Drowning Girl – Bang!
Drowning Girl is a band out of Toronto fronted by 19-year old Hill Kourkoutis, and band members Dave Paoli and Jesse Porter. Drowning Girl has been playing some shows at Tattoo and plan to start touring across Canada.
Bang! was released in 2006 without much hype however they did win the grand prize of the Canadian Radio Star National Songwriting Competition for 2007 for the song Dead or Alive. This award arguably doesn’t impress me at all as I hate radio and probably gave me the wrong impression on what this type of band would be.
If you’ve followed this blog long enough, I love female fronted bands and you could say I get suckered into it pretty easily. Anyway the more I look into the things that Hill Kourkoutis does, the more impressed I become. Basically all songs on “Bang!” are written AND produced by her. She has done some acting, plays a wide range of instruments and has directed a video for Tara Slone (of Joydrop). She’s born in ‘88 like me yet she’s probably done what many people dream of doing in their entire lifetime. I’m going to see if I can interview her (I’m very impressed!) but let’s get back to the music. Visit her personal myspace, she has a great cover of the Spice Girls – Say You’ll Be There.
Drowning Girl has some really catchy songs. What made me decide to check them out was the single Bang!. Lyrically I found the lyrics very sexual yet at times very innocent. Singing wise, Hill has a great vocal range from times she utilizes this deep sounding voice (especially on Bang!) at other times you can see that she gathers influences from Blondie and The Cure (Dead or Alive uses the ba-ba-ba which I attribute to the Cure).
Drowning Girl is basically pop rock but dressed up with more a cooler/alternative feel by using synths and not being afraid to change it up a bit. I think musically the best song is “Boys Underwear” as it has the most versatility. It’s not my favorite song, maybe due to the subject matter and I don’t really like the song title and I really like the catchy stuff on her record.
All the way through though, Bang! is a solid record and is good from top to bottom. I wouldn’t be surprised if 2008 is a big year for them because whether it’s mainstream or indie success, they have some great music and with a front-woman like Hill Kourkoutis (she is pretty hot I must admit) they can establish a fan base. I don’t really think a score is appropriate but it’s definitely somewhere between a 4 and 4.25 out of 5 in comparison to other popular indie acts so I’m quite high on it. I may decide to catch them in concert (anyone want to go with?)
Buy Bang! from Amazon (though it’s temporarily out of stock)
Check out my two favorite tracks:
Bang by Drowning Girl
Tragic Romantic by Drowning Girl
The video for Caught By The Rope:
[...] Allan wrote an interesting post today on Drowning Girl – Bang!Here’s a quick excerptI’m going to see if I can interview her (I’m very impressed!) but let’s get back to the music. Visit her personal myspace, she has a great cover of the Spice Girls – Say You’ll Be There. Drowning Girl has some really catchy songs. … [...]