Girlpool // Girlpool EP
by Kate Leib on December 3, 2014
Posted in: Album Review, Punk, Rock
- ^^^me, finals week
If you’re counting down the days until Sleater-Kinney‘s new album comes out this January like I am, you’ll be pleased to find your rumbling appetite satiated in the meantime by the self-titled debut from the up and coming L.A. duo, Girlpool. Though their EP is just sixteen minutes long, these girls know how to pack a major punch, literally…album highlight, “Jane”, narrates the story of a girl punching a fast-talking, shady boy named Tommy in the mouth, brilliantly punctuated by high-pitched screams. Whether its gender identity, sexism, slutshaming, body image, infidelity or isolation, Girlpool are likely to have it covered in a super catchy, often sassy, sub-three minute song. Not to mention hilarious taunts for the whole family peppered throughout; “its not enough to watch a movie / eat me out to american beauty.”
Though they aren’t breaking any major ground, Girlpool are continuing and representing the important legacy of bands like Bratmobile, Bikini Kill, and Sleater-Kinney, who fearlessly addressed inequality in a time when women were much more marginalized in the music industry. The change in attitude over the decades is apparent, Girlpool’s angst is more a confident in your face swagger rather than riot grrrl urgency, but it’s evident that unfair treatment remains, in the music industry and beyond. Perhaps it’s the mix of faux-complacency and progress that makes this album so unsettling and captivating at the same time. Taking their name from a short chapter in the Kurt Vonnegut novel Cat’s Cradle about a group of female typists couped up in a room all year long, leading meaningless lives dictated by men, Girlpool seems hell beant on bucking that trend, even if it means shoving their fists in someone elses mouth to do it.
BEST TRACKS: 7, 5, 6, 2, 4, 3,
RIYL: Cherry Glazer, Bratmobile, Bikini Kill, Sleater-Kinney, Frankie Cosmos
GRADE: B
Kate Leib is WRMC’s creative director and social media manager. She co-hosts a Built to Spill inspired show called “Perfect From Then On” Thursday nights, 8-10 on WRMC.
Girlpool is out now on Wichita Recordings.
