Girls In Suede
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Girls In Suede

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"Bay Bridged"

San Francisco’s Girls In Suede has a style that is tough to pin down. Their new self-titled EP takes you from intricate math-rock to loud, catchy choruses, while hitting just about everything in between throughout the album’s 27-plus minutes. To celebrate the new release, the band is playing a show at Bottom of the Hill on December 20th, and we have a pair of free tickets for you.
To win the two tickets, be the first person to email contest@thebaybridged.com with “Girls in Suede” in the subject line.

Starting as a Sonoma County high school band that broke up after graduation, Girls In Suede actually reunited five years later with all four original members. When second guitarist Dominic Agius passed away in early 2011, the surviving members made the difficult decision to continue as a three-piece and have played that way ever since. Listen to their great EP in full, along with a video of the band playing the song “Raptor” live, below. - Bay Bridged


"Against the Tides"

Success in the San Francisco indie-rock scene is difficult to come by. You need something to distinguish you from the multitude of other unshaven, fedora and skinny jeans wearing, pretty boy bands at coffee shop and pub shows with broke audiences sitting at perfectly disheveled tables. Luckily, Santa Rosa-native, San Francisco-based rockers, Girls in Suede offer something different with their refreshingly innovative sound. In their self-titled debut, the band combines influences such as surf-rock, anthem rock, prog rock, hardcore, punk, garage-rock, and jazz, into a tempo-shifting, angst-drenched sound all their own.

Girls in Suede started as a band practicing in a garage in Santa Rosa. While members were students at Santa Rosa and neighboring Montgomery high schools. Quickly, they gained a fanbase in their hometown and after winning a Battle of the Bands in San Francisco, they had a fanbase in the Fog City as well. However, busy schedules prevented the band from sticking together but after a five year hiatus, the band reunited after drummer Eden Mazzola urged them to do so. They recorded this beautiful 27 minute work at the informal location of Mazzola’s mom’s boyfriend’s house, without time constraints, thus fostering greater experimentation. It definitely paid off.

The self-titled debut opens with the slow, haunting, synthesizer-driven melodies of “My Light.” The song is a short, spacey folktronica ballad, with simple, vibraphone-like synthesizer chords. The singing is in call and response format with lead singer Nikos Flaherty-Laub repeating the song’s title, and “oh” choruses responding. Compared with the rest of the album, “My Light” is decidedly un-experimental and very simply orchestrated. Yet the song’s hypnotic melodies and chord settings draw the listener in and prepare them for the enticing rock subgenre collage of the rest of the album.

The album’s second song, “Raptor,” epitomizes the band’s style-shifting sound. It is a stomp-your-foot rocker, fast-paced and fun. The madness begins with a repeating southern rock guitar riff interrupted by a “Hey!” yelling chorus with gradual crescendo. Soon drums enter as the song’s energy grows even greater. Then another guitar is added, playing in a new prog rock, Muse-esque style counterpoint before completely switching gears. The drums play a schoolyard romp, Nikos enthusiastically chants a verse, trading vocal duties with an enthusiastic chanting chorus. The progressive rock guitar and initial southern rock guitar enter back in with the tempo sped up faster but both quickly enter into yet another new direction. Two melodies are stacked on top of one another in the vocals, a pop-punk style whine, climaxing into an a cappella, before the song then shifts gears a few more times with bassist Alexis Lauren Faulkner briefly playing saxophone during one section, campfire melodies in another section, distorted and detuned guitars in another one, spacey prog rock, and xylophone before the song ends in the schoolyard romp of the beginning. Overall, its an incredibly fun song that captures the band’s experimental style that they will reiterate for the rest of the album.

The rest of the album is as decidedly experimental as “Raptor,” constantly shifting styles, tempos, and ensembles. “1987” features complex industrial, tribal-sounding drums and the saxophone of “Raptor,” among other stylistic elements. “Wild Fur” combines garage-rock guitar playing with a cowbell, and some funky John Frusciante-esque guitar soloing. “Lights On” has very some very anthemic rock guitar riffs at the end, and large sung choruses similar to that of Arcade Fire. Finally, another highlight was the return-to-spaciness of “Original Jam,” sounding very Pet Sounds-esque. Overall, the album is chock-full of sonically diverse material, as the band draws from many influences from different ages in rock n’ roll’s history. The album is similar to taking a tour of different rock eras. It can be fun trying to identify which section of which song belongs to which era.

