With an EP in the shops and a headline gig in their home city, garage punk duo Bus Stop Madonnas are making all the right noises
Bus Stop Madonnas. photo: Joe Dixey
Two girls, a drum kit and a buzzsaw guitar; the Bus Stop Madonnas make some of the most thrilling and authentic garage punk around. Singer and guitarist Amy Case and drummer Jess Smith were friends for years and gigged separately in various bands before they brought their talents together to form Nottingham’s first all-female punk duo.
Although their first hand-distributed EP was limited to just 250 copies, it’s sold well enough since last year to fund a second single which should be recorded after this summer. The five-track debut (in blue vinyl and cover drawn by Fists’ Angi Fletcher), sounds as if it’s been beamed in from the classic punk years of 1977 and ‘78 via the medium of Nirvana and Sub Pop grunge.
Although their first hand-distributed EP was limited to just 250 copies, it’s sold well enough since last year to fund a second single which should be recorded after this summer. The five-track debut (in blue vinyl and cover drawn by Fists’ Angi Fletcher), sounds as if it’s been beamed in from the classic punk years of 1977 and ‘78 via the medium of Nirvana and Sub Pop grunge.
There are four originals and a cover of US punk outfit Nubs’ 1980 track Job, which sees Amy complaining that she’s quit her job but that she don’t wanna job, see? Meanwhile, on originals such as Runnin’ and Lovin’ and the great Liam Loves the Ramones (‘more than he loves me’) Amy’s raw riffing and throaty growl contrasts with Jess’s higher backing vocals and emphatic "hey! hey! hey!s" Oh, didn’t we mention that Jess is also a fine singing - and self-taught - drummer? However, if you’re a regular at noisy gigs in Nottingham then there’s a good chance you might have seen Jess at her kit before since she doubles as drummer for the otherwise all-male White Finger. How does she manage her responsibilities to the two bands? Easy. "I practice with White Finger on Tuesdays and with Bus Stop Madonnas on Wednesdays,” she says.
Being a drummer, and a punk drummer at that, she suffers occasional moments of sexism. "People do say to me ‘you’re a good drummer’ and then kind of add, ‘for a girl’.” But, Jess adds, working creatively with Amy is easier than rehearsing with blokes. There are fewer egos to manage in Bus Stop Madonnas, for a start. “It’s a completely different dynamic with Amy because we’re on exactly the same level when we play together,” she says. Amy, who sports a skingirl stylee with feathercut, big Docs and Harrington jacket, adds, “You can’t have any egos in this band. You know how some band members make a big deal of it when you make a mistake a onstage? When Jess and I play together we can both play sloppily and no-one gives a monkeys. We just gel like that.”
But Amy is surely being modest since sloppy they ain’t. When they played a support slot at JamCafe recently, Amy and Jess gave a tight, winning and correctly punk short set of six or seven songs in twenty-odd minutes. The set couldn’t have lasted much longer since they don’t know many more songs. The question is: where do they go now? The duo have played mostly supports and it’s perhaps time that they started to think about how serious they want to take their unusual no-bass female punk thing. The signs are that their star is ascending, albeit with a refreshingly near absence of self-promotion on their part.
On the day we met Amy and Jess had been guest DJs at the Music Exchange for Record Store Day and now they’re finally playing a headline slot at the newly re-opened Running Horse. Even so, playing gigs outside their home city is going to be difficult considering that Jess’ Micra is a bit small to fit in the amps and drum kit and Amy’s still taking driving lessons. They’ve got no manager to push them and didn’t even think about posting their EP to anybody in the music press.
On the other hand...Bus Stop Madonnas own a brace of catchy punk tunes and have got a genuine, unpolished attitude and look to win the hearts and minds of all right-thinking music lovers. If there’s any justice they’re going places; they just don’t realise how good they are yet.
Bus Stop Madonnas with Mother, Nervous Twitch and Ratbiter, Friday 9 May, The Running Horse, Alfreton Road.
Being a drummer, and a punk drummer at that, she suffers occasional moments of sexism. "People do say to me ‘you’re a good drummer’ and then kind of add, ‘for a girl’.” But, Jess adds, working creatively with Amy is easier than rehearsing with blokes. There are fewer egos to manage in Bus Stop Madonnas, for a start. “It’s a completely different dynamic with Amy because we’re on exactly the same level when we play together,” she says. Amy, who sports a skingirl stylee with feathercut, big Docs and Harrington jacket, adds, “You can’t have any egos in this band. You know how some band members make a big deal of it when you make a mistake a onstage? When Jess and I play together we can both play sloppily and no-one gives a monkeys. We just gel like that.”
Bus Stop Madonnas. photo: Joe Dixey
On the day we met Amy and Jess had been guest DJs at the Music Exchange for Record Store Day and now they’re finally playing a headline slot at the newly re-opened Running Horse. Even so, playing gigs outside their home city is going to be difficult considering that Jess’ Micra is a bit small to fit in the amps and drum kit and Amy’s still taking driving lessons. They’ve got no manager to push them and didn’t even think about posting their EP to anybody in the music press.
On the other hand...Bus Stop Madonnas own a brace of catchy punk tunes and have got a genuine, unpolished attitude and look to win the hearts and minds of all right-thinking music lovers. If there’s any justice they’re going places; they just don’t realise how good they are yet.
Bus Stop Madonnas with Mother, Nervous Twitch and Ratbiter, Friday 9 May, The Running Horse, Alfreton Road.
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