PowerSnap is a Brooklyn by way of Tel Aviv three-piece punk band that embodies the pure spirit of weirdo rock n roll. The trio is lead by Romi Hanoch (who also sings in Ghost Funk Orchestra) on guitar/vocals with her high school best friend and bassist Noga “Nogi” Davidson, filled out by Mario Gutierrez on drums. Romi writes sad, angsty songs, hooks reminiscent of Billie Joe Armstrong and The Kinks and a vocal snarl like The Muff’s Kim Shattuck or Brody Dalle of The Distillers. We premiered PowerSnap’s music video for “Chemistry,”from their King Pizza Records debut EP Delatancy back in 2018, and they are set to release a new EP tentatively titled Disappointment sometime this year. Romi’s first ever Livestream happens tonight (5/22) via The Footlight’s Instagram at 8pm est (alongside Meg Mancini of The Rizzos, and Brian LaRue of Shelter Dogs). We chatted with her about the challenges of quarantine video making, her dream lineup, and the possible positive effects of lockdown on jaded music makers.
AF: What’s PowerSnap’s formation story?
RH: PowerSnap started with Noga (Nogi) Davidson and myself, when we met on the first day of 10th grade (which was also my birthday day) in a school in Israel. We were both in the Jazz department; me as a singer and her s a pianist. We became friends and a year later started our first band, Bar Vase. After a few years doing that and living together, we decided to follow our dream and move to NYC. We also decided to start a new band – PowerSnap. We had a couple different drummers when we started out; first one was Uri who was Israeli, then Paul who Nogi met through someone from the restaurant she worked at. One night I went to a DIY show and saw Mario Gutierrez play the drums and from that moment, I knew I want him to join our band. A year later, he did. And we’ve been together ever since.
AF: What are some musical and non-musical inspirations for the band?
RH: It’s quite remarkable how all of us have such different taste in music. I like punk and grunge and all that angsty shit, plus a whole lot of Beatles, The Who and other ’60s heroes. Nogi loves ’60s and ’70s stuff but not a punk fan. Mario and I share our love for ’90s punk-pop bands at times, but he’s also big on electronic music (which is noticeable in his solo project Nieces And Nephews). We all love Jack Black as a musician and a human being.
AF: What is your dream line-up and venue for your first post-quarantine show?
RH: Madison Square Garden. Paul McCartney (solo set) opening. Green Day second. We’re third. Top Nachos closing.
AF: PowerSnap recently did a IG takeover of Our Wicked Lady’s Instagram. What other venues and organizations do you recommend that people support during this time?
RH: So many places. Alphaville in Bushwick. Union Pool in Williamsburg (same owner of my favorite bar, Hotel Delmano), The Gutter in Greenpoint. Trans Pecos, TV Eye and Planet X. Also, whoever can afford it should buy merchandise from bands and artists. And of course any organization that helps marginalized communities. If you have it, pay it forward!
AF: You look and sound super cool in the “Seven Eight” video by Ghost Funk Orchestra! How did you get involved in that project, and aside from coordinating so many more people, what are some differences between working with an orchestra versus a three piece band?
RH: The way in which I got involved with GFO is a long and weird coincidental tale. To make it short: moved to NYC, went to an open mic night as a rapper, met some people who liked what I did, got tagged in Seth Applebaum’s FB post searching for female MCs. Meanwhile, met Greg Hanson at a show and heard about The Mad Doctors. Went to The Mad Doctors’ release show, met Seth who was the frontman, told him I was tagged in his FB post and that I rap, he said we should collaborate. Played one show with them as a guest and after that, was asked to join the band. Same story would also answer the question of how we got into the King Pizza Records community, but through Greg Hanson. Life is funny. The main difference for me is that PowerSnap is a band that I am the leader of. I write all the lyrics and most of the songs, I handle the administrative part and all of that hoopla. Ghost Funk Orchestra is a band that I’m beyond honored to be a part of. And that is what I am, a single part in that great machine, run by the genius Seth Applebaum.
AF: GFO has been doing some quarantine videos – what is the process of filming those like?
RH: I got the easy job as a singer. Seth tells us what to do and we do it. He records drums and guitar, syncs it up and sends it to us to record over. Then we send him our videos and he puts everything together. When PowerSnap did a quarantine video, it was a lot more work for me personally, because of the editing. But I love how it came out so please check it out on our social medias! It’s called “Outta Words” and we’re actually working on another one, to be released soon.
