When you read the descript “prehistoric rock,” your mind may cue up a picture of The Way-Outs, a Beatles-esque band that appeared on The Flintstones back in the day. On the other hand, you might think of primal guitars and hard-hitting drums with band members donning ragged, wild cat-skin smocks. Enter The Cave Girls, an all-girl trio that sounds like they highjacked a time machine from prehistory to the late 1970s and happened to time jump right into CBGBs while The Ramones were playing. They’ve since shown up in Kansas City and have released a set of short, fun, no-frills rock ‘n‘ roll for us modern types.
The band’s theme song kicks off the album a la a punkier B-52s: hand claps, raw guitar, and sing-along vocals telling the tale of how The Cave Girls got to KC: via I-435. A surprising twist in the song is when they kick it into overdrive and show off some old-school punk rock chops. This is also the band’s longest song on the album, coming in at 5:29, with the others trailing in length by at least 2-3 minutes.
The ability to get straight to the point is one of the more refreshing things about this release. The Cave Girls don’t mess around. The songs themselves aren’t reinventing rock by any means, but they find a solid home within the context these girls are putting them in. For instance, the song “The Maid” starts out with killer guitar that sounds like it was birthed in T.Rex’s garage. The song ranges from mid-tempo burn to intense thrashing all the while the lyrics describe the job at hand for a maid that just wants to get paid. No tongue-in-cheek innuendos, just a straight-up description of the occupation’s ups and downs. While this would never work for other bands, it does for them and the result is a fun romp through the swamplands of prehistoric bad-assness.
-Mike Tipton
| Mike is a KC native that enjoys new music and playing with his band, Molly Picture Club. He also enjoys people watching and documentaries by Ken Burns. |