Friday 1st February 2019 saw the launch night of LOUD WOMEN NYC – a new chapter of our beloved organisation, putting musical women in the spotlight.
Cady Siregar is the goddesslike-genius behind the new chapter, and despite being relatively new to the Brooklyn neighbourhood, she expertly organised a hugely successful and well-attended show at the frankly gorgeous venue The Well.
Two UK bands flew over especially for the show – T-Bitch and I, Doris – joining New Yorkers Slut Magic and Basic Bitches for a beautifully transatlantic sisterly punk evening.
We first met NYC’s Basic Bitches when they were on tour in the UK, and they came and wowed us at a LOUD WOMEN show at DIY Space for London in April 2018. So we are so excited that they will be headlining our first ever show on their home ground of Brooklyn, for the launch of LOUD WOMEN NYC on Friday Feb 1st! We caught up with them and asked them 10 questions…
We are SO excited to be bringing LOUD WOMEN to Brooklyn! Having played one of our gigs in London last year, how do you think NYC will react to LOUD WOMEN?
NYC will always need people who are committed to supporting DIY music, and more importantly female/female-identifying musicians in the DIY scene. It can be really hard to be seen and heard with everything else that’s going on in the city, but I think people who are already involved and invested in DIY in NYC will be excited to see a new group of people putting good shows together and growing the already strong and very badass community of women and queer/trans people making music and playing shows here.
Basic Bitches: We All Moved to the City Now We Can’t Afford to Live
Is the Brooklyn DIY scene similar to what you’ve seen of the scene in London?
There’s a LOT more shows happening on any given night in Brooklyn so the competition for people’s attention is a lot more intense! Both cities can suffer a little from the curse of the stand still, arms crossed crowds but we’ve only ever seen that as a challenge!
And about YOU! Tell us about how the songwriting process works in Basic Bitches?
Historically, I (Naomi) would write all the songs and bring them to whoever was drumming to add in their parts. Thats all changed with this new line up. Krystal joined the band back in the summer, and we’re now writing things much more collaboratively and it’s really changed the band for the better!
We loved your recent release – How Come None of You Want to Hang Anymore – when’s the next release?
Soon hopefully! We’ve been working on a bunch of new songs this past month and we’re hoping to record a few of them very soon.
Basic Bitches: How Come None of You Ever Want to Hang Anymore
What’s next for you?
As soon as the weather turns less arctic, we’re planning much more touring this year. We’ve also made a commitment to not making any more physical music releases. We just feel uncomfortable with how unsustainable (not to mention unrecycleable) all of the physical format options are. We have some old records to sell through but all future releases will be available digitally, with downloads bundled with merch (i.e. right now if you buy one of our T Shirts you get a free download of our record ‘City Slackers’). We’re also getting settled in to our new practice space – the ‘Bitches Bunker’ – and we’ve been playing around with what we’re calling “Sloppy Cover Song Sessions” where we’ll just randomly pick a song and throw it together during practice, then record video of us playing it and post it on social media. It’s been a really fun way for us to loosen up but also to experiment with different styles of playing. Maybe we’ll start taking requests 😉
Feb 1st 2019 sees the launch of LOUD WOMEN NYC at Brooklyn’s The Well – a new live music night
celebrating punk rock music powered by women (and gender non-conforming)
musicians.
The original LOUD WOMEN
chapter began in London, England, in 2015, since which time they’ve put on
hundreds of events around the UK, launched an annual festival attracting
musicians and music lovers from around the globe, and helped showcase and boost
the profile of hundreds of budding punkrockstars. London riot grrrl scenesters DreamNails describe LOUD WOMEN as “our fairy punk mothers”, and pop
legends Bugeye describe “Awesome
crowds, amazing bands and one of the most supportive promoters you’re likely to
meet”.
Founder of the New York City chapter Cady Siregar hopes to replicate this success here in Brooklyn. The
launch gig on Feb 1st will showcase three bands from Brooklyn, and
two of London’s finest flying in especially for the show:
From Brooklyn:
Basic
Bitches – Garage rock riot grrrl duo
SlutMagic – An angsty, aural make-out session
TBC – LWNYC’s Cady’s own new band
From London:
I, Doris – Mummycore art
pop (featuring LOUD WOMEN’s founder,
Cassie Fox)
T-Bitch – Trans, queer,
Riot Grrrl punk
Event details:
Friday Feb 1st 2019, at The Well, 272 Meserole Street,
New York 11206
So so SO excited to announce the launch of the new LOUD WOMEN NYC chapter’s first gig, at Brooklyn’s The Well – with Basic Bitches and I, Doris confirmed so far, more TBA soon! This will be a night to remember – tell all your NYC friends! Event link here!
The new LOUD WOMEN NYC group has been set up by Cady Siregar, a musician we got to know through her awesome band Spare Rib, and also through a magazine she set up, Girl Fiend. In her own words:
I’m a transplant of the London DIY scene now living in NYC and I’m keen to start a Big Apple leg of LOUD WOMEN, and to build and grow a New York-based community of great female & non-binary musicians. I’m eager to start organising regular LW gig nights in the city with some amazing women-led bands. I’d also love some help with running the group and putting on events and reaching out to bands so if you’d like to join, please reach out! I’d love to put our first gig on sometime early in the new year.
it’d also be great for this to be a group for women looking to start and join bands, so we can form thousands of bands and then take over the world. 🆒.
***PLEASE ADD PEOPLE*** to the group who you feel would like to be involved, be it anyone who’d like to help organising events / musicians / bands / anybody wanting to start a band but needing that extra push / anyone & everyone who would like to be involved, period! 🤙🏽 peace out xxx
What a gig! It was an absolute treat to host these 4 bands last night at DIY Space for London last night.
