The Trucks

True to the post-postmodern hyperreal world of the inner-Web, I hit the Trucks' MySpace page before I'd heard their 2006 self-titled CD (Clickpop). Browsing through their photo pages, I saw toy xylophones, lots of keyboards, underwear on the outside, leg warmers, pigtails, and more stripes than a Quiet Riot promo photo. A brief listen to their posted tracks left me feeling old and arrhythmic. I felt my receding hairline burn, like youth was talking behind my back.

Determined to find the dark lining in even the fluffiest of pink clouds, I kept the disc in heavy rotation while driving. At first it felt like a guilty pleasure — infectious synth pop–dance punk, with a menagerie of female voices singing choruses and cracking wise in concordance with or contradiction to the main vocal line. The issues are put out there on the opening track, "Introduction": "I've been in therapy for five years / I'll be in therapy for five years more," Kristin Allen-Zito sings.

(I think it's her — three out of four Trucks are credited with vocals.) "I wake up depressed, I wake up manic / You never know what you're gonna get."

Still, as the opening beats of the unequivocal dance jam of the decade, "Titties," come through the speakers, it's hard to feel that there's any kind of subliminal bum-out happening beneath the Peaches-esque query "What makes you think we can fuck just because you put your tongue in my mouth and you twisted my titties, baby?" "Titties" is one of a series of songs touching on the theme of failed relationships and inept lovermen. The poignant indie pop perfection of "Messages" has Allen-Zito serenading an absentee boyfriend whose voice mails are more attentive than he is: "Well, I save all my messages from you / Just in case you're not there / When I want you to be."

A dozen tracks in, the concept of a boyfriend has been jettisoned for the much more accommodating vibrator in "Diddle Bot," which is closer to a lover than any mentioned heretofore: "You made me feel brand new / You love me through and through." The album ends with "Why the ?," an indictment of a beau who's prepared to woo with everything but his tongue, and an a cappella request: "Dear Santa, please don't bring me another boyfriend for Christmas / Oh no! / The last one sucked." Or didn't, as the case may be.

Never do the Trucks jettison humor for histrionics in their tales of love gone awry in the great wet Northwest: the band members, who share songwriting duties, get their point across in a way that transcends merely grinding the storied ax of feminism. Sisters are doing for themselves, sure, but it's not a girls-only joint: everyone's invited to dance their woes away. Thematically, the disc gets heavier than the tales of missed connections and inept sexing. "Shattered" has implications of rape: "You could not keep your pretty hands off me ... You shattered my image of love / While I was naked in the tub." "Man Voice" is call-and-response song play touching on predatory types, with a gothic-baroque feel that resembles Edward Gorey's The Gashlycrumb Tinies meeting Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. Finally, "Comeback" tells the tale of love turned obsession turned homicide from a male point of view: "You don't have to run away / I'm gonna kill you anyway."

"It's pretty standard turning pain into comedy, trying to somehow make peace with things that have happened to us or to people that we've known," Allen-Zito says on the phone from Seattle.

Does the fact that their songs are still fun and danceable lead people to dismiss the Trucks as fluff? "That's what I enjoy the most," she explains.

"I think it's really great when we play shows and there's a mixture of people in the audience. There'll be dudes who are, like, 'Play the titties song! You guys are hot!' They're obviously not getting the lyrics at all. And then, on the other hand, there's these two feminist friends of mine who are definitely a little overboard. Just seeing them next to these dudes that were just falling over themselves — it was hilarious and perfect. This one woman came up to me outside and put her arm around my neck and was, like, 'Kristin, they just don't get it. They don't get it!' It's kind of funny, because maybe she doesn't get it."

And for me, that's what I enjoy most. The fact that you can get it on one level and miss it entirely on another. Free your mind, and your ass will follow. Or, perhaps, free your ass, and your mind will follow. You can have just as much fun missing the point as getting it: the Trucks are simultaneously above your head and below your knees. - SF Bay Guardian

The Trucks are four goofy girls from Bellingham, Washington. They wear sexy/dorky costumes. They sing about vibrators, phone tag and titties. They want more than anything for you do dance.

Your bio states that "The Trucks... will make you want to dance -- while they sing about what modern girls are really thinking about." For those who haven’t heard the album yet, what are modern girls thinking about?

"Oh wow. Well, you name it... Food, sleeping, sex and relationships of course... Dreams, trepidation about the future..."

Your songs do contain some pretty important messages about female empowerment, but it never seems to weigh the song down. Rather, it seems to be more about the music and having a good time. Is it difficult to maintain that balance between the message and the fun?

"Actually, I'm glad you asked me that because even though it is an important message to us -- you know, empowerment, self-esteem and respect -- it just seems like such a natural message to people of our generation that we don't feel we need to force it. And you know, we'd feel really uncomfortable sitting down and saying, Okay here's the message we're going to sing about, now how are we going to do it? Our writing process is just a lot more natural than that and comes more from our daily conversations than from some idealism. We figure people will like us if they like us and it's usually people who are already thinking along those lines who like our music and respond to it."

The Trucks play the Showbox on February 18th, opening for the Presidents of the United States of America. How’d you hook up with those guys?

"We're really excited about that show and appreciate working with other bands from the northwest and it's just really unique in the way bands support each other and network together -- that there's room for everyone and there's a lot of respect out there. We had a show in West Seattle a couple of weeks ago, and someone had recommended to them that they check us out, so one of the Presidents who came out, I think it was the drummer, must have recommended us, because the Showbox called us and of course we jumped on board right away."

