|
 
"Beat," "Drink" and be Mary
Dirty Mary mixes rock with standup on uplifting songs about boyfriend-beating, drunk driving and, um, young love.
By JOSHUA TANZER
Offoffoff.com
Jennifer isn't sure what to call
Dirty Mary's music — "so if you think of
something . . .," she hints.
Sure, I think I'd call it punch-line punk.
|
| DIRTY MARY | Jennifer "The Valley Girl" (guitar, vocals)
Margaux "Ducklips" (bass, vocals)
Tina "Machina" (drums).
Related links: Official site |
| AUDIO |
| All-American Girl | RA | | | |
| Bad Hair Day | RA | | | |
| Pedophile | RA | | | |
| Teenage Dream | RA | | | |
| © 1999 Dirty Mary. Used by permission. |
|
| |
"Normally, all our songs start out with a joke," explains the
singer-guitarist of this three-woman band, creators of songs like
"Drinking, Driving and Fun" and "I Beat My Boyfriend." Then there's
"Pedophile" (hear it here),
in which the band fantasizes about coaching the high school
basketball team and making a few adolescent dreams come true. First the boys
will learn basic techniques such as the jump shot, the boxout and the crossover, but then . . .:
later on, in the locker room,
I'm gonna teach 'em how to score!
'Cause I . . . I'm a pedophile, Oh my!
A man, obviously, could never get away with singing this song, but
Jennifer, Margaux and Tina pull it off with bad-girl bravado — not to
mention power-trio punch. Jennifer says the song's inspiration was Van
Halen's "Hot for Teacher" video, in which David Lee Roth and his pals play
schoolboys who watch their sexy teacher strip. Why not turn the sexual
politics upside-down, thought Jennifer.
"You would never see a video where there were four girls there
watching a guy on stage," she notes. "This song is like, what would this
teacher say when she got off the stage? Why is she dancing in front of
fourth-graders?"
Evident influences on Dirty Mary's other songs cover a wide range. If Joan Jett and
Steve Jones had teamed up to do the theme for "Corvette Summer," it would have
sounded like "Teenage Dream"
(hear it here).
"Bad Hair Day" (hear it here)
applies the musical lessons of the Beastie Boys to the angst of bad hair. And "All-American Girl"
(hear it here)
answers the musical question, what if Alicia Silverstone had been Alicia Ramone?
Jennifer "The Valley Girl" is a Stern School grad
who says her business savvy helps the band, though she only lasted a year
in her "suit job" before deciding that "it just wasn't happening" and
quitting to to play music. She hooked up with bassist and best mate
Margaux "Ducklips," and the two clicked. "When Margaux and I met, all of a
sudden we had a team and I knew that we could pull it off," she said. They recruited
Tina "Machina" on drums two years ago, and the trio has been gigging for a
year.
Now they've built a following of fans who appreciate their sense
of humor and sing along at their gigs, says Jennifer. "It's like a
birthday party every day."
|
FEBRUARY 17, 2000
OFFOFFOFF.COM • THE GUIDE TO ALTERNATIVE NEW YORK
Reader comments on Dirty Mary:
Post a comment on "Dirty Mary"
|
|
|
