Sure, I loved the Riot Grrrls back in the 1990s. I'm gonna see the Corin Tucker Band at Mercury Lounge next month. And I didn't need the musically negligent , if politically agile, Pussy Riot to remind me of em. Though I might have needed Care Bears On Fire to at least remind me of just how hard a barely teen band (two of the three girls were 10 years old, one was 11 years old when they formed) can be youthfully exuberant without turning into the Chipmunks.
Care Bears On Fire are a fabulous band, on stage they had the muscle of a young Runaway with the 'tude of Bratmobile and they played power-punk, fast loud but always with the melody in pocket. and a hook to rely upon. The 2009 debut album Get Over It! was a pretty excellent mix of girl power on power chords and though they haven't recorded since, they've been known to play around town. Plus, the kid-core pioneers are now elder states(wo)men. Lead guitarist Sophie Rae is 18 years old now and CBOF has been a part of her life for… wow, nearly half her life.
And still is part of her life, but Sophie now has, along with drummer Izzy Schappel, formed a new band, Claire's Diary. And the most immediate difference is, there is a guy in the band. The next thing you notice is, it is a four piece.Hang about, let me find another pix:
There you go.
According to their Facebook, here is the legend of Claire's Diary. Oddly, I coulda swore it was an obscure reference to Eric Rohmer's masterpiece "Claire's Knee". Certainly the teenage Sophie has some of the lushness of a Laurence de Monaghan. But nope, that's just synchronism:
"Claire's Diary was formed when Sophie Rae and Isadora Schappell (of Care Bears on fire), Joey Koneko, and Kiri Oliver were strolling through a meadow one day and found the diary of a girl named Claire at the foot of an oak tree. Taking this diary back to their Brooklyn home, they began to sift through the pages of this mysterious diary and translate their discoveries into words and sounds that bring to mind grunge, punk, and surf-rock. Claire's Diary played their first show at Slutwalk NYC in October 2011 and released their first recorded track, the theme song for Rookie Magazine, 'Suzy's Alright', in October 2011. Claire's Diary recently released their double single for "Girl Next Door" and "Build Me A Hero", and have been in the studio putting finishing touches on their first full length LP which be released this fall."
So finally we get to the double "A" side single. They claim. It isn't. "Girl Next Door" would have broken pop in the early 1980s (if not 1990s), "Build Me A Hero" is a deep album track. "Girl " is Care Bears hits the teens with an excellent and soaring guitar solo , "Hero" is a couple of mutations away from hard rock, a muscular drums turf meets the Raybeats style guitar surf. The vocals, maybe that's just growing up true, sound more Riot Grrly than Sophie did in the Care Bears. And the music is… back to FB: "Rock/Punk/Garage/Surf/Experimental".
I don't know where the experimental comes into it. We aren't discussing fellow Willie Mae Rock Camp Alumni Hilly Eye here. Indeed, this is immediately accessible punk-pop. You don't need to wait for the songs to reveal themselves, this is straight to the pleasure zone rock and roll. I have a 10 year old Great-Niece Juliet, and I would love to introduce her to Claire's Dairy… when my niece listens to Lady Gaga or Katy Perry, she can't empathize wit them. At the same age Sophie and Izzy was when they began their career, Juliet finds a Katy Perry to be sexual bewildering and the music Perry makes looks like magic. Juliet can't imagine playing it herself.
But the greatness of both Care Bears and Claire's Diary is they are essential punk in any one can do it, just get a guitar and bang. And that is not simply a tautology, perhaps Juliet (or rock nyc's Mary Magpie, who has been writing for us since she was 12 years old) can't do it as adeptly as Claire's Diary. But they can do it.
Simplicity is a gift, and Claire's Diary is simple but in a complicated way. Adding a guy to the mix ups the sexual complexity clearly mooted in the proto-teen CBOH, and channeling Kathleen Hanna raises the specter of girl power all the way to feminism. Certainly, I would have hoped that Feminism would have gone the way of the do-do bird, but it was always playing in the background of the CBOH (it also saved them from the male aggression that followed the Runaways) and I guess as generation after generation are faced with male pressure and violence, it isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
Neither of these elements overwhelm Claire's Diary and both "Girl' Next Door" and "Build Me A Hero" seem to remain true to the pages of a diary concept. "Girl" is perfect everygirl anthem about the diarist's unseen inner life. It is catchy hard rock but not the way "ATM" and "Everybody Else" is, the riffs are better, the hooks not as much fun.. "Hero" suggest a future not quite arrived at and the "f" word pulls you up short. Maybe it is trying a bit too hard. I think I will prefer it in the context of the album.
"Girl Next Door: – Grade: A
"Build Me A Hero" – Grade: B+