Find Out, the debut full-length album from Brooklyn’s Spite FuXXX, is like stepping into a swirling sonic cartoon, not unlike the effect of some very fun drugs. But you will eagerly suck this Kool-Aid down, and frontwoman MG Stillwaggon will pick you up in a hotrod made of flame, so no time to get ready, just go! There is no choice but to embrace the volcanic chaos of Spite FuXXX’s self-described “trash noise punk.” And like all good trips, you’ll find deeper meanings within the color pulsations, and you might come out the other end a better person with more clarity. If you’re lucky…sucka! No…really.
This album is political and surreal, danceable and thrashing, a shitload of fun, and it might even help you navigate the absurdity and nightmares of late capitalism. Stillwaggon and company are cruising through hell and back on waves of spacey synth (from Frankie L. Frances, also screaming out backing vocals), thoroughly danceable guitar riffs (skillfully played by Anaïs Valdez), and an always driving rhythm section (from the super duo of Alex Glueck on drums and Greg Albert on bass). So turn up the volume, slam yourself into overdrive, and take the journey to the Hollywood Burger King with Spite FuXXX. This junk food is good for you.
Stillwaggon’s raw vocals rush right out in the album’s first two tracks “Too Much,” and “Last Word.” Both songs are efficient punk anthems (clocking in at under two minutes each) of women who will not be controlled and will not settle for less than they deserve. The rapid-fire distorted guitar sounds and relentless rhythms are squeezed through the time warp feel of Frances’s synth sounds for a truly unique blend of noise and punk. Stillwaggon’s lyrics make it clear that she will not be quiet, no matter how uncomfortable it makes any man that she fuxxx: “I think I wanna start some shit…cuz baby watching you squirm in those jeans is even better than getting you outta them.”
Find Out’s third track, “Gates of Hell,” is when things really get wild. Stillwaggon slams her foot on the gas and the Spite FuXXX speedster careens off the road and down a hole into the underworld, where suddenly the uncontrollable heroines of the first two tracks are “kissing death by the gates of hell.” Ooooooh, Death! It’s sexy. And a little goth. And delightfully surreal and weird. But the standout song of the album is “Eat the Rich,” Stillwaggon’s exemplary lyrical gifts really shine on this fourth track, and in the name of taking down the one percent, a sentiment most of us can enthusiastically appreciate: “They watch us die while collecting their tax break / So let em cry as they watch their glass break / Whaddya think, broiled or sauteed? / Bet their champagne makes a great marinade” Yum, yum! Eat up, proles, this is your moment! All good satirical fun, or deathly serious? Who cares? Let’s dance! Spite FuXXX is gonna make you jump up and down until your brain has collided with your skull so many times you don’t care if this is a joke or if you actually are chewing on some rich asshole’s disembodied arm.
The frenzy continues in “Fuck Yr Star Magick,” another standout track, where the collective rage at the rich has morphed into freeform anger at the prophecy of the stars “Gemini rising up my ass! / Maybe it’s Mercury, Maybe it’s bullshit!…Your aura is piss yellow / L train rising, fuck right off!” a uniquely Brooklyn burst of aggression! The hallucinatory technicolor storm of it all is well-captured by visual artist Preston Spurlock’s video to accompany the fifth track, the groovy “Break Me”:
In the end, the Spite FuXXX roadster pulls up to the “Hollywood Burger King,” Find Out’s ninth and final song. They push you out into the parking lot, but before they drive off into the toxic neon sunset, you fall into the somewhat frightening joy of their raucous music once again. You will “sell your flamebroiled soul to the Hollywood Burger King!” But you had a great time, and you might even feel better about the impending apocalypse. Many thanks for the ride, Spite FuXXX!
Find Out is out now via Make Believe Records and available on all major streaming platforms.
Written and recorded in their home studio in Maspeth, Queens over five weeks at the end of 2019, The Maspeth Project’s visceral and hypnotic new album, Birth, was then postponed for release until the end of March 2022 due to the pandemic lockdowns. But the delay also gave Venuzuelan producers and musicians Diego Ramirez, Johann Sánchez, and Carlos Rey bountiful time to revise and polish the content, and the result is “introspective dance music” featuring “dry analog textures” mixed with “fierce drum machines,” and some moving vocal work and lyrics from Columbian visual artist Lluvia Pinzón (or Lluvia PM). Birth evokes the pleasures of the crowded dance clubs we’ve all been missing these past two years, but it’s dance music on a reflective pilgrimage, inspiring colorful visions and journeys internal.
