U&C: Goat Girl

Having recently signed to Rough Trade Recordings, Goat Girl are another new gift from the underbelly of the currently very active South London music scene. Their sarcastic political snarls and country blues (with a twist) style makes them show no fear or sign of disintegrating any time soon.

    (Credit: Youtube video, Peckham Safehouse)

The band’s identity is shown in vigorous force with their first two releases. ‘Country Sleaze’ is a track built around the Pixies style bass and crunching guitar topped off with soft yet teasingly sarcastic vocals. The lyrics are Stripped back and sung so effortlessly but are nevertheless striking to the ear – “I’m disgusted, I’m ashamed of this so-called human race”. The words are a short burst of emotional angst against a world full of recent  social controversy; Brexit, Trump, Isis etc.  Just what are they angry about? Chances are it isn’t specific, maybe its just a wild lash out at this country, from local pubs all the way up to The House of Commons. You can also watch this song within a video created by the wonderful artistic mind of Douglas Hart (The Jesus and Mary Chain), who uses flashing images to fuse the sounds into a visual experience.

‘Scum’ is another short burst of potential; the lyrics attack our nation once again, a set of words which would easily fit into the heated political moments of Britain of 2016 – “bite off your nationalist nails”.  The cutting lyrics fit in perfectly with the sleazy, almost mocking, jangly guitars. The drunken sound of the song exaggerates mischief, these two songs perfectly illustrate the band’s fearless and controversial attitude. The four girls seem ready to create rich, genre jumping records.

    (Credit: Country Sleaze music video)

Other than these releases, not much has been shown as the band are rarely present on the internet, people will have to leave their Spotify screens and go and see this band in person to get a feel for their stuff for now. This will not disappoint you either; their live shows have an irresistible bouncing energy, with numerous eerie bluesy tracks played back to back, the show will sadly be over before you know it but will leave you aching for more. The songs’ catchiness will grab you with first listens and their stage presence certainly makes them stiff competition for the bands they have been supporting such as YAK whose raw live performances have been a must see.

This band are still in their formative stages, yet they appear to have found a fresh and contagious sound which gives them unrelenting potential to stride into the gruelling world of music, putting the posers on all fours. You will hear a lot about Goat Girl over the next few years.

Country Sleaze video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlnkyZnqIZg

If you want to catch them, here are their tour dates:

18 November - Les In Rocks, Paris  
7 December – The Haunt, Brighton (with Girl Band)
8 December - Scala, London (with Girl Band)
9 December – Gorilla, Manchester (with Girl Band)
21 January - Arts Club, Liverpool (The Fall headline show)
22 January The Hare & Hounds, Birmingham (with Girl Band)
24 January Brudenell, Leeds (with Girl Band)
26th January Summerhall, Edinburgh (with Girl Band)
28th January - The Forum, London (The Fall headline show)