AF: You’re doing your first solo live stream on Friday via The Footlight – what’s your livestream set up like?
RH: This is gonna be my first live stream ever and I don’t really know what to expect. I do solo sets sometimes and I sing alone in my room often, so I’m imagining it’s a combo of the two. I’ll probably use my shitty nylon string guitar that I’ve had since I was 11, because I love that beautiful piece of junk. Gonna play five songs – some PowerSnap ones, and probably at least 1 terribly sad ballad.
AF: What’s a positive thing you can imagine for the music industry – and world – coming out of this?
RH: Oooh, that’s a tough one. Hard to tell if this will actually happen, but hopefully when we come out of this, the jaded ones among us will be reminded why we got into it in the first place. The joy. Maybe we’ll go back to appreciating where we are and what we do. I wish.
RSVP HERE for Romi of PowerSnap’s livestream via The Footlight’s Instagram 5/22 8pm est.
Has your shadow self been hanging heavy in the past weeks? Now that we don’t have our regular routine to keep us in line, all the feelings have been rearing their awful heads. New Jersey-based psychedelic trio Francie Moon wrote and filmed the music video for “Feel All The Feelings” long before these times were fathomable, but the lyrics and mood of the track reflect the current reality of facing our shadow selves.
The first line asks if you can feel all the feelings (yes, I do) and the line “I’m a part of the sea,” could be a metaphor for the collective nature of the global pandemic we’re living through. “The truth ain’t misleading / It’s always calling us home” speaks to how many of us have gone home to take care of family, friends and ourselves. “Cause you are forgiving / I can see it in your eyes” illustrates the practice of mindfulness as we navigate each other’s freak outs the best we can.
The video was filmed on a cross-country trip to California during Francie Moon’s first West Coast tour in January by members Melissa Lucciola, Richie Samartin, and Adam Pumilia. The track is featured on their latest cassette release All The Same by Brooklyn label King Pizza Records, and is described by singer/guitarist Melissa Lucciola as touching “on feelings of just being overwhelmed and then remembering that no matter how crazy things feel, we can always count on the truth coming to the forefront and being a good compass. No matter what turns we take we’re always going to run into ourselves and what we really want eventually!”
The video features beautiful scenic imagery of their road trip, the band playing in a forest, and is closed out by a Lucciola smiling and falling in an empty drain pipe during the soothing outro guitar solo.
When I meet up with feminist punk duo True Dreams at drummer Hannah Nichols’ Brooklyn apartment, they’re wearing what they call their “uniforms”: black school girl skirts, leather harnesses, and crisp white Dickies button downs, each emblazoned with half of the band’s logo: Nichols’ shoulder says “TRUE” and guitarist Angela Carlucci’s says “DREAMS” in a slimey green font with pink stars Carlucci embroidered herself. It’s a twisted take on the “Best Friends” necklaces girls trade with their gal pals in grade school, each half of the necklace a broken heart that connect to the other whenever said besties reunite. Nichols and Carlucci are very much two halves of a whole, their friendship the gooey glue that holds their band together; on their forthcoming LP No. 1, you can hear it pulse in their call-and-response vocals, shouting out supportive messages to one another (and to anyone else that might need to hear them).
“A big part of our band is our friendship,” Nichols says. “We’re best friends – [Angela] is like a sister to me. You can’t separate the two.” They co-write everything, and Carlucci says the act of writing together is a huge adrenaline rush. “We really try to make it 50-50,” she says. “There’s no one leading.” The egalitarian approach is rooted in their political ideals, which make their way into the songs as well.
Carlucci and Nichols met at a video shoot for an ex-boyfriend’s band, back when Nichols was just beginning to learn drums on an electronic kit in her living room. Carlucci had already been involved with a number of anti-folk bands, most notably with duo The Baby Skins and as a backup singer with Herman Düne, as well as releasing solo work under the moniker Little Cobweb. As the two became close, they realized making music together was the next step, and punk music felt the most accessible. “Growing up listening to punk bands was what made me want to play drums,” Nichols says. “[Punk] is fairly easy to pick up; it’s simple when you’re first starting out. It was what I wanted to do and what I was capable of.”