Birth begins with the brief instrumental track, “YEAH!,” where the undulations of what sounds like an electronic marimba riding a giant space worm glides through your brain, roiling slowly to almost stop before jumping back to life again, putting you firmly into the sonic explorations of The Maspeth Project. The tracks that follow feature expressive singing from Lluvia PM, Ramirez, and Sánchez, often with Lluvia singing in unison but an octave above, or in lush harmonies over the swells of synth. “The Lesson” stands out for its seductive mystery; slow and steady, but undeniably catchy, it will make you move as Rey and Pinzón’s lyrics seduce you with the sensual: “You should have found it / see how you feel…I went by the midnight moonlight / I can feel my breath / despite all the fog and numbness / it won’t be too late for me.”
The moody “The Pressure” has been released as the first major single from Birth, and Lluvia PM stretches out the syllables in the opening lines: “My mind has gone blank / yet the moon forces me to cry.” The lyrics for “The Pressure” come from a poem Lluvia PM wrote many years ago. Her voice often quivers, pained, as the music underneath her travels from sparkling pauses to driving dark beats. She sings of “the vast emptiness of her emotions” and her search for “reasons to justify these tears” and the reminder that she’s “only animal / driven by instinct.”
Birth finishes off in the way it began, with another instrumental track, entitled “ThAnKs,” as if The Maspeth Project is offering gratitude to the listener. But the intriguing juxtaposition of acoustic guitar sounds over loops of spacey delays in this last track will leave you feeling like the thanks should come from all of us who have gone on this sonic wandering with this talented group.
Birth brings to mind some of the best offerings from Massive Attack and Portishead, but perhaps more hallucinatory and experimental. Mastered by Brok Mendes of Friends of Friends Recording, featuring album art by Venezuelan visual artist José Andrade, and released by the Amigos de la Casa label, Birth may have been many years in the making, but it’s well worth the wait.
Frida Kill builds on what it means to be a feminist punk band on their first EP 1, delivering all the energy of women-on-the-verge through their own original lens that is specific to the hustle of right now, trying to survive and thrive in New York City in 2022. But what are these Brooklyn superstars on the verge of exactly? Of turning over bullshit racist power structures, of surviving and transcending transphobia, of living through last night’s hangover, of dancing with their own demons.
EP #1 starts out with the rollicking political energy of “Mujeres Con Mangos” (which also has a fantastic video directed by Holly Overton, with additional cinematography from Tasha Lutek). Maria Lina provides the lead vocals and lyrics on this first track, and she writes and sings from both her own perspective, and from the point of view of a Latinx woman selling mangos on a Bushwick street being harassed by police and ICE. There’s a very clever double meaning of the word “ice” in Lina’s lyrics here; the mangos are sold on hielo (ice), but ICE, of course, is also the nefarious force coming for the “Mujeres Con Mangos.”
Lina says that “Mujeres Con Mangos” was fueled by “reports of undocumented workers being arrested for selling churros in NYC and of a memory I have of passing by an old family friend Margerita (who sells mangos all year round on Knickerbocker Ave) and she was getting a ticket by the cops in the bitter freezing cold for selling mangos. She was very upset but did not back down. I stood with her for a while, bought some mangos and gave her some money and a hug. I feel like a lot of the time these people that provide fresh fruits, treats and ice cream for us on the streets go unseen. They spend time preparing these small things to make money to pay their rent, send their kids to school, send money abroad to their families, just like everyone else. They get up everyday and go to work outside in the heat, in the freezing cold, harmless and out of the way and still, the system finds a way to criminalize them. I wanted to write a song for them, give them a voice, I want people who have never thought about them to be kind, have empathy, and see them when they pass them. I want people to appreciate them. I want people to help in any way they can and I hope the message gets across with my song. I have my mother to thank for always instilling empathy to my siblings and me. She opens her doors to anyone and is extremely helpful in her community.”
Maria Lina and her bandmates are most certainly carrying on her mother’s tradition of being helpful in the community with “Mujeres Con Mangos.” Nothing is more feminist and punk than that.
