Girls
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Girls

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"Forkcast"

Skee-Lo wished he were a little bit taller. Blur's Graham Coxon wished he could bring Nick Drake back to life. Stevie Wonder wished his nostalgic song about childhood could be sampled for a Will Smith movie. Girls, the San Francisco-based duo of Chet JR White and Holy Shit's Christopher Owens, wish they had a boyfriend. And a father. And a suntan. And pizza, a bottle of wine, a beach house, etc. etc. Obviously, "Lust for Life" isn't an Iggy Pop cover.

What Girls have here, however, is a good, melancholic bedroom-pop song, winking at all the shit that messes people up and getting past it with uncluttered, lo-fi production and a bouncing melody. First there's only a ringing electric guitar chord, soon joined by Owen's pinched vocals. Tambourines, handclaps, a sloppily joyful bass line, and what could be a melodica arrive before the song is done, their cumulative shimmy hinting at the shuffling Motown beat of Iggy's original "Lust for Life". Ba-ba backing vocals recall "Sunday Morning"-mode Velvet Underground, while the track's homemade eccentricity also makes it kin to fellow California musician Ariel Pink. "Maybe if I really try with all my heart/ Then I could make a brand new start in love with you," Owens sings. The track ends with just guitar again, the opening chord's wishin'/hopin' fulfilled by some bittersweet, Beatles-y arpeggios. You can't always get what you wish for, but if you try sometimes yada yada blah. - Pitchfork Media


"Freeload"

here is a tendency on this blog to describe a lot of music as "summery." This is not because every song we listen to includes a ukelele or four part harmonies, but because we are blogging and not playing outside in the summertime (RIYL: tumbling with beach balls, hacky sacking and enjoying the sound of birds). This denial of summer permeates our every thought, so when we hear something that even remotely reminds of where we could be… you get the drift.

Case in point: San Francisco's Girls, a band featuring zero girls, a few dudes and happy lyrics paired with mopey melodies and shoegaze guitar explosions. The song is called "Hellhole Ratrace" (not summery) but sounds like the soundtrack to the beach prom scene in Just One of the Guys (summery). Girls played last night at the often sweltering Market Hotel, and they were joined by Suckers, who photoshop their heads onto sticks on a beach and make flyers with really scary broccoli. - FADER


"Come On and Laugh With Me"

hristopher Owens + Chet JR White are new San Francisco duo Girls. The boys would like to "to conjure up auditory memories of listening to a Beach Boys song out of an old car speaker," and their beautiful lo-fi pop actually comes pretty close to that. This is some of the most starkly honest and affecting stuff I've heard in a while, like a more relatable, hopelessly romantic version of Ariel Pink (related side note: Owens also plays in Holy Shit). The four songs over at their myspace page are all worth your time, but the sincere longing and sort of sad hopefulness they convey on these two gems is what won me over. - Gorilla vs. Bear


"Girls, Girls, Girls"

On Feb. 15, the auspicious day after Valentine's, Café Du Nord hosted Girls' debut — a perfect night to showcase their music, which is full of heartache and romantic longing. I witnessed the birth of a pop sensation that night. I've never seen San Francisco rock kids so unhinged for a band that had never previously played out — they sang, in a state of unrestrained fervor, along with songs only available online.

Those of us giddy in the crowd that night haven't been alone in feeling it. In three months, the SF outfit sold out all 500 copies of their recently released single on True Panther. In fact, 200 of those records were sold on pre-order, and the group has received notice on Pitchfork and various blogs and in Spin magazine.

The rapid and rapturous reception would turn anyone's head. But the boys of Girls — JR White on bass, Christopher Owens on guitar and vocals, and an otherwise rotating lineup — are wary of overly speedy success. When I sat down with White and Owens at the Ferry Building last week, I asked White why he thinks listeners respond so keenly to their songs. "I think they're honest," he replied. "It's the first thing I noticed, and it's the first thing a lot of people say." Girls' music, he added, "lacks the pretension in a lot of pop music."

Girls emerged from a living-room recording project that Owens brought White, a recording engineer. Excited by Owens' music, White suggested they form a band. A musician since age 15, the bassist confesses that this is the first time he feels no ambivalence about playing in a group. According to White, the project evolved as if by "divine intervention — a gift from everything that's happened in your life."

I possess a reflexive Gen X cynicism and would normally respond to such an avowal with skepticism. However, there's nothing contrived about Girls' sincerity. In fact, the similarly charming Owens owned that descriptor, claiming, "Essentially I am just really an earnest, sincere person.

"I came to the realization at the last show that we would probably be the easiest band to make fun of," he continued. "You could read the lyrics and just mock it. So I feel super-vulnerable. I don't think we get up there and right away, people are saying, 'Yeah, this is the best thing ever.' We kind of have to win them over, but it's kind of a cool thing to go through from the beginning of the show to the end of the show. Every show has kind of been excruciating to play. The end is great."

