Revenge of the Beery Garage-Punk Broads

Comments (0) By Eric Davidson Tuesday, Jun 6 2006

Details

Husbands
There's Nothing I'd Like More Than to See You Dead
Swami

Thee Emergency
Can You Dig It?
Blue Disguise

See also:

Arty Electro White Boys Redefine "Safe Sex"
Mike Powell on Hot Chip's The Warning

Insanely Catchy Postpunk Aims to Fill Stadiums
Kevin O'Donnell on The Futureheads' News and Tributes

Deep, Dapper Blues for Gamblers, Casino and Otherwise
Edd Hurt on Moody Scott

Scottish Melancholia Rocks the Belles
Rob Trucks on Camera Obscura's Let's Get Out of This Country

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It's one thing to appropriate "fag," but try reclaiming the power of "broad." Most people don't even remember that dusty designation, but the (mostly) gals in these two West Coast scuzzites reach back into a bawdy past from Alice Kramden to '60s-flick chicks to the Runaways in search of that certain bruised 'n' boozed energy of the scorned catfighter. History's hard-drinking mamas have been dispatched to pop culture's über-underbelly, mainly because we just don't talk about the working class anymore. (Actually, it's mainly drag queens who drop Rusty Warren or Shangri-Las references now.) But San Fran's Husbands would probably name the Demolition Doll Rods as their inspiration (and are probably the only band in existence to do so), and at this point, they do the stripper-with-the-Cramps-in-her-cracked-Walkman stomp better than anybody on There's Nothing I'd Like More Than to See You Dead, their stingier-sounding sophomore stab. Thee Emergency, meanwhile, owe less to their Seattle streets and more to Detroit's ubiquitous blustered blues-punk heroes, but add butt-basic berating of half-men from a lead fox with a whiskey-weaned wail. Biker broads of the world, unite and take over.