Little Girls – Concepts – Paper Bag [Album As Art #102]

If I would have known how common this whole Joy Division/Jesus & Mary Chain thing would be, I never would have uttered a word about Interpol and their fascination with JD and The Chameleons. Turns out they’re just the tip of the iceberg; everyone seems to have a bassline or two in the classic Joy Division style these days, and those riffs are catapulting a lot of great songs into the indie limelight.

Little Girls? Oh FIDDLESTICKS, lemme just list ‘em:

• No-DOY Division (the bassline to “Growing” is snaky enough to crawl down your toilet)
• JAMC (eternally everyone’s, apparently … someone should buy a copy of Sister Vanilla‘s album at LEAST)
• Wavves (awwww!)
• Times New Viking and Magik Markers (because I’m feeling generous)
• Interpol (in the guitar arpeggios mostly, albeit with one guitarist instead of two)

And that’s about it, actually (I was going to mention groups like A Place To Bury Strangersand Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, but, frankly, they’re both dipping from the same trough here).

It wouldn’t kill these timid little girls to stretch out a little I suppose, but you could say that about fucking ArCADE Fire — it’s a moot point these days, really, with everything getting smooshed together and remixxed and double-tracked and what-not like it is.

And why can’t I get a drum machine to sound like that, to accompany my riffs and vocals like that? It’s tough, and Little Girls do-it to-it.

This isn’t the same band — The Little Girls – that surfaced in 1981 carting bubble-gum jams like candied yams back in the earl’ ’80s (but you can listen to that band HERE if you want to just fer fun), mind you. Subtract the “The,” though, and you get a new, economic, lo-fi TRI-brid (I officially coin this hyphenate) you should take for a test drive sooner than later.