Vivian Girls Hate Being Labeled as All-Female, Brooklyn Band

Posted on Aug 26th 2009 4:00PM by Jillian Mapes
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Brooklyn lo-fi indie rockers Vivian Girls seem to like a lot of things, especially '60s girl groups -- the Shangri-Las and the Shirelles top the list -- and collecting and releasing vinyl records. But they're not exactly big fans of folks pointing out that they sure do rock -- for a bunch of girls. "I just wish it wasn't an issue that we're an all-female band," vocalist/guitarist Cassie Ramone tells Spinner. "We're three human beings playing music. What does it matter that we're all women?"

Regardless of gender, the trio really does rock, cranking out even more noisy guitar fuzz and angelic harmonies on its second full-length, 'Everything Goes Wrong.' Out Sept. 9 on In the Red Records, the album chronicles the Girls' heartbreak and life changes throughout 2008. Perceiving the album as more a sprawling journey than a "diary or f---up love story" like Vivian Girls' debut, Ramone says 'Everything Goes Wrong' chronicles the way being in a band "strains your relationship with other people and how it's hard to get attention thrown at you" all of a sudden.

The band's speedy rise from indie obscurity as another Brooklyn band to rampant buzz has not only inspired 'Everything Goes Wrong,' but also a bit of what Ramone feels is mislabeling centered around their Brooklyn base. "We've gotten lumped in with the Pains of Being Pure at Heart a lot, but we actually hadn't played a show with them until May of this year," Ramone says. "They're [members of Pains of Being Pure at Heart] all really nice, but I feel like that's kind of a weird thing to do, even if people think we sort of sound similar. I think it's funny when people try to put a label on things that are much more organic than just a common location."

Despite the touting of Vivian Girls as Brooklyn's next big thing, Ramone stresses the role of the grassroots DIY community in the band's history, bemoaning the lack of house shows on their upcoming trek. And as the band tours, it will continue to write songs for the third Vivian Girls release in the hopes of releasing one record each year, because, as Ramone says, "Bands in the '60s put out 2-3 records a year. Why can't we?"