Gravel – “Lap Happy”
Gravel is kind of the insignificant part of the scenery. The part that’s down below where you don’t notice. Kind of what you kick around or is just made to cover where you don’t want the point of vision to be. Like- there’s other things, better things to look at, to direct your attention to.
With a plodding rhythm and a rhythm guitar that appears to be taken out of an old Velvet Underground song with it’s sixties sounding echo-ey harshness, “Better Things To Do” has bits of riot grrl, garage rock and Patti Smith embedded in its core. It is stark and bleak with black and white honesty but the lo-fi drugged groove is destroyed, or should I say, improved, by a hyper-emotive, desperate screaming towards the end. “Sold my body/ Sold my soul/ Sold it all for just three grand total”. You might have better things to do but you should make time to listen to a song this terrific.
Gravel is an all-girl band. Some of the tags on their bandcamp are punk, grrl, garage, nineties and that sounds about right to me. I suppose some might argue this as “indi crap” but I don’t see it that way. I see it as punk/riot grrl music and since I just did a tribute to Bikini Kill and in some ways, this band reminds me of them (high praise, indeed). I say, take your prejudices against this type of music and wrap them in a box with a bright colored bow, drop them in the toilet and set them on sail- like a slow boat to China.
They’re from Salem- north of Boston, where the scene is thirsty for shows but seems to be overflowing with talent. And Haverhill seems to be a hot spot now with bands like Chanticlear and The Grubs and others appearing.
With a flat, chugging garage/industrial vibe like a wounded Rhino charging through the brush, or a rev-ed up “Sister Ray” revisited- Gravel hits the perfect spot between punk, riot grrl and garage. “Got a problem/ Want to talk about it?/ I’m a problem?/ Don’t wanna hear about it.” This is a turning, rolling ball of energy and bile moving forwards with intensity, purpose and heart. I’ve got no problem with songs that sound this great.
I love Riot Grrl music. Not to put down Rancid, Green Day, NOFX, Bouncing Souls, Screeching Weasels or any of those bands that helped popularize punk in the nineties. I mean, I think- they played good for boys. But for my money, honey, the only bands that carried the true spirit of punk were the riot grrl bands. They have the same feel for punk that the punk bands in the late seventies had, the bands I first experienced and that set the blue-print of punk.
An alternating rock and surf beat back a melodic vocal with rough guitar and lo-fi bass kicks this song off that recalls Hole, another great band, to me. “I saw you in my dreams/ You were coming out of the water/ You told me that you still loved me/ But I just watched my boyfriend die.” This song is spooky, intense and abrupt- emotionally bleak and intriguing. “You told me to never tell you/ How much I loved you/ But you left me here to die.” I made no promises to anyone about anything so I can tell everyone and anyone that this is a great fucking song.
Gravel are like an unholy alliance between The Velvet Underground and Bikini Kill. The have minimal, naturally produced instrumentation- minimal words that evoke a lot and songs that aren’t slick but serve the purpose of creating something true, raw, intelligent and intense.
This is my last music review of the year and I feel it’s a good one, a good band I’ve reviewed. But now I’m gonna put my soul on a little raft. I’m gonna push it out, in the water, out to sea. And if it returns, well, I’ll honor it. But if it drifts off into the night, I’ll let it be.
With some frantic, fuzzed out guitar rung in by some waylaid hi-hat cymbals, “Hang Out” comes in colliding with a force, fortified by fury, hunger and rage. “I just want to hang out, man.” This is a bashing, clanging, firehouse alarm free-for-all. This is a four alarm fire that rages and burns your heart. That rips the sockets out of the walls and the tubes off your life support system and makes you face the darkness in store.
Gravel is a “loose aggregation of small water-worn or pounded stones” or maybe it’s a-
great, Salem based punk/riot grrl band. I hate choices but-
I’ll go with the second definition, with that one you can’t go wrong. I suggest you choose that one and listen, as well.
As I set my boat out to sea.
(Slimedog)
