Wednesday, middle of the week, time for some awesome noise. Perfect Pussy played their first show on a (inter)national stage recently when they were part of NPR Music’s SXSW showcase. Through all the noise, shouting, and feedback it is a really charming live performance. Especially the stage presence of singer Meredith Graves is undeniably amazing, even on tape.
http://www.npr.org/templates/event/embeddedVideo.php?storyId=285775248&mediaId=291936718
Meredith Graves is also awesome, outspoken, and feminist off the stage. She and her bandmates took on their home scene of Syracuse, severely criticizing the sexism, racism, and homophobia in the hardcore community, with the backlash that is to be expected. The article about it on bitchmagazine.org gives a good look into the scene:
Meredith Graves did actually host a forum on sexism in the Syracuse music scene earlier this year. On the website badlandsdiy.com, Graves and the rest of Perfect Pussy defended their criticisms, arguing that they were aimed towards specific subsets of the hardcore community and not the scene in general. But the forum’s medley of violent, sexist statements did little to help her cause. One Syracuse performer who told a local media outlet that there were “no traces of homophobia, racism or sexism in Syracuse hardcore” described Perfect Pussy as “a bunch of fags” and implied that he wanted to punch Graves in the face for “running her mouth.”
”No one in Syracuse has ever taken my opinion seriously before,” Graves told Syrcause.com in response to the backlash. “Now all of a sudden I go off and say a couple of really mean things and bring on this maelstrom.“
Their noise punk isn’t something for everybody, but based on their full length, the live show above, and their public persona, the hype is well deserved.
Thoughts?