That's cool that you mention the support from local musicians. It seems every band we talk to says the same thing -- that there's a lot of support all around from other bands and the community.

Y"eah, it's amazing and with KEXP and the Three Imaginary Girls helping out, it just makes for a really accepting and supportive environment here."

More on The Trucks' upcoming shows, titties, and Hillary Clinton after the jump.

SXSW is a pretty noteworthy gig. How’d that come about and how much did you party when you found out The Trucks were invited to play?

"Oh, we were so excited when we found out about that. We applied for it, but knew it was kind of a long shot and was really more about getting the experience of applying for things and not getting intimidated by the idea of a festival. So yeah, we're still in shock about it. As far as partying, we definitely were jumping up and down and hugging each other, but all of us actually like to go to bed pretty early. That's kind of embarrassing. Maybe you shouldn't print that. We'll party when we get there."

On your website, you’ve invited fans to remix the song Titties, promising to reward the winner with a new iPod Nano. How has the response been so far?

"Really exciting. I love collaboration and am so delighted every time I hear a new remix, so if it were up to me there would be a hundred winners and a whole album dedicated to remixes of Titties. For me, that's the best part of being in a band, is being able to share your work and your ideas with other artists. We've had people from Australia, Swedan, Germany and Tokyo sending us remixes and I can't believe how many different directions people are taking it. And the fact that it's coming from that far away, from people we would have otherwise had no contact with -- it's just exciting to be making that kind of connection out there."

Any plans to release the winning remix?

"Oh yeah, definitely. We'd love to release it on a full album of dance mixes."

So, this Friday The Trucks are playing Jules Maes Saloon in Georgetown and before that, at 6pm, you’re playing an in-store at the Queen Anne Easy Street Records. Will The Trucks be toning down it down at all for that performance?

"Nope. Not at all. The only time we tone it down is when we're on the radio. We don't even think about it actually. Though, I did say "fuck" on the radio once. That was embarrassing but it ended up being okay."

From one strong female voice to another, do The Trucks have any advice for Hillary Clinton in her bid for the White House in 2008?

"Anytime someone is in the public and has their character and their personal life dissected by the public and particularly by those who want to make them look bad, I just have a lot of respect for them and think it's a really brave thing to do. So, no advice really. I think she's actually doing a pretty good job. I mean, she's not intimidated by those people. " - Seattlest

Transcribed from Fresh Air from WHYY, March 5, 2007 · Four women musicians from Bellingham, Wash., who call themselves "The Trucks" have released a debut album of the same name, with language and attitude that is not going to get them much airplay on mainstream radio.

The Trucks are another entry in a long line of female rock bands that know and find their audience.

[transcription starts here]
[ The Trucks - old bikes excerpt]

“It wasn’t until I heard “Old Bikes” on The Trucks debut album that it hit me, they play what I call ‘nursery punk’. Sometimes such music literally sounds like nursery rhymes, other times its dressed up with guitars and electronics, it still remains very stark and simple.That particular mode and The Trucks gut-level feminism, makes them part of a female rock legacy that goes back a long ways. Although nursery punk has an appealing chanted simplicity, it’s always more bratty than child-like. It signals that while these performers have a sense of humor – they’re fighters as well as lovers. This type of stripped down punk minimalism has been around since the early days with British bands like The Slits and The Raincoats. But the group Trucks most remind me of are the Swiss band Lilliput, who often managed to say what they wanted with a sneer and a smile as in their song “Ain’t You” with its command to “take a radio in your life”

[ lilliput – “ain’t you” excerpt ]

I can also hear savvy party girls like those in the B-52’s in The Trucks. But they’re not just old-school. Singer-songwriters Kristin Allen-Zito and Marissa Moore, who also play keyboards, guitar and xylophone, along with bassist Faith Reichel and drummer Lindy McIntyre, would not be who they are without the nineties ‘riot grrrl’ bands like Bikini Kill and Le Tigre. I must add that there’s always been a ‘potty-mouth’ tendency in these bands and in the hip-hop era of porny Li’l Kim and Peaches, it’s gone into high gear with The Trucks. Numbers like “Why the ?” are explicit explanations about how the girls can’t get no satisfaction.But hey, they know what sort of boy they like too as the song 3am shows….

[ The Trucks – “3AM” excerpt]

The Trucks are more than lost and found lust however, even their songs that are cast as ominous fairy tales like the murderous “Come Back” and the domineering “Man Voice” gets back to the oldest truism of Rock ‘n’ Roll: trashing good manners and making a racket can grant motley oddballs dignity, independence, and control of their lives. The Trucks first cut “Introduction” offers up sundry true or un-true facts about themselves, some poignant, some embarrassing some mundane, but the crucial lines are these…

[The Trucks – “Introduction” excerpt”

“I wake up depressed - I wake up manic.

I wake up depressed - I wake up manic.

I wake up depressed - I wake up manic.

You don't know what you're gonna get.

But you like it, you love it, you like it, you love it, you like it.” ]



Just as fat power chords and showboat guitar solos will be with us always, I suspect there will always be bands of rebel girls who don’t want to sound like the boys and find their way to nursery punk, to the chants and simple chords that say “Take us as we are or leave us alone”, and if you don’t like it and love it they’ll run over you like a truck.



[outro The Trucks – “Shattered” ]

- NPR - Fresh Air