Carlucci says “as soon as I learned Hannah was learning to play I was already scheming” to get a band going, but it took a while for Nichols to feel confident enough to do so. They formed True Dreams about four years ago, and the project is now beginning to bear fruit – they released a three-song EP in 2016, and slightly re-mastered versions of those songs will appear on their forthcoming full-length No. 1, out Novembver 22 on King Pizza Records in Brooklyn and Lousy Moon Records in Frankfurt, Germany. Audiofemme is pleased to premiere its first single and title track, “No. 1.”
“No. 1” is an excellent introduction to the album, a delightfully lo-fi affair recorded mostly live in a few days at their friend Frankie Sunswept‘s New Hampshire studio. The single quickly gets to the heart of what the band is all about; its jangly guitar riffs show off the duo’s DIY garage rock influences like Shannon & the Clams and Bratmobile. “It’s made to feel empowering,” Carlucci says. “It’s about getting dumped and owning the bad feelings around being dumped, feeling that thing that happens in New York where you feel really alone and lonely but there’s people right next to you on the subway.”
Carlucci’s verses dial up the snotty factor when she sneers “I am my own horror show” and laments “Why is it so hard to find somebody who will call me No. 1?” Nichols chimes in her support with a deadpan echo of Carlucci’s inner monologue (“Never should’ve left you!” she agrees as Carlucci bemoans the end of a relationship). “[My vocal] is kind of calling the person out on treating me bad, and [Hannah] is basically like, ‘Yeah what she said!’ like a team or something,” Carlucci says. “That’s how it goes down with your best friend when you get dumped,” Nichols adds with a laugh.
There are a couple of songs on the LP of a similar theme: the contemplative “Across Your Arm” and seething surf-rocker “The Scum” both express frustration with being taken for granted. Though these frustrations feel acutely personal, there are just as many moments on the LP that express frustration with society at large. Whether it’s the rollicking, tongue-in-cheek “Female Artists” or the incensed “Please Sir,” (Nichols warns: “If you were born a woman you better act sweet/We’ll save you a piece, We’ll save you a seat” and Carlucci spits back, “Everything I’ve suffered for and all that I’ve achieved/doesn’t mean shit when you’re a piece of meat!”), these songs demand respect when it’s lacking without feeling heavy-handed – more like complaining about the state of the world to a girlfriend than excoriating the patriarchy. “I feel like the act of creating this band is sort of a feminist statement in a way,” Nichols says. “It feels good to scream.”
Even if the band’s feminist anthems are cathartic to perform, their casual delivery is all in the spirit of fun. “We play music to have a good time,” Nichols explains. “We’re not here to like, try and be self righteous or condemn other people. We want to open up a conversation; we want people to have fun when they see us. It’s like… we could be your friends, but also, shut the fuck up and listen to us.”
In other words, True Dreams is not looking to alienate anyone, just state their piece. “If you’re trying to connect to people and have them hear what you’re saying, singling them out or telling them they suck is not gonna get anyone to hear it,” Carlucci points out. “It’s a little bit scary, but I’d be happy to talk with anyone who felt negative about it.” Their biggest goal is to inspire young women, particularly those keen to start their own bands (because “There aren’t enough, aren’t enough FEMALE ARTISTS!” as the two sing on “Female Artists”). “Music was so important to me [as a teenager],” Carlucci says. “I would love to somehow influence women or girls, especially ones in high school, feeling left out or different and not really knowing where they fit in [to start their own bands].”
For now, the pair live double lives – Carlucci as a baker and Nichols as a barber – and rock out on short weekend tours. But they’ve got big plans; in February, they’re off to Europe to play shows in Belgium, France, Germany, and possibly more. They’re having a blast – like their mutual heroes The Ramones – with making music, but what drives them day to day is knowing that they’re at the forefront of a progressive sea change. “The world is really changing right now in a tangible way and I feels good to part of it,” Carlucci says “We’re with the change, adding our part to it, and that’s awesome.”
True Dreams’ No. 1 is out via King Pizza/Lousy Moon Records on November 22. Pre-order the cassette here and RSVP for their record release show at Alphaville on 11/23.
