A Talk with the Wellies

The Wellies are a band from NYC who formed just last year, with their main lineup consisting of; Angelina Ramsey (vocals and guitar), Jolie Weinstein (vocals and bass), and Sadie Porter (drums). After making their debut at Bushwick's Caffeine Underground back in September, it would only be 6 months later that they release their demo EP, "Electric 2."  Their release party was held on the roof of a Brooklyn apartment singer-songwriter Elliott Smith had lived in (an exciting fact that wasn't found out until much later). Fortunately for Wellies, they were able to find a strong audience and set of supporters for their music. Unfortunately for the rest of us, their last show on August 3rd will be the last we'll hear from the Wellies for a while, as they're going off to college. 

Wellies at Main Drag, August 3rd

But!!! Before they leave, they were kindly able to have a chat and answer some questions:

What first sparked your interest in music and how did it lead to forming the band?

Angelina: Jolie and I were just becoming friends and talking about music, and I had just started playing guitar and showing her random things I made on Garage Band. That's when I was like, "Jolie I need a band I can't do this myself."

Jolie: And I was like, Angelina I need to form a band I've been wanting to start a band we have to do it! There's this great Rose Melberg quote when she's asked why she started Tiger Trap and she's like, "it was just the coolest thing you could do," and I resonate with that a lot. I'd just met some of these awesome people in Chicago who were all in bands and I really wanted to be a part of that.

Angelina: also Jolie was like, "I always start fake bands with people and it never becomes a thing." I was like... this is happening.

Sadie: I replaced Prince cuz he kinda SUCKED but I didn't think I'd stay.

Angelina: I literally ambushed Sadie, I don't think she even knew who I was. I went up to her and was like, "we need you to play drums" and I provided no context.

Sadie: You lowkey did but I ended up fucking with it so hard. Now I'm serious about drums.

Can you walk through your songwriting process?

Angelina: Jolie always has lyrics and then I come up with some guitar part and we merge.

Jolie: I kinda just get a line into my head and build on that.

How has your music developed since you first started playing together?

Jolie: We all sucked at first and now we're getting better.

Sadie: We were kinda rusty at first

Angelina: Yea for shiz. But it took a while to introduce new songs.

Sadie: I was so nervous at shows and could not play well. Now we're all synced up.

Angelina: We started really syncing up right at the end.

What has been your most memorable performance, and why?

Angelina: The rooftop was really fun to put together with all our friends. Everyone helped transport everything and set everything up and it was really nice in the end. The view was so cool and all the bands were great, I miss Sugarglass

Jolie: I second this. RIP Sugarglass.

Music guilty pleasure?

Angelina: Tyler, the Creator

Sadie: Gucci Mane and Pierce the Veil

Jolie: The Strokes, Cupcakke, and Paper Lanterns by Green Day

Musical "Ins" and "Outs"?

Angelina: In is not owning an entire drum set and sharing with others, like DIY. Out is being disrespectful for no reason. You don't need to chug that Modelo on stage when gang said sober space.

Jolie: Out- Skramz...

What is the most unusual venue you've ever played at?

Angelina: Rooftop.

Jolie: That one loft show owned by Austin Brown's friend. Also Knitting Factory, that's just unusual for teenage bands to be playing...

How do other people describe your music vs. how you would describe your music?

Jolie: Twee. City girls twee gangsta rap. We are not twee. To call us twee is a disgrace to the Sarah Records gods.

What is the story behind your bands name?

Angelina: It came to Jolie in a dream. I'm serious.

Jolie: I was going to sleep one night, and all I could think was rainboots and rain and England and my past English lovers (not!) and then I jumped up and was like WELLIES.

Does anyone have any secret talents?

Angelina: I'm really good at everything, and it's not a secret. Just kidding. No, I don't.

Jolie: Burping on command.

Sadie: I can do that too

Is there an interview question you've always wanted to be asked, and what is the answer?

Angelina: All of my guitar parts have been stolen from a niche Foo Fighters song.

Is there anybody you'd like to thank or shoutout?

Angelina: Shoutout gang for always helping us transport and always being supportive. Shoutout Dave Grohl for writing "Exhausted" which made me pick up guitar. Shoutout "Jennifer's Body" by Hole for being the first song I learned. 

