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Pretty Girls Make Graves are a quintet from Seattle (Andrea Zollo on vocals, Nathen Thelen and Jason Clark on guitar, Nick DeWitt on drums, and ex-Murder City Devils' Derek Fudesco on bass) that resurrected the Fastbacks' naive punk-pop, as announced by
the singles Sad Girls Por Vida (2002) and By The Throat (2002)
and the exciting mini-album Good Health (Lookout, 2002), particularly its lead-off track Speakers Push The Air.
The same verve permeates the first songs on their first full-length, The New Romance (Matador, 2003): the effervescent Something Bigger Something Brighter, sung in Zollo's most girlish register,
the hard-rocking The Grandmother Wolf (burning riff and pounding drums),
and All Medicated Geniuses (a fractured pseudo-ska number),
Unfortunately, the fun lasts for just about 10 minutes. The rest of the album
is dull and uninspired. This should have been an EP.
The band replaced guitarist Nathan Thelen with keyboardist Leona Marrs for
Elan Vital (2006) and the sound benefited greatly.
Marrs seem to play Brian Jones to Andrea Zollo's Mick Jagger, adding all sorts
of instrumental subtlety to the vocalist's istrionics.
In fact, their post-emo-core has mutated into a less angular but more conceptual
form of progressive/aggressive sound a` la new wave.
Piano (the anthemic Parade), accordion (Selling the Wind),
synthesizer (Speakers Push the Air), etc. lend the songs a much
broader appeal and deeper sense of purpose. Song structure is kept
malleable
(the convoluted dynamics of The Magic Hour) over a solid rhythmic
foundation (the post-disco groove of Domino).
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(Translation by/ Tradotto da Paolo Latini)
Pretty Girls Make Graves sono un quintetto di Seattle (Andrea Zollo, voce; Nathen Thelen e Jason Clark, chitarre; Nick DeWitt, batteria e l'ex Murder City Devils Derek Fudesco al basso) che riesumano il punk-pop naïf dei Fastbacks, come annunciato dai singoli Sad Girls Por Vida (2002) e By The Throat (2002)
e dal mini-album Good Health (Lookout, 2002), in particoalare con la traccia Speakers Push The Air.
La stessa verve permea le prime canzoni del loro primo album, The New Romance (Matador, 2003): l'effervescente Something Bigger Something Brighter, cantata da Zollo nel suo registro più femminile, l'hard-rocking The Grandmother Wolf (riff incendiari e batteria pesante), e All Medicated Geniuses (un numero pseudo ska). Sfortunatamente, il divertimento dura appena dieci minuti. Il resto dell'album è smorto e poco ispirato. Un ep era sufficiente.
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