Vivian Girls - “Trying to Pretend”
There’s a section toward the end of this performance where everything just completely falls apart. The way this song is played is altogether sloppy, dissonant, and generally kind of hard on the ears.
Being a Vivian Girls fan also means vehemently defending Vivian Girls among people who really don’t like them, for reasons both logical and grossly ridiculous. “They’re fast and hard and not very tuneful!” A lot of punk rock is. “Why don’t they ever play ‘Where Do You Run To?’” I’ll agree that it’s a great song, but a) the person who wrote it left the band a long time ago, and b) the song itself is not representative of why Vivian Girls are a great band. “I mean, Kickball Katy is hot, but look at the other two!” Please get out of my face.
I’ve probably said this a million times, but there is a sense of violence and discord within most of Vivian Girls’ best songs, and you have to think to yourself why all-male bands can get away with doing this sort of thing to vast critical acclaim and all-female bands can’t. Riot Grrrl gets a pass among a lot of male rock critics because Riot Grrrl forced them into a corner. What about the all-girl punk bands that are capturing the dark side of human emotion without feeling the need to be fiercely political?
There’s a section toward the end of this performance where everything just completely falls apart. We all fall apart sometimes. We’re human. Vivian Girls capture the sensation of falling apart better than any other current band I can think of.
It’s not the subject matter or the packaging that makes an all-girl band less “famous” than a comperable male band; it’s still just because they’re girls. The politics in “all-girl music” left a while ago — so that can’t be a reason either. Audiences are still afraid to take a chance on an all-girl rock group and it’s been like that for decades.
I would say, anyway, that a good portion of all-girl bands (especially in the Vivian Girls’ related circles) are making extremely raw, gritty and scathing music. It’s not just them — and you also have to admit that Vivian Girls get quite a bit of attention when bands who might be more on-point than they are don’t get those levels of recognition.
Either way: This video is an amazing Cassie performance.
Auto-reblogged because I love Vivian Girls so, so much. But I disagree that their music isn’t political. It’s been a joy to hear Cassie’s feminism creep into her lyrics album by album. “Think with your head, not with your heart,” messages of sisterhood, willingness to call a dude on his bullshit, etc. They might not be political in a “smash the state!” way but I feel like Vivian Girls’ body of work is informed by feminism in a way that, say, Best Coast is not.