In any case, Girls' lyrical earnestness was treated to a skilled studio work-over on their recordings — a full-length is due this fall on True Panther. The songs shine with brilliant arrangements that layer echoed vocals and reverbed guitars. The touchstones for such massive sound swirls are Spiritualized and various shoegazer outfits, but Girls can't be pigeonholed as a strictly genre band. For one thing, White rarely buries the vocals at the back of the mix, so we hear Owens' supple voice upfront, albeit through the pleasant gauze of lo-fi tape hiss. They also have written several dazzling three-minute-or-so pop songs, brightly realized with major chords and handclaps.

According to a commenter on Girls' MySpace page, the band's music smells like summer. Laugh or no, it's true. Their sound resembles all the parts of the season: the bright happy mornings, the long gorgeous days, the nostalgic end-of. "Morning Light" evokes that perfect buzz after a great night out and the walk home on a summer dawn. "Hellhole Rat Race" resembles the summer waxing in September, dusty and wistful. "Lust for Life" gives off the whiff of a perfect pop song: you're cruising in a car maybe to the beach, in search of beers for breakfast, and your friends are all around.

I don't know why this music triggers synesthesia in me. I suspect it's because these gorgeous numbers make my skin literally tingle. The tunes are so classic and pure, yet churn so massively, and the language is so full of want. It's an imperfect world, and boys and girls do each other harm. But, hey, sometimes a song can be your salvation. - SF Bay Guardian


Discography

Lust For Life/Morning Light 7"
Album forthcoming April 2008

Photos

Bio

On Feb. 15, the auspicious day after Valentine's, Café Du Nord hosted Girls' debut — a perfect night to showcase their music, which is full of heartache and romantic longing. I witnessed the birth of a pop sensation that night. I've never seen San Francisco rock kids so unhinged for a band that had never previously played out — they sang, in a state of unrestrained fervor, along with songs only available online.

Those of us giddy in the crowd that night haven't been alone in feeling it. In three months, the SF outfit sold out all 500 copies of their recently released single on True Panther. In fact, 200 of those records were sold on pre-order, and the group has received notice on Pitchfork and various blogs and in Spin magazine.

The rapid and rapturous reception would turn anyone's head. But the boys of Girls — JR White on bass, Christopher Owens on guitar and vocals, and an otherwise rotating lineup — are wary of overly speedy success. When asked why they think listeners respond so keenly to their songs. "I think they're honest," he replied. "It's the first thing I noticed, and it's the first thing a lot of people say." Girls' music, he added, "lacks the pretension in a lot of pop music."

Girls emerged from a living-room recording project that Owens brought White, a recording engineer. Excited by Owens' music, White suggested they form a band. A musician since age 15, the bassist confesses that this is the first time he feels no ambivalence about playing in a group. According to White, the project evolved as if by "divine intervention — a gift from everything that's happened in your life."

I possess a reflexive Gen X cynicism and would normally respond to such an avowal with skepticism. However, there's nothing contrived about Girls' sincerity. In fact, the similarly charming Owens owned that descriptor, claiming, "Essentially I am just really an earnest, sincere person.

"I came to the realization at the last show that we would probably be the easiest band to make fun of," he continued. "You could read the lyrics and just mock it. So I feel super-vulnerable. I don't think we get up there and right away, people are saying, 'Yeah, this is the best thing ever.' We kind of have to win them over, but it's kind of a cool thing to go through from the beginning of the show to the end of the show. Every show has kind of been excruciating to play. The end is great."

In any case, Girls' lyrical earnestness was treated to a skilled studio work-over on their recordings — a full-length is due this fall on True Panther. The songs shine with brilliant arrangements that layer echoed vocals and reverbed guitars. The touchstones for such massive sound swirls are Spiritualized and various shoegazer outfits, but Girls can't be pigeonholed as a strictly genre band. For one thing, White rarely buries the vocals at the back of the mix, so we hear Owens' supple voice upfront, albeit through the pleasant gauze of lo-fi tape hiss. They also have written several dazzling three-minute-or-so pop songs, brightly realized with major chords and handclaps.

According to a commenter on Girls' MySpace page, the band's music smells like summer. Laugh or no, it's true. Their sound resembles all the parts of the season: the bright happy mornings, the long gorgeous days, the nostalgic end-of. "Morning Light" evokes that perfect buzz after a great night out and the walk home on a summer dawn. "Hellhole Rat Race" resembles the summer waxing in September, dusty and wistful. "Lust for Life" gives off the whiff of a perfect pop song: you're cruising in a car maybe to the beach, in search of beers for breakfast, and your friends are all around.

I don't know why this music triggers synesthesia in me. I suspect it's because these gorgeous numbers make skin literally tingle. The tunes are so classic and pure, yet churn so massively, and the language is so full of want. It's an imperfect world, and boys and girls do each other harm. But, hey, sometimes a song can be your salvation.