The debut EP from Girl Friday drops tomorrow via Hardly Art. It's called Fashion Conman, but the four tunes on this release are some of the most vibrant, and genuine slices of indie I've heard all year. So don't let that title fool ya.
Opener "Headstones" is sunny-yet-woke, flashes of stuff from Bleached, The Spook School, and L7 peeking through as points of inspiration here, while "Lullaby No. 13" is a bit scuzzier and more of an overt rocker. The four players in this relatively new band -- Libby Hsieh (bass), Vera Ellen (guitar), Virginia Pettis (drums), and Sierra Scott (guitar) -- inject this material with a whole lot of energy, such that even the portions that feel like things we may have heard before still manage to sound at least a bit fresh. "Generation Sick" echoes both metal and punk, and even -- dare I say it for fear of being called out for perhaps lazily reaching for a comparison-point? -- riot grrl stuff, while the excellent "Desolation/Currency" recalls both old indie-pop pioneers like Unrest as well as new ones like Tacocat. The cut is the clear highlight here on Fashion Conman, and it suggests that these young musicians have so many paths in front of them, all of them likely richly rewarding for any listener.
Fashion Conman is out tomorrow via Hardly Art.
More details on Girl Friday via the band's official Facebook page.
[Photo: Kylie Shaffer]