The Fuller Sound of Girlpool
It’s hard not to admire Girlpool for their honesty
After Girlpool releasing the self-titled EP in 2014, Harmony Tividad and Cleo Tucker totally made a noise in a muted mode. But there were some buzzes were everybody seemed trying to label them as riot grrrl revival. It’s just because they wrote couple of songs about gender and sexuality issues — obviously after hearing the song ‘Slutmouth’.
It’s not without any reason, I also did some background checking. The band name was inspired by Kurt Vonnegut short story The Girl Pool, about a group of female typists who assigned to transcribe dictation by male scientist. The story presents the world of women who live limited and meaningless lives.
To be fair, Girlpool’s members are feminist. But it turned out I was wrong, you should never try to label the Girlpool as a feminist band. That’s two whole different things and they didn’t want to be treated like that.
By the time Girlpool announced the debut album Before The World Was Big in 2015, they criticized everyone who called them feminist band. They thought it’s double standard and I also think it’s kind of sexism. When male bands had couple of songs about empowerment, we never called them the new generation of something or anything, right?
“It’s been frustrating at times to be labeled by feminism or our gender because just like our gender is one part of our entire human entity, so is the feminist quality of our band,” stated Tucker in Impose magazine.
So that’s the thing and like everybody else, I also enjoyed their scrappy indie pop/punk EP in 2014. The release is important snapshot in the wake of the emerging of underrated DIY indie punk bands across US and UK in recent years like Frankie Cosmos, Slutever, Waxahatchie, Fleabite, SPORTS, Martha etc.
Being DIY band maybe the most neutral way to categorize Girlpool. The band is part of LA community-run venue The Smell. If you’re intrigued with the venue, you may check their video single ‘Blah Blah Blah’, which was directed by Siri Anderson.
It’s hard not to admire Girlpool for their honesty. In the debut Before The World Was Big under Wichita Recordings, Girlpool poured out some vulnerabilties an existentialism of getting older themes. In fact, to record the album, they had to relocate to Philly to change the pace and mood. That’s why, the sensibilities are very different.
With the new label ANTI- Records (the boutique label of Epitaph Records), those vulnerabilities are retained in the second installment Powerplant. However now Girlpool deliver it in a more of contemplative way.
Some vocal works and vibes still bring me back to the best part of enjoying Elliot Smith and Bright Eyes records. The whispered vocal and emotional drive fitted together very well. The instrumentation is also getting bigger, adding drum and feels like a full lineup band in other parts. They invest so much newness and evolution in this record.
‘123’, ‘It Goes More Blue’, and ‘Soup’ are my first picking. ‘Corner Store’ also beautiful jangly indie pop track and also twisting in the middle part. Then comes ‘Kiss and Burn’ rounded up my favorite choice.
What comes to my mind is Girlpool might have lost the innocent of early days. But when we already realized they are not teenagers anymore and have evolved as a human being, Powerplant proves itself to be just as affecting and crushing as its predecessor.
