Street Meat

Street Meat is Ottawa’s newest party band who were nominated this week for best local band by Xpress, and tonight they headlined at the Avant Garde bar in the heart of downtown.

They have been around for a little over a year, and in that time they recorded a full length album in their drummer, Leigh Newton’s basement.

The album came out in August, and they have been playing shows steadily since then, including opening up for Montreal’s Winter Gloves at the end of September.

Street Meat has a unique line up of two female singers who both handle equal vocal duties, Natasha D’Agui and Elena Palanza.

“Natasha raps and I do the singing parts, but we end up just doing both anyway,” said Palanza.

Newton’s drumming adds a lot to the live shows, by providing fun and energetic beats that get people moving.

They all record the keyboard tracks together and play along with them when performing, but they hope to add live keyboards in the near future.

“I’m trying to get one of them to learn,” said Newton.

Street Meat is poised to make a name for themselves in Ottawa’s local music scene, and in November they will be taking their show to Montreal with The World Provider on Nov. 5 at the Cabaret Playhouse, and in Ottawa at Avant Garde Bar on Nov. 6.

“We just do this because it is a lot of fun for us, and I’m so happy that people are responding to it,” said D’Agui.
- Web City Beat Ottawa

Street Meat is another project featuring my homie Leigh Newton. I've mentioned his awesome death/doom/drone project The Sun Through A Telescope a few times, and now here he is with a more electro project. There's something lo-fi in these recordings that really works for them. Screw cranking the guitars to 10 on the amp, set the mics to ten. How to describe Street Meat? There's some Le Tigre, Ladytron, Dickies, Peaches, Mount Sims all buried in there. Cock rock guitars mixed with Riot Grrl stuff. If you were fourteen and heard it for the first time you might suddenly feel a strong urge to tell your parent(s) to go fuck off and then slam your bedroom door. But not in a childish way, more in a life-affirming way. I'm still not there yet. How to describe Street Meat? Well; two females on the mic bringing their swagger, dirty drum machines, punky guitars reminiscent of the great Celebrity Skin. Let's call it Glamwave. Is that a thing? Do we want to do that? Glamwave? Whatever, just listen to the damn song. - songs from the etc file

If someone told me that Street Meat had recorded their debut album, Dick Party, a decade ago and were only getting around to releasing it now, I'd have no problem believing it. After all, as the abrasive synths and Le Tigre-esque spoken vocals of songs like "Like To Hate You" and "Spotlight" demonstrate, the band has the early '00s electroclash sound down pat. Moreover, even when they venture away from that sound (as they do on "Creepo" and "Too Late"), they still sound eerily like early Yeah Yeah Yeahs in ballad mode.

Obviously, Street Meat didn't record Dick Party back in 2001 -- they recorded it a few months ago. It's a testament to their prowess, however, that they're able to pull it off without any of it sounding too dated. They're able to do this because they seem to realize that if they're not going to make it sound fresh, they should at least make it sound fun...and, as the songs above show, that's something Dick Party has in spades. - i(heart)music

Lee Neutron and his pals Elena Chiara Palanza and Natasha D’Agui liked playing the Rock Band video game so much, they thought they’d play it for real.

Well, sort of for real. Neutron was a veteran of a lot of bands around Ottawa. However, Palanza and D’Agui hadn’t even taken a music lesson.

Hmm. That might sound like a hurdle to their future in music. Not for Street Meat.

With Neutron on the synths, bass, percussion and iPod, these two hard-cussing BFFs, unfettered by pedestrian concerns of having to play an instrument or even possessing musical talent, would write the raps and improvise the fun up front.

“We wanted to see if we could do something good without any experience,” Neutron laughs. “To be honest, I expected the girls to be terrible, but they were quite good. I wouldn’t say we’re going for a hit album or a record deal or even fans at this point. We don’t care about that.”

Still, Street Meat just released Dick Party, their first album of electronic punk-dance beats, available for sampling on their MySpace site or for purchase on their website streetmeat.bandcamp.com for $5.

“It’s funny and sort of juvenile,” Neutron says. “The material sounds angry, but it’s all invented for fun. It’s fun to belt it out.”

True, there is something fun, even cathartic about their shocking musical rants. It takes punk’s DIY attitude one step further beyond the basic, into the primitive, and liberating it from the patriarchy of more articulate songwriters like Leonard Cohen and Kurt Cobain. The guys have had it their way too long. It’s time for chicks to rock.

“They’re good. Each show gets better than the last,” Neutron adds with some relief. “Besides, girls swearing is kind of hot.”

The trio have recently upped their promotions, shooting a video for their first single Spotlight and there’s already talk of recording another album in 2011.

“I have no illusions of making a dime. We’re in it for the fun.”

SCENE SETTER

Where: Zaphod Beeblebrox, 27 York St.

When: Wednesday, 9 p.m., $6 at the door

denis.armstrong@sunmedia.ca - The Ottawa Sun