After 121 shows touring and at home this year with my five projects – Sharkmuffin, Gustaf, Gesserit, Kino Kimino, and Ex-Girlfriends (RIP) – here are my picks for the best DIY promoters, collectives and venues of 2018! We chatted with everyone about their favorite shows, stories, and overall reflections on what they’ve accomplished and are most proud of from 2018.
“I’ve been super lucky to work with too many bands to pick a favorite, but the Queen of the Scene Northside Festival showcase was insane this summer. I was fortunate enough to do three cross-country tours in 2018. I was able check out a lot of places that I have never been and also a lot of places that I have been. For that I am super grateful.
My favorite part about booking is curating shows. It’s easy to just throw shows together but they work better when you put some thought into it. The most challenging part is finding the time to put some thought into it.” – Tom Lescovich, Cindy Cane Productions
“With a lack of venues in Downtown Jersey City, I first started booking shows at 58 Gallery from 2008 to 2013. The space was a former glass workshop with a garage, a front room gallery and back room that we outfitted with an insanely heavy ‘portable’ stage, intermittent heating and a sometimes fickle bathroom. Things expanded for me by booking outdoor festival and events in Jersey City. Most notably for me has been the annual Ghost of Uncle Joe’s Halloween fundraiser in a Historic Cemetery. Finally, in 2018, FM – a 70’s themed restaurant – was transformed, and for the first time in my JC booking career, I was working at a legitimate venue. The upside is not having to pack everything into a Toyota Prius; the downside is telling someone to not get too crazy.” – Anthony “Dancing Tony” Susco
Electric Church
Austin, TX
“We started the Electric Church in 2014 in East Austin. Our greatest achievement so far has been creating a space where an up-and-coming music scene in Austin can develop. Over time we have seen a revival in a DIY culture that has resurfaced and brought with it new music and given bands opportunities to flourish that traditional venues would not have. We also curate open jams with different themes and leave it open to all to come and experiment musically and meet other like-minded types. From this we have seen bands form and people come together. We also have created a music festival we co-host with Sahara Lounge (another Eastside venue) called Saturnalia Music Festival. 2018 was our second year with the fest so watching it all come together has been pretty awesome for us. Same goes for our light shows and artists. [Our resident artist] Fez [Moreno] has been able to find other light show artists and has created a small community around it.” – Electric Church’s founders
King Pizza Records
Brooklyn, NY
“2018 was totally bonkers – between Pizzafest 5 and The Psychic Luau 3, we kept ourselves busy with festivals but there was so much community, killer riffs, and dancing it’s kind of tough to take it all in. At the Glass Slipper release show, a bunch of his buds picked up Dave (the frontman) and crowdsurfed him. The look on his face of both horror and excitement is definitely burned into my mind.
Stay tuned in 2019 for the new Daddies tape release show on 1/12.” – Greg Hanson of King Pizza
First Schoolhouse show Downtown Boys, Warm Bodies, Ebony Tusks – Aug. 21, 2017. Photo by Fally Afani of I Heart Local Music
Petri Productions
Lawrence, KS
“I recently graduated from the University of Kansas in Lawrence, KS with a degree in African American Studies. I was raised by KU’s college radio station KJHK, our local record store Love Garden, and our beloved Replay Lounge. All of which I worked at for multiple years throughout college. Inspired and motivated by Lawrence’s already thriving music scene I wanted to grow something that was my own. With a few trials and errors I began my own booking and production company, Petri Productions. I booked under Sheridan James, Replay Lounge, for my first year as well as booking house shows and acoustic sets in coffee shops. I quickly learned all-ages, accessible venues weren’t much of an option in our community. I’ve booked over 90 shows since moving to Lawrence and continue to book in multiple venues though I am the primary talent buyer and booking agent at the Schoolhouse, a DIY all-ages venue as far North of town as one can go.
The very first show at the Schoolhouse was on August 21, 2017, the day the Solar Eclipse passed our very path in Lawrence, KS. Paul DeGeorge of Wonder Fair pitched the idea that we host an all ages event with Downtown Boys in this old schoolhouse North of town. After that show and creating a relationship with the owner, Jennifer Roth, the magic hasn’t really seemed to stop since then. We’ve hosted over 15 all-ages shows in the last year at the Schoolhouse including Girlpool, Palm, Screaming Females, Chastity Belt, Lala Lala,Waxahatchee, Anna St. Louis, Diet Cig, and more.
flyer by Grace
This year Petri’s events were included in 33 Reasons Why Kansas City is a Great Place to Be Right Now in KC’s The Pitch, ‘Best of 2018′ magazine with an article [that called us an’ ‘all ages paradise‘.
