Rough-edged music that mixes an urban garage-rock/punk sound with a pop/new wave sensibility.

8 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Grunge, POP: New Wave



Details:
"Live at Lennon, 2000" was recorded at Lennon Studios in San Francisco by Former Steve Miller Band member David Denny who mixed and mastered the CD and shares production credit with the band. The songs range from the aggressive and poignantly political "Early Warning" to the personal and oddly electronic "Pictures" in which guitarist Mary Kelley plays an analog wind synthesizer called a Steiner, to the rock steady infused rhythms of "No Matter." Razor tight, with an almost mathematical obsession in the arrangements, the message is clear -- this band has chops.

The Contractions held a unique position in the varied San Francisco punk scene in the early eighties, not just as one of the few all-girl bands, but more for the way they played. One moment they were playing straight-ahead rock'n'roll, a power-trio that brought to mind The Police -- Debbie a veteran drummer with jazz sensibilities, Kathy playing melodic bass lines on her Hofner, Mary with her Pete Townsend-windmill guitar moves -- then just when you thought you knew what you were listening to, the band became James Joyce and Link Wray wrapped into one, Mary singing poetry over slow, mesmerizing, watery guitar then tearing into a guitar solo worthy of Eric Clapton.

Fans love their shows for that element of surprise, and for the chemistry that happens between them, a strange combination of elements that sometimes surges up and seems almost out of control. The Contractions make magic on stage. Every show is new.

In the context of louder-harder-faster that is punk rock, the Contractions can play it, but they can do more than just be loud, or fast, or hard. They embody the best of rock'n'roll while infusing their music with poetics that border on performance art.