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The Coathangers @ Pianos (CMJ), NYC - pics

words & photos by Faith-Ann Young

Coathangers

The Coathangers played in the den upstairs at Pianos to a jammed crowd of hipsters during the Sub Pop/Hardly Art/Suicide Squeeze CMJ night on Friday, October 24th. As previously mentioned, the Atlanta all-girl group recently started calling Suicide Squeeze their label home.

The chicks reminded me of the ultimate punk girl band- the type that subsists off of cigarettes and reverb, who smashed barbies into smithereens as kids, and that currently has a revolving group of 20 boytoys (or girls) knocking on their door at all times. Their songs were loud and frenetic- with statements that were totally non-sequitur – the way punk used to be before top 40 came along and sat its fat ass on originality. Like a stale joke, they had My Little Ponies and candles set up at the front of the stage like some sort of voodoo warning: stay away feeble ones. And the crowd went wild. The thrill lay in the fact that, though you couldn’t clap, snap or swivel to even one note, (though the drunken ones tried), the music was angry, funny, sadistic, and bold. Hell, they’ve got lyrics about nestling in boobies and shit and other f*ed up, fun pretexts-(but if you’re easily offended- don’t worry-because you could’t really hear what they are saying anyway.) Plus, as if to confuse you or amuse you even more, the chicks just kept revolving instruments and places and microphones like the set was musical chairs and the songs were just preludes to a switch. The ended with multi-colored confetti and riffs. The crowd? Still wild.

To sum The Coathangers up: it isn’t pop, it isn’t pretty, and it may not even sound good. It’s tattooed punk chicks with attitude and if you don’t like it, go home, they definitely don’t give a damn.

More pictures below…

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After the Coathangers, Faith ran to Highline Ballroom for the Perez Hilton party.