FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1997. All Rights Reserved.
Absolutely no girls allowed
Break out the Rolaids, even Nick Nolte can't save you
from the guttural roar of Queazy
By Aubrey McInnisQueazy with The Pursuit of Happiness
At the Purple Turtle
Wednesday, February 26They're the type of girls that ripped off Barbie's head and threw it against the wall as youngsters. Their form of aesthetics included picking off scabs and wearing falsies in elementary school. They leaped off the slide instead of slipping down it. They terrorized your brother and were the playmates your mother warned you about. They're older now and they've just released an album.
It is easy to figure out the angle most press have taken with these brazen hussies. It is easy to tell what all the touchy topics are. Grrrl band. Being taken seriously. It's all been done.
"I don't want that to be the angle of our promotion at all," confirms Bina, Queazy's drummer.
"If you were to close your eyes and listen, you would go, 'It's a chick band.' But we don't want people to go, 'This is pretty heavy for a chick band.' I don't know, we just go out and do it."
They went out and did it, all right. Twelve different times, lasting a couple minutes each. Hurk (named after the word in the bubble while Garfield spews into Jon's coffee cup) highlights a heavy sound verging on metal. A dozen tracks document influences such as cheesy '80s metal, disco, punk and Duran Duran. These influences are proclaimed abrasively through harsh, angry vocals that could strip the paint off a tank.
"There's a big void in strong, aggressive female bands. Some women get enough gumption to get up there and play, but then it's all so... fluffy.
"We are angry," Bina says while Laura shouts from the background, "We don't hold back. And we're not at all girlie."
Believe it. After auditioning females for the role of bass player and rejecting them all because they carried purses, how could anyone accuse them of being girlie?
"No girls," growls Bina. "No girls allowed."
Lisa was the third to audition and the first not to carry a purse, impressing Bina and Laura enough without even showing off her bass playing prowess. She's been with them for a year and they've been intimidating audiences together nation-wide ever since.
A new band who hasn't had too many collisions with fans, labels or journalists, they frequently comment that they are a "fun" band even though their performances are scary. They prefer to play in front of all-ages because the kids aren't there to scrutinize every move, but to enjoy the music, unlike the older bar crowd who stands there "crossing their arms and watching you try to impress them." To grab their attention Laura usually "taunts them and screams very loudly when they are not listening. And she wiggles her bum a lot.," Bina says.
Apparently that won over the heart of Nick Nolte who gave them a thumbs up at an HMV appearance in Vancouver the other day.
"We played to Nick Nolte. I think he bought a CD. That would have been cool if he would have came up to me and asked for my autograph, though."
Before hanging up to prepare for their video release party at Vancouver's Starfish Room, Bina adds, "We're just fun. We're just taking the road where it takes us, playing it how we feel it." There's a short pause before she growls again, "We're coming to your town to terrorize you!"
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