Priests: Leave Me Alone

http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1921307984/size=medium/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/t=1/transparent=true/

I discovered this great, howling song via NPR All Songs Considered’s CMJ episode. I wanted to describe it as “Joy Division and X-Ray Spex formed a riot grrrl band,” but that would be hack and not really adequate for a band as political, radical, and anti-(music)-establishment as the band from Washington, D.C. [They released the song as part of a tour-only cassette called Tape Two, for Christ’s sake.] Now I don’t have a better description, damnit, especially since music critic Maria Sherman already called them “as ‘a female-fronted, arty proto-punk band,’ reminiscent of the District’s bustling ’80s punk scene” on NPR. They’re punk as punk should be, and more hardcore than any thick breakdown could ever be.