The evening kicked off with Brighton’s ARXX. Since they last played for us, they’ve changed drummer, and added a lot more power and groovy samples too. Hannah’s voice is a-mazing and their songs are worldclass punkpop anthems, and the world needs to hear them! Find them on Facebook.
Next up were T-Bitch from Southend, who brought massive portions of glamour, vitriol, and banging punk rock – all our favourite things in fact! They gave a brilliant performance that had us all grinning and dancing from start to finish. They were also absolutely lovely people to gig with – a model band! They turned up early, helped out other bands with equipment loans, watched all the other bands and stayed to the end.
These might seem like small gestures but they make such a difference to the night, and bands who follow this punkrock code of etiquette are welcome on our stages any time. We hope to see lots more of T-Bitch soon!
Next up were Quim Smashers, who also played live on the LOUD WOMEN Radio show on WRS last week.
Time constraints meant no raffle at the gig (we’ll do an extra big one next time).
But finally our headliners Basic Bitches were a huge treat – a gloriously loud garage rock duo on tour from the US. Perfect end to a great evening.
Basic Bitches are our favourite New York duo, and they are playing LOUD WOMEN this Saturday night as the London date of their UK tour! We asked them 10 questions …
1. Who would you most like to cover one of your songs?
Nick: Nicole Atkins
Naomi: Marianne Faithful
2. If you could add one member to your band – any person, living or dead, musical or otherwise – who would it be, and what would they play?
Nick: Betsy from Ex Hex
Naomi: Yeah same, as long as she managed to do it without looking so cool I looked like a massive dork in comparison…
3. What was the last song you wrote, where were you when you came up with the idea, what inspired it, and how did it turn out? Naomi: The most recent Basic Bitches song is one we’ve been playing live, called ‘Tear Me Apart’. I wanted to write something like ‘Because The Night’, I think it came out more filthy than that to be honest. It’s essentially about two people fucking at the end of the world.
In stark constrast, the actual last song I wrote is this one:
4. Which was your favourite gig you’ve a) played and b) watched? Nick: A) Played: opening for Lee Baines III at Monty Hall in Jersey City, NJ; B) Watched: Ty Segall, 2015, Bowery Ballroom, NYC
Naomi: A) Played: The Band Cramps compilation launch – 10 bands played 15 minute sets. It ended up being the day after Trump got elected so it’s fair to say some issues were being musically dealt with. B) Watched: Tina Turner’s farewell tour at the O2. I went with my dad. Don’t pretend you aren’t jealous.
5. Recommend a record and a book that you think our readers might not have heard of.
Nick: Record: Candace—New Ruins. Really great dreampop out of Portland, Oregon.; there’s a weird hypnotic push & pull to their rhythms. Super nice people, too.
Book: An Indigenous People’s History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. Discusses in harrowing and heartbreaking detail how the genocide of and theft from the American Indian is inextricably interwined with American history, continuing into this century, and with the very nature of “American-ness.” Not at all uplifting.
6. What’s your best piece of advice for young musicians?
Nick: Be sure that you love playing for the pure joy and fun of it. Trying to advance your band on the DIY level takes a ton of hard work and not all of it pays off, so make sure that playing remains, above all, FUN.
Naomi: Yeah I’d say the same thing – don’t pin all your hopes on some label person coming along and transforming your life.
7. Your top 3 most beloved albums ever – go.
Nick:
Sonic Youth – Daydream Nation (greatest album recorded by human beings ever in the history of time.)
John Coltrane — Giant Steps
Joni Mitchell — Court & Spark
Naomi:
Perfume Genius – No Shape
Bjork – Homogenic
Black Sabbath – Paranoid
8. What are your musical goals?
Nick: To get to a level where people we don’t know just come to our shows without us having to beg. 😀
Naomi: Wow. Emo.
9. What’s the most important thing we need to know about your band right now?
Nick: Naomi is writing killer tunes at a rapid clip. I sense we’ll have to record again soon!
10. Give your top 5 contemporary bands/musicians.
Nick: Candace is getting a lot play on my Bandcamp app currently. My other band played with them in Austin and their songs are just beautiful and a little strange. Also dig their first-Rush-record font.
Desert Sharks, out of Brooklyn NY, is a band we’ve played with who bring a killer big rock vibe to a scene dominated by punk rock. They’re one of my favorites around.
The Anderson Council, out my home state of New Jersey, have been around a long time, but still consistently write my new favorite songs. Lead dude Pete’s gift of melody and songwriting is unparalleled.
Night Raids, out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, are an incredible 2-piece grind/death metal band that incorporates insane free-jazz and noise elements. A must-see live.
Sean Kiely, from Jersey City, NJ, is a beautifully talented guitarist/singer/songwriter who writes incredibly thoughtful folk-indie tunes. He’s a great guitar player with a great and distincitive voice, singing some insightful and brilliant lyrics. He has a new record coming out May 11 on his own label. Worth checking out!
Basic Bitches are fast becoming our new favourite band. Not only are they flying all the way over from the USA to play with us on 21 April at DIY Space for London, they’ve gone and given us the exclusive premier of their fawesome new single and video! They say:
It’s a 52 second blitz aimed at coupled-up people who give up on their social lives called ‘How Come None Of You Ever Want To Hang Anymore?’
For all those who support putting women on stage, and turning up the volume
The new LOUD WOMEN NYC group
Basic Bitches are fast becoming our new favourite band. Not only are they flying all the way over from the USA to play with us on 21 April at DIY Space for London, they’ve gone and given us the exclusive premier of their fawesome new single and video! They say: