THE DELI

cover photo: Tits Dick Ass
Listen to the PLAYLIST HERE

If ever there was a time to ritually watch a music video by trio known as the Cedar Street Sluts—who once served as GG Allin’s backup singers and then spun off into their own act just like Vanity 6 did with Prince—perform GG Allin’s original composition “Sluts in the City” on an cramped “sketchy alleyway” soundstage complete with a blatantly fake “bum” (the newsboy cap being his most bummy feature) eyeing the girls nervously as they bump and grind and pose like three office workers from New Hampshire who decided to dress up like Sheena Easton and go out to karaoke and sing “Sugar Walls” as they sing in nasal-toned unison about how “I’m a bitch, I’m a sleazy whore” and “We’re the Cedar Street Sluts! We hate everyone!” then Valentine’s Day is probably the day to do that cuz you best believe I’m in luv, L-U-V…

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…and you will be too if you watch the video above but that’s not the only reason we’re brought you here today cuz this song is but one of 69 utterly filthy, irreverent, anatomically obsessed and totally awesome paeans to love and hope and sex and dreams brought together via the magic of music streaming in an original Deli playlist that we’re calling DELIntines Day: Lewd, Rude & in the Mood featuring no less than 68 additional viral hits (there’s a whole mini-set of songs contained within on the subject of venereal diseases) such as “You Fingered Me Weird” by DickLord, “Sit On My Face Stevie Nicks” by the Rotters, and “Oral Sex With A Caterpillar” by Jerry Jamrag & The Afterbirths so you see the level of depravity we’re dealing with here…

…and speaking of depravity there’s two count ‘em two NYC bands that lead off the playlist with two brand-spankin’-new songs about tainted love RELEASED TODAY with the two acts in question being Homade and Tits Dick Ass and I don’t believe it’s hyperbole to say both these songs are the Zen perfection ideal of what a Valentine’s Day song should be, i.e., full of snotty disregard for the heteronormative, Hallmark-card pieties of a holiday that telling erases the already fine line between coupledom and consumerism to which the best forms of protest are the practice of either total debauchery or willful withdrawal (both well represented on the playlist!) and by the way when it comes to the latter Happy International Quirkyalone Day to those who celebrate…

…and who better than slutty-and-proud-of-it “bad girlfriends” to lead us out of the wilderness which happens to be the primary subject of both songs as made clear by the mere title of Tits Dick Ass’s “GF from Hell” and in case you were curious about the province of the band’s name TDA are named after the old parlour game where someone names three celebrities and then everyone pretends they’re Ed Gein who’s just murdered the three celebrities in question and now must decide which of them has the best Tits, Dick, and Ass (respectively) since he’ll be using their body parts to finish assembling the Frankenstein’s monster he’s been working on in the basement so you can see why the game is sometimes called Fuck, Marry, Kill for psychopaths…

….but anyway back to TDA—known in some circles as the Hardest Working Trans-Fronted Feminist Punk Rock Band in Show Business—this tranarchy-endorsing power trio fronted by Julia Pierce sound like a million hollars by scholars of squalor on this their sonic-steamroller of a debut single (plus they don’t look too shabby either, I mean, who doesn’t love a drummer in bondage gear?) and really I can’t recall a punk rock combo who were both this doomy and this dancey since 45 Grave first haunted the shabby storefront clubs and gritty dens of iniquity of Eighties LA/Hollywood with TDA coming off on the whole like an amped up/turned on/pissed off version of Joy Division covering “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” with detectible filaments of Birthday Party, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, and early Hole also to be found in their sound…

…and now lastly but not leastly and only moderately yeastily, this brings us to the officially designated Bratz of the Lower East Side, a four-piece collective known as Homade who’ve been featured in these pages before in both full-band and side-project form and truly the Homaders have outdone themselves once again with thire new single released just today called “Broken Hearts” (a longtime live fave) with lead singer Lola D. fully embodying the photo found under the word “tongue-in-cheekily superciliously bad girlfriend” in the dictionary with a stirring sung-spoken monologue that starts off all David Johansen/Mary Weiss like with Lola declaiming “Boys never wanna just kiss / they wanna cuff me” and then once the music kicks in “you dick-game is aight / but I’m scared that you love me” soon admiringly that “I get off to broken hearts and broken things”…

…which totally embodies the Sluts in the City/Quirkyalone ethos described above as the song builds and builds like a boulder careening down a mountaintop in an electrifying blur of schadenfreude sorcery and lucky for New Yorkers everywhere if you feel like getting felled by TDA’s steamrolling sonic attack and Homade’s careening Heartbreak Express then you can do just that tonight at The Broadway as the bands celebrate V-Day with a double single-release party alongside local faves Pons and Theophobia which is but one of the numerous VD-celebrating-and-eviscerating performances planned for tonight so be sure to check your local listings (in any city or burg!) or simply visit the Deli’s Instagram page and check the feed for the relevant flyers… (Jason Lee)

