SINCE the release of their first single “Gonna Make My Own Money” last July the comparisons for female gritty blues rock duo, Deap Vally have been racing round the online music world faster than their male audience’s pulse rates. In the wait for their first album there has been much excitement and also a little derision directed at Lindsey Troy and Julie Edwards, the self proclaimed badass valley girls from Californ-i-ay who met through the not so badass manner of a crochet class. Even this fact alone has met with speculation. Amidst the excited buzz and rarely seen male jostling for stage-front positions at their recent sold out King Tuts gig, one guy turned to me and declared “I think they’re great, I just hope they’re for real and not put together by a record company” as though it were unlikely that hot girls could also have musical ideas all of their own. Perhaps he’s still feeling cheated by Lana? Either way he was determined to get a good view, and as Deap Vally stormed the stage to a sea of testosterone and the odd lewd catcall, he wasn’t the only one.
All wild hair, bare feet and bare legs, the Deap Vally girls are seventies rock stars to the core. You can imagine them swigging JD whilst cruising around in a drop top a la their cited influence, Thelma and Louise. Vocalist and guitarist Lindsey Troy is dressed in a cropped fringed tee, lived-in denim cut offs and has the long blonde layered tresses of Suzi Quatro. When she closes her eyes and screams “baby do you love me, like you say you do?” in the blistering “Baby I Call Hell” it is with the unbelievable howl of Robert Plant. Throughout the vitriolic “Lies” – which had the King Tuts audience in a frenzy of thrashing hair and bodies as Troy prowled along the front row – her vocals rise from a low sultry cracked drawl to an impassioned screech and back again in an instant. Meanwhile, drummer Julie Edwards jump straddles her drum stool in a tiny white lace tunic and flings her whole body into every drum strike before throwing her flame-red curly mane back with abandon, often finishing songs by falling across her bass drum.
At one point, Troy costume changed into a silver biker jacket by radical Glasgow designers Obscure Couture which features rainbow pastel My Little Pony style fringing on the arms. She shouted “A lot of unicorns died for this awesome jacket. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this done before so Amen to you for coming up with something orginal.” Jenn Celine Coyle of Obscure Couture later told me “Deap Vally are exactly the kind of women OC design for. Strong girls who don’t give a flying fuuuck what people think. They’re glam rock and rollers!!”
Musically Deap Vally are wild uninhibited sex. Really noisy with a lot of rhythm. Scuzzy screeching guitar and woozy slides such as those on final song “End of The World” are like the sonic depiction of a night of alcohol or drug excess. Troy’s guitar style has been drawing comparisons to Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys. And yes, the White Stripes influence is obvious; opening guitar riff of ‘Gonna Make My Own Money’ sounds suspiciously like the vocal melody of ‘Blue Orchid’ and you could probably mash the vocal slide from ‘Lies’ over that of ‘Fell in Love With A Girl’ and not be accused of bad mixing. But, Edwards’ drum rolls and bashing is less primitive than that of Meg White, and like any band, there is an array of other influences in there. They have the raw sexuality and don’t give a fuck attitude of Peaches or The Runaways, the vocals styling of Led Zeppelin and The Stooges and the musical and vocal ability to back up the image. It may not be entirely original, but who is these days, and with vocals this powerful and music this hot, who cares? Having already supported Muse, The Vaccines and Josh Homme not to mention counting Vincent Gallo as a fan – who said on finding them on Myspace that he’d been looking for a band like them for a million years – I’d say certainly not Troy and Edwards. “Being compared to the best in the business Deap Vally have big shoes to fill. However their scorching live shows indicate that this duo could be the next big thing and it may not be long before others are being compared to Deap Vally.”
Review by Loretta Dunn
Find more about Deap Vally at: http://deapvally.com
