WOMEN

Recorded by label-mate Chad VanGaalen and the band members, the 10 song, self-titled album by Women is an explosion out of the gates for this young band. Sometimes light and spacious, at other times eerie and dense with an ominous weight, this debut flirts with the noisy beauty of the Velvet Underground and effortlessly toys with the intricacy and playfulness of Deerhoof as crude percussion beats out a pulsing tattoo of clatter.

The album was recorded over 4 months on ghettoblasters and old tape machines in Chad’s basement, an outdoor culvert and a crawlspace. Noisy and claustrophobic songs smash through junkyard trash brawls while others lift and soar across the landscape of 50’s-informed pop; a contradiction and an enigma, the debut album by Women will find its way onto summer party iPod mixes and the turntables of record store devotees.

The stage set-up at a Women performance could well be perplexing to an uninitiated viewer. With samplers, drum machines, 3-4 amps, a full drum set (including a seemingly random stack of drum pads) and cables snaking everywhere, the stage resembles a cross between a jam space and a garage sale. But when the band comes out on stage and begins to play, somehow, amid what should be bedlam, the most astonishing thing occurs - actual songs emerge through the din. A headlong collision of the pawnshop with the synthetic becomes, through the filter of the band, something resembling pop music. Barely.

Friends since childhood - two of them brothers - the band has an intuitive rapport that seems to transcend speech from years of playing together. Despite their youth, the members of Women have an extensive musical CV, and have collectively toured North America and Europe in various projects. Members have played and toured as part of Chad VanGaalen's band, and two members moonlight with Absolutely Kosher artists Azeda Booth.

In 2008, Women plans to tour Canada, the United States and Europe in support of their new self-titled album.