Is it all positive? No. the greatest strength of the album, sonic diversity, can almost be its greatest weakness. Why so many styles? Why feel the need to constantly change sound? Sometimes, the constant shift of style disoriented me and it just didn’t work. The band feels confused at times, unable to decide how exactly they want to convey their message with which style. Also, the lyrics could have been pronounced clearer. I found myself struggling at times to understand what exactly Nikos was saying. Maybe he wasn’t trying to enunciate his lyrics, but I wish the lyrics were easier to comprehend.

Overall, Girls in Suede’s debut is a solid effort definitely worth a listen. With the entire album available for stream and download on Soundcloud, why not? I especially enjoyed hearing the band’s stylistic versatility, even though it felt confused at times. However, for a first attempt, it does not disappoint. I look forward to hearing what experimentation they have in store next.
- We Move Against the Tides


"Tooshie Boogie To Girls In Suede"

Whether dangling from the rafters at a vet hall punk show or nestling up to a pillow in an opium den, the new Girls In Suede album swings with your mood through bouts of dance-punk, math rock and psychedelic soul jams. It’s armed with heavy sax riffs and convulsing guitar licks that splatter out of your speakers with Pollock-like abstraction, trumpeting the avant-spirit of Gravity and Dischord Records-era post-punkers.With a quasi-Fugazi fury, Girls In Suede belt anthemic choruses atop sporadic melody mirrored in a disco ball of danceability — blowing kisses to the likes of Moving Units and Morphine. The Santa Rosa trio have been buds since high school, and carry their kinship into adulthood with this barrage of cosmic tunage. G.I.S. will be playing Hotel Utah this Wednesday and follow-up recordings to the new album are currently underway in eastside Smell-A. - Odder Pop Music


"Local Licks"

Genre-jumping bands like Girls in Suede are both a challenge to write about and to listen to, but in this case, it's worth the effort. On its self-titled EP, you'll hear melodic indie rock, pop-punk, jazz, ska, and Nineties-inspired alt-rock in the vein of Red Hot Chili Peppers and No Doubt. It works because Girls in Suede keeps the genre consistent within each song, rather than cobbling together multiple genres in one track. While the jump from punk chanting and mid-tempo drumming of "Raptor" to the anthemic builds of "1987" is jarring, at least it's not boring. (self-released) - East Bay Express


"The Deli"

Santa Rosa schizophrenic garage rockers Girls in Suede demand your attention. As soon as you think you can juggle the music in their debut self-titled album, they’ll toss you another sound.

Nodding to alt rockers like early Chili Peppers and Modest Mouse, the band adds flavors of jazz, call-and-response, funk, prog, and old-fashioned garage punk. Listen for angst-ridden screaming choruses, soulful saxophones, and guttural, fuzzed out guitars and basses that make up the album's teenage anthemic aesthetic. It's 27 minutes of pure versatility. - The Deli


"Raptor"

I’ve gotta think this song from San Francisco trio Girls In Suede would do well placed over footage of a crazy car chase scene, or a quick-cut drug montage a la Breaking Bad. Perhaps it would fit on the soundtrack for a Tarantino flick as well. I guess what I’m saying is that the song’s fantastic tempo shifts, cooky shout-sung vocals and rapid-fire, blunt-edge guitar riffs are a match for whatever crazy stuff you’re getting into, and the saxophone that comes in just past the two minute mark would be the perfect place to kick it up a notch before things settle down for the guitar solo. That was an eyefull, I’m sure. But listen to the song and you’ll know what I mean.

Girls In Suede have made their self-titled debut EP available for free download on their Soundcloud page, and it’s an interesting blend of sounds that’s worth a listen. For me, the fast pace and energy of “Raptor” is the pick of the litter. Download the song below!
- Jukebox


"Dingus, Girls In Suede ep review (2012)"

“Those pools that we swim in all those holes that we sleep in, oh…” -

longs the asthmatic finale to Girls in Suede’s self-titled debut. The winding rock road, influenced by a long list of rock pedigrees including math rock, surf, punk, hardcode and indie (for whatever that’s worth) feels as triumphant as ‘Water Song’ eludes. And never mind the musical proficiency because as well executed as this entire album is, it’s potential to make you move and shout is far more highlightable. @Dingusonmusic
- Dingus On Music


"Sonic Youth(2005)"

Sonic Youth

Girls in Suede epitomize the talent, beauty and truth of the teenaged garage band

By Gabe Meline

Even though the garage door is wide open, it's swelteringly hot in the practice loft, and midway through a song at Girls in Suede's final rehearsal of the high school year, lead vocalist Nikos Eliot Flaherty-Laub starts strumming drunk-sounding guitar chords and singing to himself: "Said Nancy's skeleton / Just say No / Said the Rasta skeleton / Blow Nancy Blow."

