Some bands have back stories that don't sound real but instead seem like something dreamed up by a particularly warped screen writer. Girls are one of those bands. Chris Owens, the blonde-haired, bleary-eyed singer and songwriter in the San Franciscan duo, grew up in the notorious Children Of God cult. His first guitar? A present from former Fleetwood Mac member Jeremy Spencer, then also a member of the cult.
After growing up with music approved of by the cult's founder David Brandt Berg (Elvis and the Beatles mainly) and contraband tapes of songs off the radio, Owen's escaped aged 16. Moving to Amarillo, Texas he immersed himself in the hardcore scene and more drugs than the average pharmacy. On the verge of a total breakdown, he was taken in by millionaire philanthropist Stanley Marsh the 3rd, who became a father figure to him.
Moving to San Francisco with his girlfriend, Owens started writing songs with her but their painful breakup was the catalyst for Album, Girls' practically titled debut album. With a self-confessed love of pills and powders, Owens and his band mate, Chet "JR" White, created a record that sounds like Pet Sounds on prescription drugs. It's a woozy, dreamy record skewered through with the late night debauchery of Owens's slightly cracked life.
The echoey, spaced out Hellhole Ratrace is the 6 minute 20 second long heart of the record. "I don't wanna cry my whole life through/I wanna do some laughing to," sighs Owens, dragging the whole story of his odd life into the song. Rather than leaving you feeling maudlin, the song's got the same euphoric quality as Spiritualized at their best, a slowly swelling majesty drawn from the shared human desire for happiness. A beautiful guitar line and the sparsest of percussion propelling the sleepy song onwards.
Girls on myspace.
Album by Girls is out now through Fantasytrashcan/Turnstile.
6:00 AM | 03/11/2009
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