Charger Arts & Entertainment

For Your Aural Pleasure...Girls with guitars: putting the Spice Girls to shame

Erin McMillan, Charger Staff

Picture it. The "Saturday Night Live" stage. The lights come up, the music starts, but wait! The wrong vocal track is playing. The efforts of many to cover up lip-synching has failed, and you've been exposed.  Just weeks ago, this fiasco of Milli Vinilli proportion played out when Ashlee Simpson was caught in the act of using pre-recorded vocals.  Her minor scandal, and for that matter, her entire career, has done nothing but further the bad reputation thatfemale singers receive.  This month For Your Aural Pleasure is going to try and undo some of that damage by introducing two bands that rock and just happen to be fronted by females. 

First, Rilo Kiley is headed by a singer/actress who brings something new to the title: talent.  Singer Jenny Lewis has had roles in  movies such as Pleasantville and Troop Beverly Hills, but in 1998 she decided to expand her horizons and start a band.  Since then, she, along with bandmates Blake Sennett, Pierre De Reeder, and Dave Rock, has released nine albums, the latest of which is More Adventurous. Perhaps their greatest song is "A Better Son/Daughter,"an angst ridden tune that could easily mimic any adolescent’s diary with lyrics like " You'll be better, and you'll be smarter, and more grown up and a better daughter, or son, and a real good friend." The Los Angeles based band is self-described as "eclectic electric twang meets masterful songwriting," and the description fits perfectly. Other must-hears include "The Execution of All things," "With arms outstretched ," and "Abesence of God."

The second band of the month is Rainer Maria. Caithlin De Marrais, bass and vocals, leads the band who, along with Willaim Kuehn on percussion and Kyle Fischer on guitars and vocals, has released four full length studio albums since 1997.  Their second album, Look Now Look Again, made its way onto Spin magazine's Top 20 Albums of the Year list in 1999, and their fourth album, Long Knives Drawn, had the single "Ears Ring," which recieved heavy rotation on MTV2 in 2003, so they are used to a fair amount of exposure. Since their formation in the midwest, Rainer Maria has transplanted to Brooklyn where they are currently working on their fifth album, due out in 2005. Other songs to hear are "The Awful Truth of Loving", off of Long Knives Drawn, along with "Though I Was" and "Contents of Lincoln's Pockets", off of their 2001 one release, Better Version of Me.

Suffice it to say that not all chick bands are bad news.  While some female performers prefer strip teases to talent, others know how to rock.  Jenny Lewis and Caithlin De Marrais are two of these performers. Oh, and FYI, the Ashlee Simpson album can be converted into a nice little holiday dish, or even a coaster, as it should be,because she is what gives girls a bad name and ruins it for aspiring Jenny Lewis's everywhere.