 

 

 

 

From left: bassist Tui Jordan; drummer Gabby Borges; lead vocalist, lyricist and guitarist Lily Mao, and guitarist/producer Nate Jesensky

I’ve got a theory (surprise!) about Lily Mao & the Resonators’ new EP Human Being Animal that it’s split between two halves (or “sides” for those privy to such lingo) with “side one” focused on the theme of animals (not a stretch!) and “side two” on addiction and dysfunctional dependency in general, and this is the nice thing about being a music writer is just making stuff like this up seeing as it’s a subjective art form and sure other types of writers and “reporters” make things up all the time too (political pundits, etc.) but at least with music no one gets hurt…

…which speaks to one crucial difference between humans and other animals and that’s how the latter are incapable of lying (some may disagree!) which leads us to track one (“Wolves”) a song about “what it means to be a human within a society overrun by disinformation” and how “the ruling class cyclically take away the working class’ rights using deception” which are both quotes from Lily Mao that I didn’t make up myself or to quote from its lyrics: “no one listened when I cried but […] the wolves are here tonight and you best believe they bite” which is not only a clever play on “crying wolf” but also speaks to our own animal natures…

…cuz it’s not like us humans are so special or anything, we do all those things other animals do like eat and drink and piss and poop and screw and reproduce it’s just we’re figured out some especially convoluted ways to fulfill our desires which often end up hurting us in the long run and it’s exactly these animal urges that make up the theme of song two “Tiger” which is about “that feeling of carnal excitement towards a commanding being” while still being aware of “power structures in nature and society” (again, direct quotes from LM!) with track 3 “Catman’s Song” being more about the nurturing and tolerant side of animals/human beings…

…so as you can see things get pretty nuanced on this EP even by the end of side one which comes across in the music too, exuding a feline grace one moment and getting its claws out the next—equal parts tasteful strumming and tasty licks and fiber-rich shredding and thissame spectrum applies to the singing too and to the other instruments—and maybe I’m biased or maybe just aging but Lily’s songs hit me right in the ‘90s feels so let’s say FFO Joan Osbourne/Alanis Morissette/Meredith Brooks/Tracy Bonham and if “Wolves” or “Tiger” showed up on season 2 of Yellowjackets I wouldn’t bat an eyelash…

…and now we turn over the record to Side 2 and it’s “addiction” songs with track 4 (“Chewed Food”) being about being so enamored of another person that you let them chew you up like a wolf would (then she pulled me aside / pulled out my insides) but finally coming to your senses just in time (spit me out / of your mouth!) set against a riff so groovy and upbeat that you can totally see how the narrator gets sucked into an interpersonal addiction which isn’t all bad cuz as Lily points out, “it’s actually punk rock to be vulnerable and feel things”…

…meanwhile “Addictions” is all mellow, sultry vibes especially at the opening while describing a relationship where the “heart didn’t break / but it bent” (note the melismatic pitch-bending on the word “bend”, clever!) which really puts you in headspace being seduced almost imperceptibly (until it’s too late) of a romantic addiction and then “Pills” brings drives the point home with an even more enticing groove—really I can’t help thinking about “About A Girl” in the verses and how approprite is that?—with Lily Mao at the top of her form vocally (all those rapid-fire twisty melodies and register jumps and vocal hiccups) and lyrically (the pills make me interesting / guard is a puddle / if you were here right now / I’d probably get off if we cuddled) not to mention that sweet string section…

…so there you have it and all apologies to all involved if I’ve made this EP sound a little too highbrow cuz in reality Lily Mao & the Resonators are one of the most straight-up fun, energetic and unpretentious bands out there even when they’re taking on some pretty serious themes (always with humor and humanity!) and Human Being Animal is no exception to the rule so by all means hire ‘em to play you next backyard barbecue or bat mitzva or quinceañera and you certainly won’t regret it… (Jason Lee)

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Credits:
Vocals, rhythm and solo guitar- Lily Mao
Second Guitar- Nate Jasensky
Bass- Tui Jordan
Drums- Gabby Borges
Written by Lily Mao
Produced by Nate Jasensky at Greenpoint Recording Collective
Mastered by Vanessa Silberman
Via A Diamond Heart Productions

About “A Diamond Heart Productions”: A Diamond Heart Productions is an Artist Development Label, Recording, Music & Publishing Company created by singer, songwriter, & Record Producer Vanessa Silberman. With over 60 releases under its catalog, the label also offers a very community driven home and spirit on the label side as well as distribution (Symphonic Distribution). The label prides itself on being an Artist Friendly Music Company with Old School Record Label Traits and a New School State of Mind in the digital age.