SRR-28 LITTLE QUEENIE 7″
Sweet Rot is pleased to present the debut 7″ by Oakland’s Little Queenie. Icki, Oscar, Bean and Joe. Vocals, two basses and drums. No guitars. “Blackout” is the A-side song. “SS Shipwreck” is on the flip. Both are thug-punk of the highest order and make for a killer debut single. Calling Little Queenie the closest living relative of Crushed Butler wouldn’t be too far off the mark. We love these two songs and we think you will too. Perfectly recorded by Greg Ashley. Band features ex-members of Gris Gris, Battleship and Short Eyes. 300 copies.
Listen to “Blackout”
Songs
A: Blackout
B: SS Shipwreck
Release Date: January 2012
Pressing Info:
1st press: 300 on black
Reviews:
From The Wire (Byron Coley):
Taking the exact opposite approach from many of their kin (the Cramps, Cheater Slicks, etc), these four Oakland raunch epistemologists eschew guitars for basses and cleave their beaks to ground first furrowed by dastards like feedtime (who weren’t guitar-less, but were over-bassed). The lack of high-end sonics gives the whole a very malevolent feel, which is just great. And I especially like the way the choruses for both songs make it sound like they’re playing “Marco Polo.”
From Terminal Boredom (Rich Kroneiss):
Fantastic and fairly low profile Bay Area punking here, from ex-members of critic’s faves such as Gris Gris, Battleship and even the mighty Short Eyes. Two basses, some drums and king-among-men Icki on vox makes for good stuff on “Blackout”, which has elements of the S-S Records roster (I’m thinking the most motivated of A-Frames songs, or maybe even Mayyors without Woodhouse and his army of guitar pedals) with some of the post-punky elements that Battleship excelled at. It marches right up your ass with determination and some understated vocals, perhaps even a bit Aussie-like in it’s head-down drive and lyrical content. “SS Shipwreck” is the flip and I keep hoping this is about Scott Soriano on a desert island, but I don’t think it is. Dual bass drive again keeps this thing moving, not speeding, but a brisk and burly pace and Icki’s lyrics take on the narrative here of the shipwrecked man himself. A nicely paced double-sider which I was impressed by, and I know further efforts can up the ante should they ever materialize. Recorded with taste and class by Greg Ashley. Scum stats: 300 copies, which is Sweet Rot’s smallest pressing size yet so act fast.
From The Agit Reader (Ron Wadlinger):
The Greg Ashley–recorded debut of Oakland’s Little Queenie is an interesting one. The band’s a rarity in that it’s opted to go completely guitar-less, instead using a line-up of vocals, two basses and drums. The dueling-bass attack works well on “Blackout,” a steady, noisy rocker fueled by dirty, chugging riffage that provides a fitting underbelly for the song’s tale of being driven to oblivion by copious drink. “SS Shipwreck” moves at a slightly more deliberate pace, but it still cooks, striking a tone reminiscent of a mutant Minutemen. These two songs could be the soundtrack to gutter life in 2012. Sweet Rot Records has developed a reputation for finding some gems, and they’ve done it again.
From 7 Inches:
Sweet Rot records has been up there in Vancouver putting out singles probably even before 7inches was just a twinkle in blogspot’s eye…those early Blank-its singles….so great (I wonder what happened to those guys), they put out Dead Luke really early on, tons of Jeff Novak sort of more recently…basically it’s a label consistently releasing stuff across the board from great bands…they’ve been around forever so they’re doing something right in the pressing and relationship dept…so when I saw they put this single out from Little Queenie, it ended up first on the turntable. This foursome, from Oakland, is the kind of party that isn’t planned so much as ends up happening, there’s no decorations…the beer is stolen or cheap and the lights are off. So off in fact that you may be closer to the A-Side then you think. “Blackout” has split up the double bass section to either side of the stereo, big time split left and right both driving, that raw, metal string sound clanging off the pickups. This is in that tradition of TV party, they’re making no secret about what’s going on, it’s Friday, drink some beer…try to overdo it. They’ve put together these inspirational lyrics and melodies since their show last weekend when they had a few too many and this is the result. But it’s all soberingly clear, they’ve taken the time to make sure you really take in all the ways they are drinking. They found a few moments in the sweet spot of drunkenness to hammer out this tune. Icki has a talky, low register delivery, if you listen close you can almost hear the ghost of Kim Gordon singing along somewhere in there. Some new types of hiss and fuzz work their way in this sort of breakdown pause, a solo of punched in inspired static, but don’t be fooled, the only experimentation happening here is with different types of booze. The B-Side’s “SS Shipwreck” is using that trademarked slightly distorted dual power bassline again, and Icki equals out the straight ahead driving force with a breathy talking vocals about his predicament at sea. Singing louder this time, trying to be heard above this rolling tom beat. It’s a desparate kind of manic track with the narrator, the only member of the crew of SS Shipwreck, who’s doing… not so great…he’s making the best of it, but in the way that only lunatics try to talk them selves into things…in the corner of the padded room. Two party punk tracks, they’re having fun with this, friends who care more about hanging out than fighting about how loud to make the solo on the 4th layer of bass. Nice heavy, thick textured sleeve with a one color screen on it, Roarshack cats and spades. As simple as that.
