26 Oct 2011
Introducing
Introducing | Throwing Up
The 1990s was the decade during which grunge was born, but more significantly, the decade that Riot Grrrl became its bastard daughter and was the call to arms for brilliantly angry girls the world over. At the time of its arrival I was around 8 years old so was, of course, too busy spending days obsessing over Mario 64, watching Gladiators on a Saturday night and giving Barbie some pretty progressive haircuts to notice. However, I signed up in a major way at the age of 15, dressed in silky babydolls and clunky boots and scribbling Kathleen Hanna lyrics all over my school books and I would wager that Throwing Up, a 3 piece from London, might have a similar story to tell.
Throwing Up are made up of Camille (singer/guitarist), Clare (bassist) and Ben (drummer) and are like a little hit of nostalgia straight from the depths of 1994 Olympia via Courtney Love’s wardrobe. The term Lo-Fi could viably have been invented for them, their modest anthology of songs totally unpolished and delivered with a bratty snarl. Their chaotic sounds and cute, juvenile lyrics might not be everyone’s cup of tea – however, the spirit of the movement they’re paying homage to was that of immediacy, attitude and passion rather than boring old male-defined purist definitions of structure and indulgent guitar solos so it should be embraced for what it is.
Camille claims “We try and write pop songs but we play them wrong”, hence the visceral screams and short, sharp bites that can be found on their Myspace page. On their new single ‘Mother Knows Best’ they sound like they’re taking a different, more traditional songwriting route, which ends up a more discordant Shop Assistants, or a tribute to proto-grrrl 80s rockers, Fuzzbox.
In 1990, Tobi Vail said “I feel completely out of the realm of everything that is so important to me. And I know this is partly because punk rock is for and by boys mostly and partly because punk rock of this generation is coming of age in a time of mindless career goals” and this is totally applicable to music today. If the modern equivalent of punk rock is “indie rock”, most of which is still the kind of boys’ club that treats girls in bands as a novelty to be ogled at and which has been watered down to such a degree that it’s often utilised by X Factor contestants, then surely there needs to be a sense of fun kicked back into things, an unabashed women-friendly scene, and bands like Throwing Up are already a resounding part of it.
For a few years there has been an underground wealth of girl bands who never quite reach the surface, whether out of a deliberate DIY agenda or because of the walls built up by the music industry. It’s time to kick them down. Whether Throwing Up are knowingly part of a revival or not, they hark back to a time that was pivotal in the narrative of women in music. If ever there was a time for Riot Grrrl mk 2, then surely now is it.
Emma Smith
Spread the love…
I like to think we are bang in the middle of Riot Grrrl2 – and dear me, I was reporting in the first time around and I’m here again. (“You can check out but you can never leave”.) I hope that all these underground pop bands will appeal to the majority this time around. I’m off to check out any shows thegirlsare can cover of Throwing Up. Your piece, Emily, has definitely inspired.
They’re amazing aren’t they? I think they will appeal to a lot of people – and their success is going to be as much based on the live shows they play as well as the coverage they get. Which makes me wish there were more amazing DIY promoters around!
“It makes me wish there were more amazing DIY promoters around!”
I think this is a really relevant point. Does anybody know any good independent promoters? Have you tried? What were the highs? What were the lows? Last week I experienced a Killing Moon Promotions event – they had to be very tight about guests,e.g. earning their keep – and I guess that’s the problem, costs v door; awkward publicans; music volume. I tried to promote when I first moved out of London to Somerset, lost a lot of money but loved the bands! I would do it again if I could at least break even.
Equally there are seemingly plenty of promoters who don’t appear to feel they have to do the ‘promotion’ bit. Not long ago the band I work with was approached by a promoter who specifically wanted our band for their show. When it came to agreeing terms, this was the remuneration package offered:
We (the band) could sell tickets for the show ourselves. The face value was £6, from which we could take £1 for every one we sold.
If we wished, we could sell these tickets for £5 and keep nothing. (Lucky us!!)
People buying tickets on the door would also be asked on the way in who they’d come to see, and we’d get £1 for anyone who named our band. I’ve been asked that question at gigs before and found it embarrassing.
So the point here is – really it seemed we weren’t going to be paid for playing the show at all. We were going to be paid for selling tickets – or if we wanted, we could sell tickets for nothing. I couldn’t really understand why, if this thought to be a reasonable deal, it wasn’t also offered to everyone the promoter knew in the area, regardless of whether they were playing the show or not.
Like many artists we will put effort in to get people to our shows. Not to help the promoters but because the band like to play to people! But we also expect if someone books the band that they do so because they have some understanding of and appreciation for what they do, and *want to communicate it to others*. If we were only making money from selling tickets – and we were the ones with the main responsibility to see that that happened – I also couldn’t see why we would take this deal, rather than just booking the venue ourselves. Of course I realise promoters are taking risks, and like you Ngaire I’ve been there, and realise shows can lose money. I just feel that many promoters have lost sight of the idea – despite the rather obvious clue in the title – that they are the ones responsible for the promotion.
This *isn’t* a dig at Killing Moon or any other good promoters who have to be careful with costs, by the way. Quite the opposite, I feel that promoters like that who are doing it for the love of it with limited resources stand in contrast to some who seem to want to reduce the relationship to a commercial transaction and play the minimum possible role in promoting the bands. Sorry to repeatedly use this word “promoting” but it’s hard to think of a more appropriate term for exactly what it is that some ‘promoters’ aren’t doing!