After “Mujeres Con Mangos,” EP 1 moves into “Get Over It” and “Here’s Hoping,” anthems of trying to navigate social landscapes built on ignorance. Frida Kill is an ever-shifting (and therefore very exciting!) ensemble in terms of who is playing which instrument or singing/writing the lyrics, and in these two songs, Lily Gist (who was on bass for “Mujeres Con Mangos”) shifts to guitar and lead vocals. “Get Over It” rides on an aggressive guitar riff while Gist asks if she should even try. Gist is very open with audiences at Frida Kill’s live shows about the challenges she’s experienced as a trans woman, and her pain and frustration with others’ cruelty is palpable in her lyrics. The intensity of “Get Over It” is also accentuated with fantastic drum fills from Gaby Canales. “Here’s Hoping” shows the transphobic cruelty that Gist has faced even more directly, as she quotes verbatim things her high school classmates said to her when she first started transitioning: “die alone/ friendless/ fail / I’m hoping.” Clearly, Gist and Frida Kill are succeeding with all kinds of punk rock fun and building community along the way, so all those assholes can eat their words.
The fourth intoxicating track on EP 1 is “Demons,” and once again the Frida Kill women shift roles and instruments, and Jeanette D. Moses puts down her guitar for a moment and steps up to be the frontwoman. “Demons” will make you bounce around, as Moses brings so much fun and humor into her lyrics: “Weekends I can’t remember / Late nights I don’t regret / Hangovers that burn forever / Ah fuck is that my ex?” So it goes with the wild ride (and heavy anxiety) of working hard and playing hard in Brooklyn these days.
EP 1 closes out with the more introspective “Zine Song.” If “Demons” catches the euphoria of a night out, “Zine Song” is waking up with a new lover the next day. There’s a very cool ascending guitar line on this track coming from Gaby Canales this time, who’s stepped out from the drums to strap on the lead guitar. Maria Lina is back on lead vocals (and drums) for this one: “Sloppy lovers mind / intertwined…in and out of dreams.”
The minute you finish listening to EP 1, you’ll want to start at the beginning again! With mixing and production from Justin Ferraro and Jed Smith (“Here’s Hoping”), this is DIY punk rock at its best. Let’s hope that a full-length album is in the works soon. n the meantime, grab this EP and go check out Frida Kill at one of their many high-energy shows around Brooklyn. Nothing to do with these demons but dance with them…
EP 1 is out now via Insecurity Hits and is available as a limited edition tape and on all major streaming platforms.
It makes perfect sense that in October 2020, Allegra Krieger drove across the country from Brooklyn to California to record her second and most recent album, Precious Thing. These ten contemplative songs wash over you like the daydreams you have while watching the world fly past outside the car window on a long road trip. The music is at times lush and sweeping, and in other moments sparse and intimate, with only Krieger’s voice paired with an acoustic guitar or a few piano notes. Her lyrics are full of keen observations of the beautiful and painful world around her, and overall the album is a calming, comforting balm coming out of the tumult of these past two pandemic years, both for Allegra Krieger and for us, her listeners.
The album’s first track, “Wake Me If I’m Asleep,” opens with an extended instrumental introduction before Krieger’s voice breaks through over the guitars, singing: ”the ambulance’s siren/ mixes with the violin/ there’s a body on a bed rolling down the street/ while looking out of my window, I call you up on the phone/ say I hope you get home all right/ wake me if I’m asleep.” There’s a consistent theme here of wanting to hold the things you love very close, while also knowing that everything is constantly shifting, speeding by, and you can’t keep these dear things close to you for too long, and maybe it’s wiser to step back, to love with a looser grip. We hear this realization again in “Taking It In,” the album’s third track (which also has a gorgeous video shot at Coney Island): “No, I don’t want to lose it / reaching / reaching / gone.”
All ten of these songs are gems, but my two favorites are “Let Go” and “No Machine,” both of which have surprising meandering melodies that really show off Krieger’s unique songwriting style. In “Let Go,” the piano is in unison with her voice in some places, accentuating the unexpected turns of the melodic line, as the lyrics again bring us back to the challenge of accepting inevitable changes: “nobody wants to be unhappy/ but nobody wants to let go.” “No Machine” features an absolutely regal (and again, wonderfully surprising) trombone sound from Kalia Vandever as Krieger’s lyrics embrace crises of faith and what it means to be human and flawed: “soaking up the remnants of pain, the absence, the choice, the excessive noise, the presence of some higher power to turn away from…no automated machine can keep up with me/ what I feel is what I’ll be.”
With beautiful production from Luke Temple, and an outstanding ensemble of musicians backing her up, Allegra Krieger has gifted us with a gorgeous and intimate journey in Precious Thing. It’s an album that you get lost in, that you float away on, an album for dreaming and waking up to see more clearly.
Precious Thing is out now via Northern Spy and available on Bandcamp and all major streaming platforms.
