time more utterly primal and intense. After the Minneapolis quartet broke up in 1998, bassist Kevin Rutmanis joined the Melvins and Selberg bailed out of the stifling midwest, bringing his blow-up sex doll mask and battered bugle to NYC. A mere year later, I was living in New York and heard wind of a new band called the Heroine Sheiks -- a play on words about the then current (and ever ongoing) heroin chic of that city (which not-so-ironically brought about the death of Selberg's then girlfriend) -- featuring Selberg and founding Swans guitarist Norman Westberg. Yes, my reaction was the same as yours: What? A band with two "bergs" in it, and neither of them are Jewish? ... I had to investigate.
The Heroine Sheiks' Y2K debut album Rape On the Installment Plan on Reptilian Records hit the scene like a stock market crash (i.e. no one was buying.) Nonetheless, Selberg's smarmy word-play and clever story-telling was perfectly suited to Westberg's modal-tuned guitar noise and the rest of the band's murky keyboards, bass and drums. Songs like "Let's Fight", "Effity Eff" (with the sing-along woe-is-we of “Fuckity, fuckity, fuckity, fuck!”) and the anti-racist "OK-K-K" ("I'd like to bend you over and educate you/ Is that O-K-K-K?") The songs often tend toward a sort of funk-fused Beefheart that's perfectly suited to Selberg's newfound actual near-crooning voice. The second Heroine Sheiks album, Siamese Pipe followed with the same black humor on “Grab the Wheel” ; our protagonist catches his girlfriend cheating on him:
“Again, I’m peeking in my room/ But I can’t leave, I love her still/ I’m wondering which one of us I’m supposed to kill/ Grab the wheel, somebody…” Live, Selberg delivers his lyrics with theatrical grace and gesticulations -- and I was duly surprised to see far more girls at their shows than guys (no matter how surprising it was to see so many good-looking ladies going ga-ga over the lead singer.) Since then, the lineup has been entirely revamped for the latest Reptilian release Out of Aferica, the title of which is, I assume, a satire of the Xian-zealot "new science" that's recently tied up our tax dollars by defending the decision to teach evolution in schools instead of giving "equal time" to every form of pseudo-science (hello, "intelligent design") that Jesusland America deems an acceptable smokescreen over fundamentalist rhetoric. The new five-piece lineup sounds similar to the original band, but the instruments seem to function together more, rather than constantly and confusingly at odds. Yes, it's a much mellower sound than the Cows, but it's also one that's more suited to Selberg's creepy charisma and wicked black humor. Check out the album's lead single and hot TRL Live download "Cock Asia" -- which, if I must spell it out for you, is a play on the word "caucasian." The Cows classic "Hitting the Wall" is from their amazing third album Peacetika on Amphetamine Reptile. Pay particular attention to the words on the Heroine Sheiks songs "OK-K-K" and "Effity Eff" -- they're not earth-shattering, but they're definitely funny and evocative.
The Heroine Sheiks are touring the U.S. this fall in support of their new album. Go see them:
10/16 Cleveland, OH -- Grog Shop
10/18 Detroit, MI -- Lager House
10/19 Lansing, MI -- Macs
10/20 Madison, WI -- Club Inferno
10/21 Minneapolis -- 7th St. Entry
10/25 Seattle -- Funhouse
10/26 Portland -- Sabalas Mt Tabor
10/30 San Francisco -- Hemlock
10/31 Los Angeles -- King King
11/1 Mesa, AZ -- Hollywood Alley
11/2 Albuquerque, NM -- Atomic Cantina
11/3 Denver,CO -- Larimer Lounge
11/5 San Antonio,TX -- Sanctuary
11/6 Austin, TX -- Emo's
11/7 New Orleans -- One Eyed Jacks (this is ON)
11/10 Charleston/Mt. Pleasant, SC -- The Village Tavern
11/11 Arlington, VA -- IOTA
11/13 Baltimore, MD -- Mojo Room
The Cows and HS rule, but that second sentence is fucking horrible.
Posted by: csack | Tuesday, October 18, 2005 at 10:00 AM
i like the second sentance... its a bit more clever and less trite than saying "this rules." anyhow, these dudes are playing a show in MPLS on Friday if anyone digs this and is from here.
Posted by: Ben Kucera | Tuesday, October 18, 2005 at 04:52 PM