Vivian Girls and Frankie Rose


(Copyright © 2006 Piero Scaruffi | Terms of use )

Vivian Girls (2008) , 7.5/10 (mini)
Everything Goes Wrong (2009) , 6/10
Share The Joy (2011), 5/10
Frankie Rose: Frankie Rose and the Outs (2010), 6/10
Frankie Rose: Interstellar (2012), 6.5/10
Frankie Rose: Herein Wild (2013), 5/10
Frankie Rose: Cage Tropical (2017), 5/10
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(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)

The Vivian Girls, a female trio from New York (vocalist and guitarist Cassie Grzymkowski, bassist Katy Goodman and drummer Frankie Rose) delivered catchy and sprightly, albeit sloppy and noisy, garage-rock on the mini-album Vivian Girls (In The Red, 2008). The singles Wild Eyes and especially Tell the World bridged the Velvet Underground and Jesus And Mary Chain. The vocal harmonies of Such A Joke evoke the 1960s of folk-rock and bubblegum-pop except that drums and guitars lay down a thick layer of uncontrolled noise. Gloriously hummable melodies fortify the cow-punk verve of All The Time and the pounding fatalism of Wild Eyes. The galloping and anthemic Going Insane exudes punk ethos. No, whose only word is "no", is pure frenzy and rage, the ultimate female rock anthem. The other philosophical mantra of the album is I Believe In Nothing, another breathless ride through female teenage anxiety. The detached vocals of Cassie Ramone are a treat in themselves.

Several of the songs Everything Goes Wrong (2009), featuring new drummer Ali Koehler, didn't kick and punch with the same cold, surgical strength of the debut, but then maybe that was not the goal. One visible drawback is that the singer tries to actually sing the songs, whereas she used to barely modulate her voice. Hence Walking Alone At Night, Double Vision and Survival may have better melodies than previous songs, but don't quite shake the ground (and the world) the same way. Nonetheless there are plenty of cute moments: the way the singalong of When I'm Gone wraps itself around the square-dance drums is effective; and the Stooges-ian rock'n'roll of Can't Get Over You is such an unlikely scaffolding for the song's romantic elegy that one can forgive that it lasts one minute too long; and the tender while outrageous rigmarole You're My Guy would have been a punk-rock hit in the age of Frightwig. The undeterred teenage frenzy of I Have No Fun and The Desert gets closer to repeating the exploit of the first mini-album. Even better is I'm Not Asleep, that weds that effervescent irreverence with Chinese-opera vocals.
The End, however, could be opening a new career, given how naturally it weds Gun Club's ominous cow-punk and the Mamas & Papas' ecstatic harmonies. Out For The Sun, another Gun Club-influenced, is an existential dirge that rides towards the horizon on a furious rock'n'roll rhythm.
The fact that so many songs last three or four minutes might have something to do with the greatly reduced emotional impact: sometimes less is more. Despite the shortcomings, this is still a formidable burst of teenage angst.

Kevin Morby of the Woods and Cassie Ramone of the Vivian Girls formed the Babies that recorded The Babies (Shrimper, 2011) and Our House On The Hill (Woodsist, 2012), collection of gentle lo-fi pop tunes.

La Sera, fronted by Katy Goodman, debuted with the ethereal dream-pop of the single Never Come Around and La Sera (Hardly Art, 2011).

The Vivian Girls delivered one of their catchiest (and most retro) singles, My Love Will Follow Me (Wild World, 2010), before the album Share The Joy (Polyvinyl, 2011), featuring new drummer Fiona Campbell, a work that can sound harder but also spends more time trying to resolve the dramatic tension of a song (Other Girls, Light In Your Eyes).

Frankie Rose, who had drummed for the Dum Dum Girls and the Crystal Stilts after leaving the Vivian Girls, achieved an exuberant fusion of synth-pop of the 1980s and ye-ye girl pop of the 1960s on Frankie Rose and the Outs (2010), notably the naively catchy Candy, and especially on Interstellar (Slumberland, 2012). The latter, much more polished, collection includes Moon in my Mind, the dreamy pounding ballad Know Me, the romantic and evocative Gospel Grace, and especially the tribal and exotic Night Swim that sounds like a lighter, gentler version of vintage Siouxsie Sioux. The second album does not contain anything that compares with Candy: just a lot more electronic, percussive ambience. Unfortunately, Herein Wild (Fat Possum, 2013) had very little to offer, other than the atmospheric Requiem (with an even more atmospheric trombone).

Frankie Rose's Cage Tropical (Slumberland, 2017) was a collection of delicate litanies, such as the mildly psychedelic Dancing Down The Hall, but the song that stood out was Dyson Sphere, with its motorik beat, disco strings and ethereal vocals.

(Copyright © 2006 Piero Scaruffi | Terms of use )
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