"washing away all the un-reason, the irrational rationale / spilling at my feet, over the edge it leaks oh captain we’re going down..."
As a music blog that specifically looks for the divergent side of all genres, for the differences, unique styles and perspectives, "Good Night" by Brooklyn alt rock project partygirl is one of the most refreshing, interesting tracks I have heard in several months. Interestingly, it is not the construction here, the chord shapes that dazzle (although they do) and not anything in particular that is odd or askew about the musical shapes even. "good night" soars on it's original vocal melodies and how they make you feel. Pagona Kytzidis' artful vocal countenance feels like something between musical theater and (in terms of emotional gravitas) like one of those bare naked spoken word performances you stumbled into while in college at some off campus club only to be in an emotional stupor for days afterwards because it was so fucking personal. Pagona's melodic shapes are kind of out there but in a really captivating way. The way she stretches out certain words, the way phrases are wrung out like a wet towel tweaks you brain and heart, or at least, they do mine.
All the while that the melodies are twisting in a sort of jazz dipped avant pop and rock way, the aforementioned music is perfectly rendered. I just wrote that four letter word (jazz) and the synergy between all the instruments and main players: Pagona Kytzidis (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Colby Lamson-Gordon (bass, vocals), Francesca Pastore (guitar, vocals), Alec Mauro (sax, vocals) and Zev Rose (drums) with additional support by Bell Thompson (trumpet) and Jaucqir Lafond, Isabel Draper, Cg Kell (backing vox), suggest to me that most of these talented musicians were jazz kids in high school or college. For me that is a good thing. Maybe punk and jazz are the most ID art forms out there.
The following is press notey stuff is so important in terms of the band's sort of artistic manifesto that I just have to include it:
[partygirl announces their eponymous debut EP via The Big Takeover, who wrote: "It’s heavy. It’s groundbreaking. And it’s like nothing like we’ve heard before." partygirl, the EP, seeks to introduce partygirl, the band and the project. The EP represents a “tasting” of what partygirl strives to be: a maximalist indie rock band which writes and performs songs that depict the experience of Survivorship (those who identify as Survivors of sexual assault and rape) as a radical political identity and as a space for radical political action. As a Survivor, musician, and political organizer, Pagona Kytzidis formed partygirl to try to process her own sexual assaults and the resulting psychological and political trauma, and to challenge popular discourse on sexual assault and the violence of misogyny.
partygirl is a band about specifically Survivorship, but more generally about world-building, and about imagining a new and better future. partygirl plans to construct a better world by embracing the true spirit of Survivorship: what Kytzidis argues is a lived identity that refuses to accept what people have ascribed and forced upon you, and that celebrates the inherent Selfhood that lives in each person.
As Kytzidis says at partygirl shows: “I perform and write this music with a desperation to be a Self, to be My Self, in the totality of my experience, all the darkness, the intensity, the extremes, to be my biggest Self for all the times I was my smallest Self. This music is exercised as an avenue for the Possible.”
partygirl believes that the world that we have inherited is not inevitable and represents a refusal to subscribe to apolitical numbness, cynicism, and nihilism. Instead, the band wants to imagine a new, better world with other artists, thinkers, and listeners. In that, partygirl is a very serious, musical, theoretical, and interdisciplinary project (that is increasingly transgressive, and thus essential, given that the United States is heading towards a post-Roe state). partygirl aims to allow those who are Survivors, to exist as complex, full Selves and thus, partygirl seeks to create a “future in the present.” partygirl the EP seeks to be the very beginning of this project.]
partygirl's unique approach to telling personal stories, the genre blending, unique vocal aesthetic, the subversive artistry had me thinking of an amalgam of The Dresden Dolls, Human Sexual Response, Throwing Muses, even though no comparisons feel quite right as partygirl is such an original animal, makes me look forward to delving into their eponymous debut EP.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100077052079935
https://www.instagram.com/partygirl.band/
https://partygirl-band.bandcamp.com/releases
https://partygirlnyc.com/
https://twitter.com/partygirlnyc
Introducing: partygirl, an imaginative, maximalist indie rock band based in Brooklyn. The group was formed by long-time musical partners Pagona Kytzidis (vocals/rhythm guitar/keys) and Colby Lamson-Gordon (bass/vocals), who have been writing and performing together since their college days at Columbia University. Pagona and Colby are joined by Francesca Pastore (lead guitar/production), Alec Mauro (sax/vocals), and Jonathan Ashley (drums). Drawing inspiration from artists past and present, such as Queen, Mitski, Fiona Apple, Elliott Smith, Led Zeppelin, Radiohead and St. Vincent, partygirl strives to create a unique and forward-looking sound. Through their music, partygirl seeks to imagine new worlds based on feminist praxis, radical Survivor identity, and a rejection of our present-day dystopia.
** At this particular time we find ourselves in a financial pinch due to many factors. We want to keep AP going. It has been a passion project for over 13 years. PLEASE consider donating, we could really use the support. Thanks so muchWe get by with a little help from our friendspatygirl, subversive, personal, alt rock, art rock, avant pop, alt punk, Brooklyn, divergent, politico, Pagona Kytzidis, Colby Lamson-Gordon, debut EP, empowerment, survivorship,
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