violet violet... we rock like girls should!

I happened to catch a great up and coming band the other day… Violet Violet. Consisting of 2 members who share a name, Violet Fliss on guitar and vocals, and Cheri Violet on drums and vocals, these girls are GOOD, not just good ‘for girls’. Often in recent years I have despaired, thinking it’s as though grunge never happened when it comes to girl musicians. During the grunge era, girls finally seemed to step up en masse to the level of male musicians, and gender no longer seemed to be an issue in rock and roll. But only a few years later we seemed to have returned to an earlier and culturally more impoverished era where girls would usually only be singers, judged on their looks and fitness rather than their ability. Even the few exceptions like Meg White, Charlotte Hatherley from Ash and Sharin Foo from the Ravonettes were presented primarily as colourful back-up, there to enhance the visual side of things as well as the sound. So what a relief to stumble across Violet Violet! Fliss’s guitar playing is superb; she manages to be solid, riffy and leady all at the same time, and with the judicious use of some neat gadgets, splits the signal to a bass amp as well as a guitar amp so there’s no lack of bottom end to the tunes. Cheri Violet is obviously an accomplished drummer and pounds out complex tribal beats whilst simultaneously delivering an effortless vocal, one of the hardest tricks to pull off. Incidentally, they are both gorgeous, but that’s not the point!

not a secret for much longer!

Originally hailing from Norwich, the girls have recently been championed by cool London promoters Artrocker, and the legendary Eddie Argos from Art Brut invited them to play as his backing band during a live show. Violet Violet currently have a new album out called ‘The City Is Full Of Beasts’, which given their charisma, could be a reference to the predatory males they are encountering along the way, but could equally refer to drummer Cheri’s interest in taxidermy, and the large amount of animal based subject matter in their songs… vultures, cats etc.

I reckon these girls could go all the way, given a hooky enough tune and the right promotion. Anyway, don’t take my word for it, check them out for yourself at http://www.myspace.com/violetviolet1