| There’s inevitably going to be a degree of upset, debate or confrontation when your band decides to call its sophomore release Heaven’s Pregnant Teens. Factor in cover art depicting a nun in an obvious state of expectancy and you’re not just asking for trouble – you’re begging for it with open arms.
But in regard to Southern California’s Some Girls, it’s just the right degree of instigation to smack the otherwise politically over-correct punk rock world right in its sour little kisser. Comprised of vocalist Wes Eisold, bassist Justin Pearson, guitarists Rob Moran and Chuck Rowell and drummer Sal Gallegos (all members or ex-members of such renowned punk acts as The Locust, Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower and Give Up the Ghost), Some Girls celebrate the release of this debut on Epitaph Records, chomping at the bit for the inevitable battle with less appreciative sorts.
"Basically, we wanted to brutalize people and have each song punch people in the face and not let up until they were choking on their own blood," claims Gallegos brazenly in the band’s biography. "None of this eyeliner-wearing, cupcake shit – just putting listeners’ open ears on the curb and stomping on their heads."
OK, so it’s a bit much – and Eisold is the first to agree. Chatting over the phone while frantically packing and preparing other details for Some Girls’s impending month-long tour, he claims Gallegos’s comments are little more than a pre-emptive strike on the reaction to this release.
"I don’t want anyone to be punched in the face. Maybe Sal does, but I don’t. Besides, I think he’s speaking somewhat metaphorically," offers Eisold in an effort to dispel the negative aura surrounding the comment. "People pick up on the violence, ignoring the fact that he’s talking about how he wants the impact of the music to be unavoidable."
"Whatever," he continues, half-frustrated. "(There’s no) mission statement for this band. We’re not political or non-political. We just want to play pretty abrasive music without recycling too much of what’s going on now. The point is we didn’t want to fixate too much on sounding super-original or go out of our way to sound different. We just want to put that attitude we had without being too redundant."
(Un)mission accomplished then. Brutal and unrelenting, Heaven’s Pregnant Teens is a bombastic affair replete with searing vocals, equally scorching guitars and an overall attack that would make a Kamikaze turn tail and run. Throw in Gallegos’s comments and it’s obvious to see why the band is garnering as much attention for their music as for their mouths.
Sadly, though, people are reading a bit too much into Some Girls – as in, not always in the right way. Inundating them with expectations that Heaven’s Pregnant Teens have some sort of "message," fans and critics alike expect Some Girls to follow modern punk rock regulation and have some sort of mandate. They do, but as Eisold informs, it’s just this really strange concept called "having fun."
"People take us overly seriously, but they really shouldn’t. I’m constantly asked, ‘What’s the point? The meaning?’ There isn’t one. There’s no underlying level of drawn-out explanations as to what (we’re) supposed to symbolize. It looks cool. It doesn’t make our band any more meaningful or meaningless than what else is going on out there. It’s not less relevant. We just want to play music."
Not even with the title of the CD? Is it really all just about being tongue-in-cheek – about getting the overly sensitive punk rock masses’ goat?
Apparently.
"I personally think when reading reviews and interviews, people say the most ridiculous stuff, like we’re a fist to the face of Christianity," laughs Eisold. "Whatever. I’m more fascinated by the esthetic of Christian or Satanic bands than I am about their message. I enjoy the vibe, the artwork and all of that, but I know a lot of those bands aren’t serious – or I don’t take them that way. With us, if people get a (message) out of us, it’s not wrong, but it’s not the point. We’re having the fun every other band out there is way too uptight to have." |
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