Customer Reviews

Two Nice Girls (Reis)

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I believe that this album has one or two songs on it that wouldn't be suitable for radio without at least a bit of audio trimming. But this is the kind of music that would/could never get airplay in the tightly-formatted world of Clear Channel (ptui!) dominated radio of today, anyway.

(I do know that a track from the Girls' second album that gets the "F" word into the second line of a song based on Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away" riff was played uncut at least once on community radio here in Atlanta...)

But it has two tracks that were more than worth the original cost of the CD by themselves:

"I Spent My Last $10 (on Birth Control and Beer)", the lament of a woman who, while between grrlfriends fell for a guy, for the careless, carefree lesbian days of her youth was the song that i heard on community radio several times and that i tracked down the CD for. It is hilarious. It is sad. It is so true, and potentially metaphorically about a lot of things other than sexual politics. You'd hardly think there could be a better song on the same album.

But there is;

"Sweet Jane (with Affection)" a beautifully ethereal seamless blending of Lou Reed's "Sweet Jane" and Joan Armatrading's "Love and Affection". This is one of those tracks i can listen to two or three times running before going on.

(Another, to give you a possible sense of my tastes so you can decide if it's relevant to you, is Richard & Linda Thompson's "Wall of Death")

When Cowboy Junkies' "Trinity Session" first came out, the longbox ("Daddy, what's a longbox?") had a sticker on it that said "This is the most authentic version of 'Sweet Jane' I have ever heard -- Lou Reed". In a rather more recent interview, Reed remarked that he hadn't heard the Girls' version yet when he said that.

(The original cover art, by the way, features the Girls in a photo-pastiche of Maxfield Parrish; on the left hand side is what, i think, may be the only mandocello you will ever see.)

(The original label, Rough Trade, went out of business, making the CD unavailable for years; during that period, i saw copies priced as high as $75.)

Oh, how I wish these fine ladies would put out more music!!! They're among the most talented of the openly feminist Texas musicians out there, and they're capable of writing and playing everything from folk to rock to pop to prog. rock and country.

I spent my last $10 on Birth Control and Beer.... a wonderful and playful song, with just the right twanginess for a lesbian honky-tonk tune.

Be warned, this song will stick in your head.