I discovered that girlboss is a Wellington-based four-piece embarking on its first national tour to share upcoming EP Body Con (released on Ball of Wax records) with the country. Awesome. Then I listened to the EP's title track ...
I don't know if it was just because I was a mass of lifeless flesh only a few hours into a seemingly endless Monday at the grindstone, but it hit the spot in a way few songs do. It's like an M&M where the centre is jangly Demarco-esque guitar and the coating is pure melancholy. Imagine gently floating down a river and feeling a bit sad then the distortion kicks in and you peacefully slide down a waterfall into the cloudy depths - it's a wonderful feeling.
I spoke to singer, guitarist and songwriter Lucy Botting who, thankfully, is less pretentious than me with her description: "I think it's like that real, like, '90s vibe and it seems like it should be a happy upbeat song, but its pretty melancholic."
Diving into their back catalogue, which consists of various demos released over the past few years, it's clear their sound has changed from something akin to jangly indie pop to a contorted version of that. Lucy reckons this might have something to do with the quantity of shoegaze she has been listening to recently.
"It was pretty much all I listened to for, like, a year and I didn't expect it to influence my songwriting so much, but it did, and I was like `Woah'."
I definitely hear that in Body Con. It has got that Slowdive vibe where it isn't overtly sad but it's just a bit ... melancholy. You won't be crying, but you might feel like you want to.
When I spoke to Lucy she had a nasty cold.
"I got it on Friday doing a show at Auckland and it's just gone downhill. I'm a teacher, so I use my voice all day. Today I went back to work and was like, `I shouldn't have done that ..."'
It will probably have moved on by tonight's show, but if not she assures me that she has "done gigs with pretty much no voice", so she knows it's going to be fine. If not, I'm sure bandmates - Darian Woods, Douglas Kelly and Olivia Campion - will fill in the gaps.
So what should we expect from the live show?
"A little bit of a shredding, a little bit of guitar solo because it's the s**t, and some chill, and some noise, and some melancholy, and some happy ..."
Joining girlboss is Jack Berry.
I've only ever seen him and his band tearing it up at Re:Fuel, so it'll be interesting to see him in the echo-filled chambers of Dog with Two Tails.
Through some incredible coincidence there are also heaps of other gigs on tonight. I'll be going to girlboss, but there's also Hollywoodfun Downstairs/Qui/Boognish/Milpool at the Crown and a whole bunch of great stuff at the Fringe Festival Club, including Sugarcoated Bullets and Richard Maybe's Passion for Nature.
See it, hearing it
- girlboss' EP Release Party with Jack Berry, tonight 8pm, Dog with Two Tails, free.
- "Fringe Festival Club Nights", tonight from 7pm, Fringe Festival Club (Dunedin Community Gallery) featuring Sugarcoated Bullets at 7pm and Club Six from 10pm, $5.
- "Hollywoodfun Downstairs And QUI", tonight at 9pm, Crown Hotel, $10.
- Fraser Thompson