Jolie: I'd like to shoutout the gone but not forgotten potential band name - Postman 90

What is the future of Wellies, known and unknown?

Angelina: Unknown, maybe playing shows later but you can't really plan ahead like that. We were working on an album but it's hard, and time consuming, and I think we're all a little burnt out. Don't have the brainpower to do the new songs but I'm still down if they are.

Wellies at Caffeine Underground, January 27

Find the Wellies here:

Instagram

Soundcloud

See the Rooftop show here! <--

Behind the Lyrics: "Hang On" by Autumn Rhythm

Lyrics:

I'll wait till you believe me

I'll wait until you see

That everything I live for

You bring it out in me

Hang on, I'll call you

Hang on, I'll call you

I'll wait till you believe me

I'll wait until you see

That when I fall, you catch me

And let me down with ease

Hang on, I'll call you

Hang on, I'll call you

Autumn Rhythm released their 3rd album on May 18th. We asked Joey to talk about the story behind this track:

Me and Dusty went on a trip to Philly because I was drumming with Mildly Allergic at this spot called the Underworld. Really fun show, but on the way home Dusty got really insecure for whatever reason, and she texted me the next day about it while on her way home from the train. While I was texting, her I was writing that riff so I just made the lyrics reassuring her she's a really good partner and a really good person and that I love her lots. But it's really general and I like that it could be about anyone to anyone... I made a pact with myself when I started the band that I'd never write a "love" song using the word "love." But that being said it's one of the only Autumn Rhythm songs addressed to one specific person.

Find Autumn Rhythm here:

Instagram

Bandcamp

Spotify

Poly Styrene

 

Born in England in 1957, Poly Styrene was a woman who hitchhiked her way into the punk rock scene. As a teen runaway, Poly spent her time traveling, going to see as many shows as she could. However, it wasn't until she saw the Sex Pistols on her 18th birthday when her desire to start her own band was sparked.

X-Ray Spex was formed in 1976, releasing 5 singles plus an album throughout their 3-year span. Their song "Oh Bondage Up Yours" is widely regarded as a punk classic. The group initially featured Poly Styrene on vocals, Jack Airport on guitar, Paul Dean on bass, Paul "B.P." Harding on drums, and Lara Logic on saxophone. This unique addition became a distinctive feature for the band. Poly's voice also became a unique instrument, being described as "effervescently discordant" and "powerful enough to drill holes through sheet metal."

Aside from unique choice of instrument, Poly herself was a unique choice for a frontman, since she was a mixed-race woman in a predominantly male scene. Her work in punk during the 70's later inspired a movement in the 90s; Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill started her own band after listening to X-Ray Spex, thus marking the start of the Riot Grrrl movement. Hanna states she was "really blown away by the lyrics and how much there was a critique of capitalism." She says, "Poly is obviously a poet. It was such a perfect marriage of emotion and technique. I was like, how have I never heard of this band before? It seemed better than the Sex Pistols." Many people see this line from the song "Bondage Up Yours" as a precurser to the movement:

Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard

But I think "oh bondage up yours!"

Poly once mentioned "I said that I wasn

t a sex symbol and that if anybody tried to make me one I'd shave my head tomorrow," (She actually went through with this at Johnny Rotten's flat prior to a concert at Victoria Park). Born Marianne Joan Elliot-Said, she explains that she picked her stage name because it was "plastic and disposable... That's what pop stars are meant to mean, therefore I thought I might as well send it up."

Poly had been struggling with bipolar disorder since 1991, and passed away of breast cancer after being diagnosed in 2011. Poly's overt feminism and mixed-race heritage made her stand out among her punk contemporaries. "Punk attitude lives on," she said, "because of the spirit of its fearlessness to try to change thins for the better."

Read More...

