Death to Sexy
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Death to Sexy

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"Fall of the Prom Queen Review"

Death to Sexy
Fall of the Prom Queen (independent)
Death to Sexy has been shaking a lot of booties around the city during their brief tenure, and if their debut full-length, Fall of the Prom Queen, is any indication, it’s a trend that’ll continue. Prom Queen is chock full of
DTS’s signature dancefloor-friendly electro: fat melody lines, over-modulated sounds, and Miss Kitten-esque spoken lyrics tackling
everything from one-night stands to consumerism with a touch of cheekiness. Singer Kelcy Clark’s voice isn’t as heavily filtered as it was on the band’s EP release; here, her natural vocal talent shines through. That being said, Clark sounds strongest when she abandons spoken word in favour of sing-
ing, particularly on the chorus of “Lost”, a slower song that marks a bit of a departure from the feel of
the rest of the tunes. Clocking in at nine tracks, this album is short enough to not leave the
listener feeling inundated with too much electro, but long enough that DTS’s talent is cemented by the
last song. A strong debut from a band that has nowhere to go but up.
—Amanda Farrell
- Monday Magazine (Victoria)


"Death to Sexy Interview"

Dance Dance
Revolution
Victoria groups
are changing
the face of
electronic music

It’s kind of uncanny how much Death to Sexy and Narcisse Blonde have in common. Both are live electro groups based in Victoria, both
contain longtime members of the city’s rave and club scene, and both feature sultry chanteuses, dirty beats, and dark, raunchy lyrics. But perhaps the most oddball similarity between the two groups is that they hadn’t even heard of each other until this summer’s Victoria Electronic Music Festival, where both made their live debut and stole the show, causing unprecedented buzz in the city’s electronic music scene. After scouring the globe and finding only a handful of groups making music similar to theirs, the members of Death to Sexy were stoked to find their musical kindred spirits right here in their hometown. “We talked about music and collaborating to help build some sort of electro scene here,” says Death to Sexy’s
Kevin Legere. The result is this weekend’s double bill at the Jungle
Room, which appears to be the first steps towards the construction of this new scene. But even though the
two groups share a lot of commonalities, they are far
from carbon copies of each other. Each of the bands have very distinctive performance and writing styles. Death to Sexy produces most of their work in audio software and take turns passing the track back and forth so each member can add his or her touch to the piece. This particular strategy makes the translation from recording to live a challenge. “We write songs and then learn how to play them live after we
write them,” says Legere. “It’s different from a traditional band.”
Death to Sexy’s live show is somewhere between a rock band and a DJ set, with Legere mixing his and Scott MacPherson’s produced samples together while vocalist
Kelcy Clark lays down the saucy lyrics. “We don’t quite know when we go on stage what it’s going to sound like,” says Legere, a longtime local techno DJ. But if Death to Sexy’s style can be described as soft-
ware based, then Narcisse Blonde falls into the hard- ware category. Producer Steve Surly has opted for drum machines, samplers, and synths instead of a laptop and
describes his sound as “dirty dance music.” “Our sound is more sort of raw,” says Surly, who does all the production and currently writes all of the band’s lyrics. “And there’s more chances for fuck-ups.” Narcisse Blonde is a relatively new project. While Surly has been writing and performing as a live electronica artist for a few years, the addition of Russian- born vocalist Sasha Alexandra was a relatively new one.
The band was only officially formed in July following Alexandra’s guest appearance on one of Surly’s tracks.
“It’s a whole new world ,” says Alexandra, a classically- trained musician who came to Victoria to study at the Conservatory of Music. “I’ve never done anything like it.”
In contrast, it’s taken two years for Death to Sexy to cement their sound. Their previous incarnation—a
punk band called Rabbits Holding Guns—dissolved when they lost their drummer. It was then that the
group decided to take their music in a different direction. “We’re electronic with punk influences as opposed to punk with electronic influences,” says MacPherson.
The blending of live music and electronica seems to be a winning combination for both bands. Narcisse
Blonde has been averaging a show a month since VEMF and Death to Sexy has signed three tracks to Toronto-based Bugeyed Records.
Both bands also plan to take their show on the road and relocate to Europe, where electronic music has a more solid following. “We’re all very passionate about it,” Clark says of her band. “It feels like we’ve found
our musical soulmates.”
—Amanda Farrell - Monday Magazine (Victoria)


Discography

Fall of the Prom Queen (Independent) April 2007

- Single 911 has received airplay on the Zone 91.3 fm and CFUV in Victoria as well as many University Airwaves, hitting the top 10 3 months in a row on Earshot Charts accross Canada

I am a Whore EP (Bugeyed Records, Toronto)

Single 24/7 received play from International DJ's Donald Glaude, JELO, Garbo and more

Photos

Bio

When Death to Sexy took the stage for the first time at the Victoria Electronic Music Festival (VEMF) in August, 2006, they had no idea what they were getting themselves into.

The trio blew the roof off at VEMF and have quickly become one of Victoria's most popular bands. With the charismatic Kelcy Clark on the mic and tech wizards Scott MacPherson and Kevin Legere handling the programming, the trio's genre-spanning music, billed as danceable punk-infused electro ("Picture Metric infected with MSTRKRFT on a dark dirty dancefloor") has sold out shows in some of Victoria's most popular venues. They've been featured as the Band of the Month on local rock station The Zone 91.3fm and were nominated for an award for Most Promising Local Band by Monday Magazine, Victoria's alt weekly paper.

Death to Sexy released their first full length album in 2007 that marked a turning point in the band's short and explosive life. While their debut EP, "I Am A Whore", released on Bugeyed Records (Toronto), was more straight-up electro-punk, Fall of the Prom Queen showcases a more diverse variety of influences, not to mention some more serious lyrical content. Topics like consumerism ("Falling Behind", "911") are explored on the record in addition to lighter songs like "Morning After." Clark says mixing the light and dark is an important part of what DTS wants to do.

"I want to get points across to people who maybe haven't been exposed to anti-consumer, anti-media antics," she says. "I can't think of a better way than to sing to a crowd full of made up bar stars. What am I supposed to do though? Write folk music that's already full of lyrics with similar teachings? Generally speaking, people who listen to that style of music already get it. Now to reach the masses."

With influences ranging from Justice to Radiohead, Miss Kitten, Daft Punk, Digitalism, and a variety of electronic genres, “Death to Sexy” has honed in on a unique sound with a performance that should not be missed. While lead singer Kelcy Clark has quickly developed both her vocal ability and powerful up-front performance, Kevin Legere, a veteran techno dj and former punk band guitarist creates and re-mixes beats with technical wiz Scott McPhearson. The groups undeniably cutting edge style, highlighted by female vocals, dirty basslines and hard percussion will keep you dancing all night long.