Gertrude are an all-female quartet that are set to be declared as the new darlings of the London punk rock scene by the music weeklies. It’s inevitable. Zoe Gilmour, Dawn Rose, Iona Tanguay and Ayesha Taylor play a jaunty, gritty take on bands like Sonic Youth and The Raincoats and have a sound which will be embraced as the next big thing by those ‘in-the-know’. But I don’t like it. The band themselves sum up my opinion rather fittingly, by stating in their bio: “Gertrude was created to stick two fingers up at the narcissitic macho rock posturing that popular culture romances with, and just as importantly, to write sophisitcated agitated music. (On second thoughts, no wonder we are raising eyebrows.) Our lyrics can be political by tackling issues directly or indirectly – this might be one reason why our music seems to attract misfits and oddballs (what ever your gender maybe) who, just like us, have more than a few bones to pick with this fucked up world.”
There’s certainly no ‘narcissistic macho rock’ here, not that I would say Gertrude‘s sound is particularly sophisticated. Jaunty and angular guitars collide all over the shop. They’re due to support Shellac and have already opened up for Fugazi, so you can see where the sound will be at, even before I start to describe it. ‘Up The Wrong Tree’ is well produced, the vocals are performed well and there are enough catchy bits to keep the songs interesting, but for me the 11-songs just begin to outstay their welcome a bit. They’re not bad per se, but ultimately this isn’t really my thing.
The envitable conclusion is that the men in suits will see four girls who play Huggy Bear style indie-punk, think they can mesh them into a new The Donnas and lavish them across pages of the music press. This may not be right, but it’s what will happen. The music, well, it’s okay for what it is, it’s just not my thing. But that probably won’t matter – this lot will be in your face by the end of 2005 anyway…
www.gertruderock.com
Paul