The Girls - Live at The Rathskeller 5.17.79

Avant Rock reviewed by David Keenan, The Wire 75

The Girls were active on the Boston club scene from 1977 - 79, but evidence of their brief reign is thin on the ground, with a sole 7", "Jeffrey I Hear You", released during their lifetime on David Thomas's Hearthen label. Now this live album, which catches the group at its musical apex mere months before it imploded, joins the posthumous studio collection "Girls Reunion" in helping to restore some historical balance. Right away it's clear why Thomas went for them. Like Pere Ubu, The Girls are straight out of the avant garage. Synth player Robin Amos, who now plays the keys for Cul De Sac, takes on the Allen Ravestine role, bleeding formless clouds of electronics all over bassist George Condo and guitarist Mark Dagley's misshapen riffs. There are some great straightahead blasts of snot, like the 50 second "Just Got Back", but generally The Girls cut their riffs with plenty of tight power-pop hooks and an Anglophile's taste for flowery melodies. Looking like Thunderbirds pupp! ets in shorts, their dorky onstage persona is endearing as, as is the offbeat humour of their intergroup banter and songs like "Doggy Auto". They must have been quite an anomaly on the Boston scene, as their angular take on teenage was miles away from contempories like The Real Kids and The Lyres, the latter of whom they were supporting on this date. But as the sleevesnotes point out, Mission Of Burma were only a matter of weeks away, and listening to this now feels extremely prescient. ________________________________________________________________