Worlds by Jason Lee. Cover image and other recent photos by Stephen Perry of the Planes.
Ya gotta be grateful for a band that doesn’t over-saturate the airwaves or the marketplace with every stray musical thought that happens to pass across their transom cuz seriously there’s a glut of music out there (not that we’re complaining!) as proven by the fact that nearly one-quarter of songs uploaded to streaming services have never been played before not even once but algorithm-be-damned bands like 3D House of Beef are deserving of your attention as is any band named after a classic SCTV sketch…
…given that demand and supply tend to be inversely related according to armchair economists which is probably why even some of the most algorithmically popular bands out there such as The Rolling Stones, for instance, consciously choose to wait as long as 20 years before releasing new, original material which is pretty ballsy in their case really seeing as the Glimmer Twins are 160 years old collectively but their gamble paid off with 2023’s Hackneyed Diamond, a album fêted by taste-making gatekeepers like popmatters.com where it was noted that “the whole album feels like the band are genuinely interested and engaged“…
…which may sound like faint praise indeed but therein lies the advantage of waiting 20 years between releases cuz even the equivalent of a “participation ribbon” quality record can garner you a four-and-a-half star review just for being alive and still kicking and if the new material’s derivative of your previous work—like how Hackney’s opening track “Angry” is basically a slightly slowed down retread of “Start Me Up”—it’s all the better seeing as how anything that’s anywhere from 20-to-30-years-old is automatically deemed cool again anyway…
…but don’t tell it to The Roulettes whose restraint we commend when it comes to waiting to release new music esp. given that this band of “saucy ladies [who] play indie rock with punk attitude” (quoted directly from a 2011 Deli posting) have apparently been sitting on some pretty bangin’ tunes at last coming back strong with a new single that, far from sounding like a lazy retread of past glories, is instead a fresh and feisty burst of inspiration…
…opening with an insistent, head-bobbing drum beat courtesy of one Rachel Hass and a slinky guitar line courtesy of one Rebecca Keith (ditto on vocals) which is just the kind of bare-bones hey ho let’s go opening you’d expect to hear blasted over the sound system of a sports stadium such as Shea Stadium to hype up the crowd as a new batter approaches the plate which is fitting seeing as the song happens to be called “Batter Up”…
…so in other words we’re talking bout a song that’s all about looking to the future versus dwelling in the past—-like a batter waiting for their big moment nervously dipping chaw and scratching their balls in the on-deck circle—with lyrics that seem to be saying “thank you very much, nextI” to the previous batter (“I know now / you can take me home now / I won’t see you again”) or the previous suitor perhaps (pure speculation on our part, so take it with a grain of salt!) before welcoming the next hitter up to the plate with the song building from its opening fanfare to a mid-section featuring a spiky guitar riff and overlapping vocals complete with Corin Tucker-esque tremulous quiver coming straight from the solar plexus and plenty of portamenti besides before culminating in a chanted “batter up!” over a repeated power chord and serpentine bass line courtesy of Alice Danger…
…and if the song sounds like the belated sequel to the Roulettes’ last track off their previous/first/only other record, namely, the band’s self-titled EP which came out in 2003, then perhaps it’s no mistake, cuz the latter song was and still is (!) called “Hot Ticket” with a strutting, lupine overall vibe that screams “coiled anticipation” but screams it softly…
…a song that could conceivably be about the previous “batter up” or one of them anyway (more pure speculation on our part) or in other words the type of Casanova wannabe prone to “pointing fingers and stepping on toes” who’s nothingness “the hot shit and everyone knows” and in case you were wondering here’s what The Deli had to say about the Roulettes back in 2010 which we find low-key fascinating enough to reprint in its entirety…
…Born in an Oberlin, Ohio basement, The Roulettes practiced on borrowed equipment next to a leaky washer/dryer combo and grew up playing living room parties. After moving to Portland, the Roulettes met up with label Lucky Madison to record the first ever LM release, their self-titled EP, at Portland’s Jackpot! Studios with engineer Larry Crane (Sleater-Kinney, Stephen Malkmus, etc.). Later, unreleased Roulettes tracks saw them moving into darker territory with songs like “2:1,” “Do it Again,” and “Snow Day 2004/Moon Over Miami” (their meditation on volcanoes, false promises, and WMDs). But the band continued to pay tribute to nights at Chopsticks karaoke bar, the Fred Meyer Can-Do Machine, and the ever-popular montecristo sandwich.
