rackula

Rackula Up The Chix

Rackula came together two years ago unafraid of showing their true selves on the stage. Featuring Patty Wacks (Reece) on drums and vocals, Alyssa Nicole on vocals and guitar, The Lisa (Palmer) on bass and Molly Darling on guitar, Rackula are about loud rock music primarily but they also came together to empower each other and hopefully inspire other women to do the same. This weekend their long awaited debut full length CD, Up The Chix, is released. “I didn’t think I was going to have a band again, I didn’t think I was going to have a cool band again,” confides Reece about the beginnings of Rackula as we all sit around her dining room table at her east end house where the band rehearses. “If it wasn’t for meeting Alyssa and for then Lisa learning to play bass so I would play so I wouldn’t be sad – I don’t know what I would have done. I had just stopped playing.” Reece had begun the all–girl hardcore outfit Pantychrist but when that band fell apart, she felt there was little else to do. Finding local likeminded women who wanted to rock seemed like a daunting task but much to her surprise she would form a new band and hope to inspire all women. “I want to see myself, I want my girls to see themselves,” says Reece on female images in the media. “We don’t have a role model for the band where we can say we want to be like them. I want girls to say, ‘I want to be like Rackula.’” Each woman plays a role in the band: Reece remains the businessperson providing the backbeat on stage and off, Alyssa Nicole is the voice as front woman, The Lisa is naturally the backbone as bassist but in her calm demeanour as well and Molly Darling the enthusiastic cheerleader without the sexist imagery. Together they are greater than the sum of their parts – together they simply rock hard. Recorded at Valley View Studio with Jamie Andrew and Larry ‘Retard’ Reece producing, Up The Chix shows all the raw power of the band but alludes to sophistication in song writing and a growth over the last couple of years. Whether it be love songs (“Mark Lanegan”) or anthems (“Up The Chix”) or simple angry diatribes (“S.T.D.” or “Too Cool To Say Hi or Fuck You”), Rackula offers a punk/grunge hybrid that is hard to ignore but this isn’t a calculated or premeditated approach – and questions of what this band is about only raises their ire. “Guys don’t have to say what their band is about but with women in a band, people expect you to look a certain way or sound a certain way,” Reece. “We don’t want to be about something, we just want to be a band and sing songs about what we want to sing about. People aren’t accustomed to chicks being aggressive or totally rocking out.” “It’s about feeling good,” adds Nicole. “It’s about being raw and real. We don’t want to be fake. Like the girls with spray on tans and Gucci purses. We’re real girls who want to rock and we’re here to spread that message.” The just released biopic on famed 16–year–old all–girl LA rockers the Runaways directed by former Hamiltonian Floria Sigismondi offers fodder for discussion – sure Joan Jett, Lita Ford, Cherie Currie would all provide an influence from that band that embraced similar ideals to Rackula but this is not about history – it’s Rackula’s story and it’s about the here and now. “I want Floria Sigismondi to hear about our band and say, ‘I just made a movie about an all–girl rock band from 30 years ago but there’s a band just like that in my hometown and I should go and talk to them’ – that’s what I want,” exclaims Reece. “She’s a super successful woman and I would like her to hear about our band. I want other girls to see that they can be in a band. I didn’t know I could but now Rackula will make sure everyone knows. - VIew MAgazine

Up The Chix (Rackula)

Rackula is an all female punk band. Not one of those sissy female punk bands, I mean like a really amazing, truly talent, heavy punk band. A true Hamilton band, these girls rock as hard as the best of them, if not harder. Pointless, one of my personal favourites, contains some amazingly raw vocals, courtesy of Alyssa Nicole. In addition to being supremely talented, these ladies also really know how to stick it to the men in thier lives. Such songs as STD, and Fake Love Song show that these ladies have been in the same tough relationships as the rest of us and have come out on the otherside kicking.
Suggested tracks: Pointless, Fake Love Song, What I Couldn't Say and STD. - indi 101.5