SOLD OUT: Diet Cig, The Spook School, Great Grandpa, LK Ultra Feb. 5th, 2018 Photo by Anna Selle of Playlistplay
All of the shows hold their own beauty and individuality but a show that I think shifted our community into a new phase in our scene was the Diet Cig, Spook School, Great Grandpa, and LK Ultra show February of this year. It was Petri Productions’ first-ever sold out show and excitingly enough it sold out in advance. LK Ultra is a queer indigenous fronted group formed from Lawrence’s Girl’s Rock chapter. To experience this new, fresh, inclusive energy was something our community was longing for.
The Schoolhouse’s capacity is 150 when inside and 250 when the shows are outside. The small space and its location create an intimate environment for both the artists and the audience. The venue is a little oasis that takes everyone away from it all for a moment. It’s on the outskirts of town, secluding it from the rest of the Lawrence. There’s a huge yard with a fire pit, you can hear the trains go by, and see so many stars. The space really does create dreamlike experiences.
Because of the DIY nature of the project we bring our own PA and tear it down before and after every show. We’ve recently been raising money for an in-house PA that will help harvest more stability for our venue. We’ve recently acquired a group a volunteers and our goal is to become a non-profit in 2019. The Schoolhouse is beginning to host Queer DJ nights and Drag Shows, with the help of Mylan Jones and Riley Corcoran. It’s really amazing to see how the space is evolving as more community members get involved. Lawrence is a college town in Kansas so it’s really important to have a space people feel safe to be themselves as well as see a varieties representation being celebrated. Having a stage and a setting for those who are disenfranchised is very valuable to a supportive and thriving community.
Photo of Paige Batson on the left receiving a birthday cake at the One Year Show on August 23rd, 2018 with Paul Cherry, ACBs, Dreamgirl, and Fullbloods
The momentum that’s been created is electrifying. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was looking for or where I was going so it’s pretty wild to be here. To me putting on a show feels like cooking a meal. It takes so much time, energy, and a kitchen of hands. Petri’s kitchen is: Jennifer Roth, owner of the Schoolhouse; Paul DeGeorge, sound and inspiration; Kelly Corcoran, support and logistics; Louis Wigen-Toccalino, Decade pop up bar and hospitality; Katie Harpstrite, event hand and Vast Yoga; Grace Chin, flyer art; and Shelby Bettles, event hand and hospitality. It takes months and tons of energy to grow the garden, plan the ‘meal,’ invite the guests, and host the party. It can take roughly six months to plan a three to four hour experience, just like it can take hours to prep a meal and ten minutes to devour it. Together our team creates a moment we hope people will cherish and hold onto for the rest of their lives.
I’m extremely lucky and privileged to live where I do at the time that I do. Without the team Lawrence has brought together these events wouldn’t be happening. Lawrence is magical place that harvests a supportive and daring community. I couldn’t wish for a better environment to raise this project in. I’m so grateful and thankful for the opportunities I have been presented.
I hope the Schoolhouse is still hosting all-ages shows 20 years from now, that’s the real dream.” – Paige Batson
Photo credit Hayden Remick
Paper Scissors Media Philadelphia, PA
“2018 was a truly incredible year for Paper Scissors Media. Most importantly, it was the year at that our record label goodhowareyou records truly came to life. We have 14 artists in our family (Secret Nudist Friends, Blushed, Trash Boy, Overwinter, Kelsey Cork and the Swigs, Puppy Angst, Broke Body, yeenar, Madam West, Busy Bee Project, Rebecca Zimmerman, Honeytiger, and too dogs) and we couldn’t be more proud of everyone’s teamwork and collective effort. We are so proud to have a record label dedicated to a diverse array of artists largely composed of non cis-males, and with a strong connection to the Philly queer community.
Our home-base venue Tralfamadore hosted over 70 shows, and in total we booked over 100 shows in Philadelphia alone this year as well as many in other cities. This year was the year of teamwork. I can’t say enough about the efforts of Deb Gilmore, Dan Baggarly, and Missy Pidgeon, and it would be truly impossible to individually think all of the dedicated artists, spaces, and supporters who keep our DIY family alive.
