History
Alexia Roditis and Violet Mayugba formed the band on 6 October 2015 [5] as an acoustic project, intending for Roditis to play drums and Mayugba to sing and play guitar. [6] They took their name from the words Mayugba wrote on her chalkboard at home during a period of relationship troubles. [7] They released their debut EP, Mom Jeans, digitally in 2015, with Roditis singing and Mayugba on acoustic guitar. [8] Not long after, drummer Ethan Knight's mother told him she would not pay for his drums lesson unless he joined a band. He contacted Mayugba, whom he knew as the daughter of Phallucy guitarist Sonny Mayugba and the Skirts vocalist Lynn Mayugba. [9] She sent him their EP. He was impressed and joined the group. Mayugba moved to electric guitar. [6]
On April 6, 2016, via their former record label Donut Warriors, they released the EP Grimester, their first release with Knight. [8] On February 4, 2017, they released two singles, "Methatonin" and "Gold Medal". [10] Bassist Enzo Malaspina of Mt. Eddy joined the band briefly in 2017, playing on their second album and performing with them live. [11] His brother Chris joined on drums after Knight's departure [12] They were nominated at the 2017 Sacramento Area Music Awards in the categories "New Artist", "Punk/post-punk" and "Teen". [2] On February 4, 2018, they played at Submerge magazine's tenth-anniversary show, with Sam I Jam, Horseneck, and Screature. [13] [14] On April 6, 2018, they released the singles "Crybaby" and "Vixen". [15] Around this time, Roditis began playing rhythm guitar live for the band. [16] In June 2018, they released the fifth single, "American River", from their second album. [17] They opened for Sons of an Illustrious Father at a sold-out show at Chicago's Schubas venue, [18] and opened for The Regrettes on their "Come Through" North American tour. [19] [20] On October 27, they played at the UC Theatre for Uncool Halloween III, with SWMRS, Bleached, Beach Goons, Mt. Eddy, and Small Crush. [21] [22] On September 27, they released the sixth single, "Soundproof", from their second album, Make Room. [23] Make Room was released on October 19, 2018, [23] with Joey Armstrong and Chris Malaspina sharing drum duties and Cole Becker and Enzo Malaspina sharing bass duties. [24]
On January 24, 2020, they released the single "Fences", followed on April 23, 2020, by "Honey I'm Home". [25] On February 17, 2021, the band debuted on Hopeless Records with the single "Muzzle", which appeared on their third LP, Open Mouth, Open Heart, on October 8 of the same year. [26] [27]
Their fourth studio album, Funeral Soundtrack #4 , was released on August 8, 2024. The lead single, "Boyfeel", was released on June 6, 2024, with an announcement of the upcoming album. [28]
Musical style and influence
The band's musical style has been categorized as punk rock, [29] [18] [30] garage punk, [13] [7] [15] hardcore punk, [31] [3] garage rock, [32] rock and roll [33] and riot grrrl. [31] [29] [8] They cite influences including 1980s punk rock bands like Operation Ivy, the Misfits, as well as contemporary musical groups like Dog Party and much of the Uncool Records line-up, [8] in addition to Against Me, The Who, The Garden, Sleater-Kinney, Lady Gaga, [7] Mannequin Pussy, Deftones, the Distillers, Black Sabbath and the Police. [34] The San Francisco Chronicle described them as "equal parts hardcore and fun", [31] while having self-described their sound as "What would happen if Blondie stumbled into a Misfits recording session". [13] Roditis says their biggest influences vocally are Siouxsie Sioux from Siouxsie and the Banshees, Brooks Nielsen from The Growlers and Ezra Koenig from Vampire Weekend. [6]
Despite their frequent comparisons to riot grrrl bands like Bikini Kill, the members of the band deny any associations with it, saying that they love the genre, but they shouldn't be categorized as it just because they're female-fronted. [33]
