Customer Reviews

Frumpie One Piece

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Everyone who has ever been in a band on Kill Rock Stars was, at one time, in a band with everyone else on Kill Rock Stars. The Frumpies are the product of the non-Kathleen Hanna members of Bikini Kill as well as one member of Bratmobile, but they don't sound like either one of the aforementioned bands. Even if you didn't love it when Kathi and Tobi sang in Bikini Kill, you could easily like the Frumpies. Their highly creative indie rock noise album certainly isn't as confrontational as Bikini Kill was, but they take care of business just the same. Stories from boring towns about spoiled kids and teenage betrayal are well written, even if you can't always understand the words, and "deep" without being condescending or boastful. The Frumpies are angry, but they don't have to rip out yr heart to show it; They know they can get you right where they want you with just a chord or two.

Frumpies' One-Peice is a compilation disc of all the 24 songs of their 5 7" single releases. Kathi Wilcox shreaks out her vocals beautifully proving there is no need for a multi-million dollar record studio. The Frumpies are the pure definition of what proud indie punk was meant to be, from the upbeat instant hook first song that pulls you in to the beautiful soft vocals Kathi Wilcox is able to produce in songs such as "intertube Tomorrow" and "Eunuch Nights".

Tobi Vail and Kathi Wilcox always showed a great deal of promise in Bikini Kill, even as Kathleen Hanna broke out as the strongest force within the riot grrrl group. I always admired Vail's writing skills, which matured to such an astonishing degree on "Reject All American" that I felt sure she was a hidden star. On the first 13 tracks of "Frumpie One Piece", there are melodic passages, but anger-Anger-ANGER everywhere. The hooks can be found, but they're buried underneath the sludgy recording (which was done at different places in different years). Suddenly, by track 14, the production miraculously improves and the compositions are strengthened by this, and all great expectations are met. Vail and Wilcox are totally in-synch and manage to find all the right ways to direct a song. I love their anger, but when they streamline that into a song with speedy and slow montages, it makes for one thrilling recording. What happened to the Frumpies?? Kill Rock Stars, we want more!

I absolutely love this cd. Frumpies include members of Bikini Kill (Kathi, Billy and Tobi) and Molly from ex-Bratmobile and the Peechees. Very loud, especially when Tobi sings. Extremely punk.

There are a lot of dumb, goofy girly songs on here, but it has some raw ones too (like "Safety First")... way better than the rest of the crap on KRS.

This band burns like a stingray and rocks like an atom bomb. It's stupid to think this is anything but Rad City. Good grief.