I’m so proud of the fact that we have now hosted four music festivals, two this year: a reoccurring festival called Good How Are You Fest in the Spring, and Great How’ve You Been Fest in the Fall. I am so proud and honored to be able to make music in the city of Philadelphia and to know so many wonderful people around the country who go out of their way to make shows happen and to accommodate artists and treat them with love and respect. I hope people continue to support Paper Scissors Media and I encourage everyone to check out goodhowareyou records!!” – Matty Klauser of Paper Scissors Media
“The highlight of 2018 for PLAG was expanding on our workshops. In 2017, we noticed a lack of accessible education for artists, particularly independent artists, and started presenting free artist-facing educational workshops featuring womxn, femme, and nonbinary speakers. This year, we’ve really built on that foundation. While we continued having more ‘traditional’ moderated panels on various aspects of the music business, we also hosted our first hands-on, interactive workshops. These have included topics like producing with Ableton, an introduction to modular synths, how to build your pedal board, producing with Native Instruments Maschines, and a bunch of others, and partnerships with Ableton, Make Noise, Earthquaker Devices, Native Instruments, Lil Miquela, and IO Music Academy. It’s been a rewarding year watching developing artists learn how to take the reins of their own careers and we can’t wait to keep building on that throughout 2019. We have some really fun things in the works.” – Katrina Bleckley of PLAG
“At the time of writing this, our YouTube channel has uploaded 3,728 videos of (mostly local) bands playing throughout Minneapolis and St Paul from 2011 until now. Each year we have steadily increased our coverage and output. We’ve been going through a lot of changes in the past few years here in Minneapolis. As the city has grown and become more gentrified, we’ve lost numerous important venues along the way – the Triple Rock, Grumpy’s downtown, Reverie, Secret Service, Licorice Beach, various house show spaces. We’ve had many notable bands part ways over the last handful of years, such as Burn Fetish, Tony Peachka, Animal Lover, Wretch, Naïve Sense, Karate Break, Mrs., Murder Shoes, Disasteratti, Brain Tumors… and so many more. We’ve also tragically had some beloved local musicians passing away before their time.
The initial purpose of UnderCurrentMPLS’s genesis – to capture, document, and promote local underground music – has felt especially valuable considering all of this loss and change the local music scene has experienced. There are plenty of bands who never even had a chance to record anything officially, outside of our live videos, and it feels good to offer bands those memories while doing what we enjoy.
But, it’s not all doom and gloom! Some really great new venues have been opening up: Mortimers, Moon Palace Books etc… and collectively, Minneapolis bands are like a Hydra – when you cut off one head, multiple heads grow back in its place. Excellent new bands are always forming out of the ashes of the old bands. New Primals, Tongue Party, Witch Watch, Citric Dummies, Scrunchies, IV, Death of a Ladies’ Man, Tulip, Conscripts… all feature members of the above listed bands that had dismantled. So, on the flip side of the coin, along with helping preserve the memory of what has come and gone, it also feels really special to be able to be there, documenting those newly formed venues and bands all from the beginning.” – UnderCurrentMPLS
Women That Rock
Brooklyn, NY
“We’ve seen an incredible community of badass femmes building around Women That Rock this year. Our debut ‘Women That Rock Presents’ concert event in April 2018 at Knitting Factory Brooklyn was a major highlight – we brought four amazing femme-fronted bands and a female DJ together on one bill for a special night of music. We also had an amazing summer showcase at Brooklyn Bazaar with a stacked lineup: GYMSHORTS, Sharkmuffin, MONTE, Sister Munch, Lady Bits and Strange Parts. The night also featured almost 20 Brooklyn-based femme vendors. We threw an awesome PRIDE party in June at Coney Island Baby, which featured a bill of four queer femme-fronted acts and a queer lady DJ. Most recently, we celebrated again at The Knit with a special concert event featuring headliners Starbenders alongside Scarlet Sails, Astra the 22s and Natalie Claro.
It’s been an incredible experience creating this platform to spotlight womxn in music – creating a safe, celebratory, inclusive space for womxn to perform, be heard and be recognized for their art without the obstacles that misogyny and gender roles present for womxn in the music world. It’s been amazing watching the platform come to life and seeing how people respond to what Women That Rock is doing – artists & music fans alike seem to have a real hunger for this femme-focused initiative.
