Info: couple of years ago Thurston Moore and Byron Coley quipped that Clorox Girls “are harder to ignore than a trouser full of antlers.” But why....
Imagine Buddy Holly living in 1979 Los Angeles, taking a whole lot of speed... throw him a surfboard on the beach, then painfully relocate him to rainy Portland, Oregon; home to bands like Wipers, Styphnoids, Poison Idea, Dead Moon, Exploding Hearts, Observers, Hunches, Nice Boys..... and those relentless Clorox Girls.
A much anticipated third full length album has finally been recorded, engineered by boy genious Pat Kearns (Exploding Hearts) in Portland, Oregon. In spring of ´06, Clorox Girls played 47 shows in 45 days in Europe, and immediately afterwards toured the westcoast, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina for a total of roughly 200 shows in the US and abroad for ´06. This year of our lord 2007 takes the fellas back on tour across the globe with a brand new LP J´aime Les Filles.
What you have in Clorox Girls is a band that plays late 70s style punk, from a time when punk was influenced by the likes of Chuck Berry, Ritchie Valens, and Howlin Wolf. Couple this with early 80’s Los Angeles, you know, Gears, Germs, Dickies, and you have an idea of where these boys are coming from.
The bands’ origins go back to Oakland, CA, 2003, when the fellas were living in a dingy warehouse full of crust punks. They wanted to start a band that was real poppy, kind of like the first Red Cross EP, the polar opposite of the obnoxious crust that the dreadlocked frowners were always blaring. One to two minute unstoppable fucked up pop songs. Verse Chorus Verse Chorus Stop. Or maybe Intro Verse Chorus Verse Chorus Bridge Chorus Stop. Clorox began to play frequently around the Bay Area before employing a “blitzkrieg tour strategy” that took them on the road. Portland´s Jonny Cat Records released their 4-song 7” debut that immediately sold out. The single was repressed, and the band embarked on its first US tour in the fall of 2003. On this tour, SmartGuy Records saw CG´s play, and over burritos agreed to release their first two LPs which were thusly recorded at Seattle´s Egg Studios with Kurt Bloch (Fastbacks) who engineered the “killer” 12-song self titled debut in the winter of´03, and the band´s second album, This Dimension in the winter of´04. The initial vinyl pressing of the first album sold out in two weeks so what was left to do but press up more copies and lots and lots of touring, and even a WFMU radio session where they shared the air with Belgian punk legends The Kids.
And 2007! A new lineup and a new LP! On the 14 tracks that comprise J´aime Les Filles, Clorox Girls show their addiction to French pop, referencing Jacques Du Tronc in the album title, covering pop star Lio´s 70´s hit ¨Le Banana Split,¨ and tinges of Francophile inspiration can be noticed if listened carefully (Les Calamites, Starshooter, Plastic Bertrand). Also some piano a la Dickies, some Beach Boys backing vocals... maybe even a bit of influence from (gasp) the Knack jabbing a ¨fuck you¨ to the punks? Ye Ye meets 70´s LA punk meets Buddy Holly?...Just grab your surfboard and go with it. J´aime Les Filles is available on CD and LP April 17th 2007 on BYO Records.
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