One by one, in the free-for-all spirit that appears to guide Girls in Suede's every musical step, other band members start toying along with the spontaneous stanza until drummer Eden Mazzola stops the proceedings to demand, "Wait, why are we playing this?"

"I didn't come up with it," replies the demure Flaherty-Laub. "Do you know who Allen Ginsberg is? Here, come up with a drum line for it real quick."

What becomes of these wildly precocious high school garage bands, these kids who casually quote Ginsberg's The Ballad of the Skeletons, after graduation caps are thrown to the wind? It will be another year before that is an issue for Girls in Suede, and on this June afternoon they are defiantly ignoring the question, opting instead to provide a celebratory noise to the Bennett Valley cul-de-sac while they are still able.

A Santa Rosa band composed of four 16-year-old high school students--two of whom attend Santa Rosa High; two, Montgomery-- Girls in Suede have, in the past year-and-a-half, made a splash by being just about as eclectic as possible. Starting with the usual core of close friends, an actual fan base has started to grow around the group. "There's a whole bunch of new people that we pick up at every show," remarks bassist Alexis Faulkner.

With summer vacation only one week away, instrumental ideas and zany segues are flying around the hot practice room like last-minute bids at a live auction. In the course of only one song, the band plows through tempo-altering bass interludes, dual guitar hooks, a quasi flamenco section, a sudden stop for a screaming six-count, a synthesizer and violin duet, a spacy reverb harmonic part and a crushing coda resembling something between Ennio Morricone and Neurosis.

Such brazen experimentalism often comes across as pretentious and self-important in the wrong hands, but the members of Girls in Suede--multitalented as they are--don't take it too seriously. Their artistic brand of rock 'n' roll is meant less as a preconceived reaction to the blandness of life than as an unconscious affirmation of life's possibility--and that is precisely why they are so successful. It also helps that they're willing to perform just about anywhere.

"We play way too many hippie benefits," says guitarist Cesco Catania, recalling a loosely organized event where "this crazy girl just grabbed the microphone and started talking about how she was the princess, her family was murdered and how she was gonna fly away." Another recent evening found the out-of-place band performing at Villa Chanticleer in Healdsburg for a Healdsburg High School dance, where, according to Flaherty-Laub, "all the football players left after they bombarded us with grapes and peanuts."

Most shows get a better response, such as a recent Battle of the Bands contest at Slim's in San Francisco, where the band took first place. It's not often that a brand-new band wins the contest, and Faulkner reveals no special hidden secrets. By way of explanation, the band "had a really good set," she plainly states. "We had the best time, too. It was packed when we played."

An amalgam of influences spills out of a Girls in Suede performance, where it is not unlikely to hear a version of John Coltrane's "Mr. P.C." after a traditional sea shanty like "Haul Away, Joe." Flaherty-Laub's yelping vocals call to mind a younger Frank Black; Faulkner often plays walking jazz bass lines; and Catania's dreamy guitar style sounds as if it was nurtured on a steady diet of Modest Mouse and Neil Young.

Mazzola is a little more obscure in noting his own influences. "Nick Walsh is one of my favorite drummers," he declares without explanation. "And Gabe Katz is my favorite drummer, I can say that right now," he says, referring to the drummer for the Coma Lilies, a band that have shared many local bills with Girls in Suede.

Brimming to the surface of the disparate elements in the band's music is a unanimous love of funk and soul rhythms. "When I was younger, my mom was getting rid of a whole bunch of records," says Catania. "I was looking through them and I pulled out Tower of Power, Earth, Wind and Fire and Average White Band. I started listening to those in eighth grade."