(Band: GYMSHORTS, Show: GIG LIKE A GYRL @ Brooklyn Bazaar, Photographer: Kate Hoos)
We’ve heard so many incredible stories from femme musicians we’ve worked with over the last year about how appreciated Women That Rock is and how necessary the space is that we’re creating. We’ve heard stories from womxn about the discomfort of being the only woman on most show lineups, being spoken down to or dismissed by venue staff, sound guys and dude-bands. Stories about the struggle to have their art be appreciated without feeling judged based on appearance. A great example of this was a story told by Brooklyn rock band MONTE’s front woman Caitlin Montclare, who described many instances of showing up at a venue with her guitar on her back and being immediately assumed to be the ‘merch girl’ or a girlfriend of one of the band members, rather than the musician herself. As if just because she’s female, she must be the merch girl – as if the guitar she’s carrying must be someone else’s. As if because she’s female, she must be just a ‘girl helping the band’.
We’re working hard to create a celebratory and safe space that will hopefully help combat those types of negative experiences, help break down some of the negative gender stereotypes, and make women feel more secure, confident & appreciated. We have a lot of exciting initiatives in the works for 2019 and we can’t wait to see what the new year brings!” – Andie of Women That Rock
“I’ve handled a portion (some years a large portion) of an all ages triplex of music venues called The Outland Complex here in Springfield, Missouri. Sometimes I set up house shows too though haven’t lived at a house that did shows in about four years. Since I work directly for the business what I book is a wide swath, some of which I don’t enjoy but know other folks in the community will enjoy! My primary goal has been to both offer Springfield as a well-paying and friendly spot to book when touring down south or up north through the Midwest. It’s a strategic stop on any tour but has not always been hospitable to smaller touring acts (especially ones that fall under niche/more challenging genre types) which is mostly what I focus on.
This year there were many shows I loved but there really isn’t a singular show that takes the cake or a moment that overshadows the others any of the years I’ve been doing this. My favorite thing is seeing people of all ages attending shows at a bar that wouldn’t have likely hosted them before (large in part to the ownership). Compared to previous years I really scaled back for health reasons. Up until this year I was booking on average 10 to 20 shows a month, some months much more. I’d like to let anyone else know that has been doing this for a hot minute that it’s okay to take a breather and focus on your mental and physical health. In the coming year I already have some shows I’m really excited to put on and hope to build up a team of folks that hopefully take on the torch once I move elsewhere or get too tired to do this all the time. That’s how college towns work right?” – Seth Goodwin
The only thing I remember from high school chemistry class is making ice cream and how a microwave works. I don’t remember any specific purple substances guarded by emotionless 20-somethings wearing black. Like PowerSnap front woman Romi Hanoch, I too would be intrigued and would feel the need to attain said purple substance. Maybe this purple substance is the essence of PowerSnaps’ punk grunge pop, and once you have a taste it will send your brain into a fuzz-soaked seizure. Formed after two members moved to NYC from Tel Aviv, this new band’s crunchy guitars and grimy vocal hooks will stick to your head like that purple goo would stick to those white walls. PowerSnap new EP ‘Delatency’ out now on King Pizza Records. Watch their new video, written/directed Gal Shaya and Efrat Kariv below…
Happy 2018! Out first track of the week in the new year also happens to be an exclusive premiere of “Say Less,” from The Royal They‘s new record Foreign Being, which comes out next week on King Pizza Records. Although the Josie & The Pussycats comparison seems so overused these days, all those ’90s high school movies and Buffy the Vampire episodes with pop punk bands at their dances is the first thing I picture while listening to “Say Less.” Frontwoman Michelle Hutt takes her own advice and says less in this song by mainly repeating this phrase like it’s a meditative affirmation that will save her own sanity and possibly her high school prom date’s life. The Royal They will celebrate their album release on Saturday, January 13th at The Gutter with Illiterate Light (VA), El Silver Cabs and The Rizzos.
Check out the full track of the week playlist below…
[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
Ticket Giveaways
Each week Audiofemme gives away a set of tickets to our featured shows in NYC! Scroll down to enter for the following shindigs.