How Poly Styrene Broke the Mold - New York Times

My mum, the punk pioneer - The Guardian

Poly Styrene - X-Ray Spex

Feminism in Music

Feminism in Music

RIOT GRRRL

Sloan

"Girlhood is not a universal component of female experience; rather, the term implies very specific practices and discourses about female sexuality, women's cultural-political agency, and women's social location." -Gaye Wald

The end of the 80s brought the start of a new music genre: grunge, or as the women in Olympia called
it, "cock rock." They viewed the scene as a sort of boys club, with many of them feeling unsafe and unwelcomed at shows. One of these women was Portland native Kathleen Hanna. After moving to Olympia, she opened a small music venue called Reko Muse, to serve as a place for small traveling bands to perform, since there wasn't any other place in the area. Unfortunately, this soon revealed how the punk rock scene truly was. "I did everything from painting the floor to cleaning the grease off the floor to wiping their stupid cock-rock graffiti off the wall after they left," she said, "and picking up their cigarette butts, and spending my own long-distance money to book their dumb bands into our own club, and then having them yell at me because there's not enough orange juice backstage." She was slowly getting tired of it all. She had loved music all her life, and being exposed to this line of rotating bands from hell was something that offended her. On top of managing the venue, Kathleen had an internship at a domestic violence shelter where she did crisis counseling along with presentations at high schools about rape and sexual assault. She would counsel girls about their past trauma, and started to talk to them after shows. She would listen to endless stories about abusive boyfriends and fathers, hear countless stories on the news about women being killed, attacked, and raped. After reading a Time article about women who didn't consider themselves feminists, Kathleen came to the conclusion that feminism could save people's lives. Around the same time Kathleen Hanna made this revelation, Alison Wolfe and Molly Neuman were working on one of the first Riot Grrrl zines. Zines were an important part of Riot Grrrl, as they were a way for girls to express themselves and their anger towards this music scene, or even just the world in general. As Kathleen Hanna would write in her Riot Grrrl manifesto, "BECAUSE I believe with my whoelheartbodymind that girls constitute a revolutionary soul force that can, and change the world for real." Soon enough, Kathleen went on to form her band Bikini Kill, while Alison and Molly formed their band Bratmobile. They would put a lot of focus on femininity and girlhood as a way to break stereotypes against women in the music industry. At their shows, Katheleen would write phrases on her body such as "slut" or "whore," in order to take away their power. If men at their shows saw her dancing around in her underwear, and see exactly what they're thinking written on her, all the power goes. She's reclaiming the word, saying, so I'm a slut? So what?"

"Such an emphasis on girliness has enabled women performers to preempt the sexually objectifying gaze of corporate rock culture, which tends to market women's sexual desirability at the expense of promoting their music or their legitimacy as artists," (Wald). Although not part of the Riot Grrrl movement herself, Gwen Stefani from No Doubt was breaking barriers in a similar way. Their song "I'm Just a Girl" was a the top of the charts in 1995, creating almost the same effect that Bikini Kill and Bratmobile were trying to achieve. "The strategy of approaching girlhood, like the word girl itself, signifies ambiguously: as a mode of culturally voiced resistance to patriarchal femininity; as a token of a sort of 'gestural feminism' that is complicit with the trivialization, marginalization, and eroticization of women within rock music cultures," (Wald). By celebrating and reclaiming girlhood, these bands were able to break long standing narratives within the traditionally male rock cultures. As Tobi Vail of Bikini Kill wrote in her zine Jigsaw, "Of course if there was ever a good girl band... and they were a BAND... in the top 40 of course it would be likely to get a bad name... because girls +guitars is equal to sex +power."

The Riot Grrrl movement started to falter in the late 90s, as many women felt that mainstream media had entirely misinterpreted their message. Even though they were looking for equality - not superiority. USA today had published an article about the movement saying, "Better watch out boys. From hundreds of once pink, frilly bedrooms, comes the young feminist revolution. And it's not pretty. But it doesn't wanna be. So there!" Riot Grrrls weren't being taken seriously. They were seen as "man haters," teen gangsters, and self-absorbed. Corin Tucker of Heavens to Betsy and Sleater-Kinney said, "I think it was deliberate that we were made to look like we were just ridiculous girls parading around in our underwear. They refused to do serious interviews with us, they misprinted what we had to say, they would take our articles, and our fanzines, and our essays and take them out of context. We wrote a lot about sexual abuse and sexual assault for teenagers and young women. I think those are really important concepts that the media never addressed." Another way the movement failed was not being able to discuss feminism through an intersectional lens. Although there were Riot Grrrls of color in places such as California and New York, they didn't get as much focus or attention as their white counterparts. Riot Grrrl as we knew it isn't around today, but there are still women who continue to spread their message through zines and music. Many women of color sell their own zines on site such as Etsy. Though small, Riot Grrrl is still alive, as there is still a lot to be changed, and there is still a lot to fight for.