A high school's student body is a prime captive audience in which to find fans of live music, and Girls in Suede have found widespread support within the halls of academia. Flaherty-Laub boasts that with a band, "you can start cults at school with kids who like you." As for the other kids? "One kid told me that he was gonna punch me, this kid that only likes rap," he adds, "but he was being nice about it."

The summer break will find the band members all over the globe and on short hiatus. Mazzola is going to Costa Rica ("to save baby sea turtles") and Catania is headed to Arizona and then Italy. Faulkner and Flaherty-Laub will be spending time in Santa Rosa's sister city of Cheju, South Korea, living with families in the former penal colony turned fishing village. Come August, the band will be playing shows again and brushing off their notebooks for another school year.

After that, it's hard to tell. If the band does well, all members maintain that they'd like to make a go of it, but a combination of college plans and general restlessness will probably see Girls in Suede headed out of town, most likely separately.

Before he gets into his dilapidated Chevrolet sedan, painted with a sweetly sloppy advertisement for the band's last show before the summer, Catania sums up the band's uncertain future. "It's always kind of sad to think about it."

Nothing good ever lasts, as the hollow maxim goes, but for the next year, keep your eye on Girls in Suede. The strange and joyful music they so obviously love to create offers a welcome revision to another bitter aphorism, for here, youth is certainly not wasted on the young. - Metro Active Music


"Machine Wash - Girls in Suede re-up for 2012"

Hanging out with Girls in Suede at a local taqueria is, like the band's music, quite an adventure.

Over the course of an hour, our discussion hits on UFO sightings, Korn, hot tubs, midwives, Anthony Kiedis as Lord of the "Chups," smooth jazz, Nigerian charter schools, YouTube wormholes, Ariel Pink, shopping for earrings at Claire's and picking avocados with Tom Petty's daughter. It's a mirror of the devil-may-care attitude that pours through the band's music, evident in the sly, rhythmic pop on their new self-titled album, Girls in Suede.

"A lot of our music is born out of being goofy and zany," says guitarist and singer Nikos Flaherty-Laub. Though a little wild, Girls in Suede have spent the last couple of years working to develop three-part harmony skills and building on already sturdy songwriting abilities. It's a step forward musically for a band that started playing while still juniors at Montgomery and Santa Rosa high schools, then took a five-year hiatus, only to reunite at the urging of drummer Eden Mazzola.

"It had a 'going back home' feeling," says Flaherty-Laub. "When we got back together again, it just started up pretty naturally." At the time, Flaherty-Laub was living in Los Angeles, but the band held epic, weekend-long practices until he returned to Northern California.

Still, Girls in Suede faced an obstacle beyond distance when second guitarist Dominic Agius passed away on Valentine's Day 2011. Shocked and in mourning, the band had to make a decision whether to keep going. Eventually, the three remaining members decided to stay together. They bought a Roland PK-5, nicknamed "the Pickle," an electronic contraption that holds down the low end while bassist Alexis Faulkner lets loose on the saxophone, an instrument not often seen in Sonoma County indie rock bands.

The new album was recorded at the home of Mazzola's mom's boyfriend, and without time limits, they were able to experiment. "It was a brilliant experience to remove the clock," says Mazzola. "We got to add so many different things."

Regarding influences, Mazzola and Flaherty-Laub agree that guitarist John Frusciante is an inspiration. Today, Flaherty-Laub is carrying around a copy of David Byrne's book How Music Works in his backpack. Like Byrne's band Talking Heads, Girls in Suede eschew genre while still maintaining a sense of melody. It's a sound that's changed since the days of being a high school garage band, when a tune might be crammed with multiple parts and few obvious melodic connections, and a turn toward "groove and beauty," says Mazzola.

"They're not so much Frankenstein songs anymore," he adds. "We were more klezmer back in the day." - The Bohemian


Discography

"Girls In Suede" - ep

Photos

Bio

Hanging out with Girls in Suede at a local taqueria is, like the band's music, quite an adventure.

Over the course of an hour, our discussion hits on UFO sightings, Korn, hot tubs, midwives, Anthony Kiedis as Lord of the "Chups," smooth jazz, Nigerian charter schools, YouTube wormholes, Ariel Pink, shopping for earrings at Claire's and picking avocados with Tom Petty's daughter. It's a mirror of the devil-may-care attitude that pours through the band's music, evident in the sly, rhythmic pop on their new self-titled album, Girls in Suede.

-Leilanli Clark, the Bohemian