by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
It’s always indie sleaze this and indie sleaze that, but what about garage punk sleaze? London duo Grazia are here for the punks, making clean and rattling garage punk with heavy pop hooks and minimalist structures. Their sound is catchy, indebted both to 80’s new wave and a more radiant KBD sound, each song on their upcoming debut, In Poor Taste, packing a gluey charm that’s hard to resist. Due out on February 2nd via Feel It Records (Wet Dip, Erik Nervous, Citric Dummies), Heather Dunlop and Lindsay Corstorphine’s knack for memorable hooks and deadpan humor is fully realized, driving with attitude and devious fun.
“Cheap,” the record’s lead single and video is an homage to sleaze and kitsch, an ode to the glory of looking cheap. The video brings the song to life as they reflect on “Sharpie-ing in PVC,” “picking food out of teeth” and other classy pseudo sexual references that have been deemed less than polite. Everything punches with a clean and sweltering clarity, the focus resting on the words and the overall engaged mood.
Speaking about the video Dunlop shared:
"The video for ‘Cheap’ pulls from a variety of kitsch and sleazy references - the throughline of the red phone being a pastiche of old 1800 hotline ads, the wigs and first verse reference Pretty Woman. For its sins (the “hooker with a heart of gold” / mary magdalene in repentance narrative) this has always been one of my favourite films. In addition to the inspiration from Julia Roberts’ character Vivian who is clumsily charming and slightly crass, the styling and lo-fi trashy look of the video is inspired by Jean Paul Gaultier’s Euro Trash and Russ Meyer’s New Wave Hookers. The song is about the paradoxical nature of power relations, expressions of sexuality or style that are considered in bad taste - and why these still excite the observer who will still insult you. The objective was to show a campy, somewhat crude, or anachronistic kind of sexiness that is very much effortful and on the nose, that is simultaneously both repellant and undeniable."
Speaking about the song, Corstorphine added:
“‘Cheap’ was the first Grazia song Heather and I wrote together and set the template and tone for how the rest of the tunes would be - simple but catchy parts, clean guitars played hard, pop-inspired arrangements. No songs longer than 2.5 minutes. Musically, it was partly inspired by the playlist at The Anchored Inn in NYC on NYE last year - some great punk and new wave numbers I’d never heard before that I was shamelessly Shazamming every 5 minutes. I was aiming at this lost euro killed by death classic sort of sound, maybe a bit of X in there too.”