Long ago and far away, the Roulettes graced the cover of the Willamette Week and played all over their beloved Portland, from Ash Street to Slabtown to the original Rock’n’ Roll Camp for Girls. In New York, they played at the long gone Meow Mix. The Roulettes are back in NYC, where they played at CMJ in 2009 and at venues such as Cakeshop, Santos Party House, Union Pool (w/Class Actress and Rebecca Schiffman), Bruar Falls, and Bowery Electric. The band is currently writing new songs and working on pre-promotion for their “Hot Ticket” video. Look for video spots in a couple months with writers like Rob Sheffield (of Love is a Mix Tape), bands like Duty Free, a stray ship’s captain, and…you? See them live at Surreal Estate on September 3.
…and look we’ll still gladly take that video for “Hot Ticket” even a decade later not to mention vids for some of their other older tunes like “Motorcycles in the Mist” and “Crabs” with the latter being a mutlisyllabic rhyme lover’s dream cum true (opening lines: “stickin’ / my dick in / wiiiim-miiiiiin”) but hey enough of past triumphs cuz THE ROULETTES ARE BACK, BABY and better than ever…
all photos stolen from Facebook
…having further refined their stripped-down, razor-sharp fierceness on their upcoming sophomore long-player Mommy Comes Back (which we’ve been lucky enough to preview!) with such new tunes as “Honolulu” (rhymes with “see right through you”), a nervy rocker that’ll make ya wanna say “ROCK-A-HULA, BABY” and “Bill Murray” which is the first song we know of that’s sung from the perspective of Bill Murray (“who can I trust / who ya gonna call?”) plus many more besides…
…and what have the reformed-but-never-actually-broke-up Roulettes been up to in the interim since the days when they used to hang out on Bedford Ave. on the reg consuming free personal pizza after free personal pizza with every beer ordered at the Charleston you may ask, well, fortunately we got the inside scoop from none other than singer/guitarist Rebecca Keith and the answer may surprise you, so we’ll just quote it here verbatim from Rebecca’s email which we assume is ok cuz she’s cool like that we can just tell…
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Our first and last EP was released in 2004. on Lucky Madison—a small label in Portland, OR started by our neighbor, Ryan Feigh, so he could bring his friends’ music into the world, starting with us—then grad school and more life happened. Rachel and I moved back to NYC, our hometown, and resurrected the band in 2009 after what we thought would be a one-off performance. I was in 3 other bands at the time. We had a series of token male bassists until Alice Danger approached us at a show we played together at The Gutter prob. around 2012.
We’ve been working off and on on this EP since 2016 w/babies and a pandemic and jobs and zero budget in between, scrounging recording time from friends, but finally tracked the last song with Jeff Berner at Studio G. (During those 10 ish years I also focused a bunch on recording and touring and releasing vinyl with my other band, Little Hustle, who are just now coming out of our own hiatus).
The current release plan for Mommy Comes Back is a glorious self-release starting with “Batter Up” in July, prob. second single before our August or September show, then the EP in October unless we decide to wait for the November show, and a video directed by Jen Meller sometime in there. HOPEFULLY vinyl too for the EP release but that’s a question of budget.
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So there you have it, and while the Deli would love to attend the release show on 8/1 we’ve got our show happening that night at The Kingsland so hey you can choose your own adventure but rest assured we plan to attend one or more of their other numerous shows coming up in the coming months and here’s the complete gig-ography for your concert calendar-making pleasure:
August 1: The Sultan Room with Desert Sharks, Ilithios, and Power Pose (single release party)
August 23: Rippers w/ Nevva, Leathered, and Power Pose
Sept. 19: Rubulad with Frida Kill, Slut Magic, and The Rizzos (prob. second single release party)
October 26: EP release at Main Drag with SUPER FUN LINEUP detailed tbd
November 10: Avalon Lounge in Catskill w/ The Chapin Sisters and others tbd
November 14: The Broadway w Onesie and hopefully special guest headliner we’re working on solidifying (probably video release show)