Emily’s Sassy Lime – Desperate, Scared, but Social
So there’s an all-Asian riot grrrl band called Emily’s Sassy Lime, and they make the most gloriously clumsy DIY punk. This album is a blast. They disregard the virtues of keeping time, and what is the bass guitar even doing? Who knows. It just sort of drones in the background. The first high point is
Kid’s Stuff, which is a masterpiece. It even swings, possibly unintentionally so.
Transistor No Way features the most hilariously offbeat singing ever, and then there’s a song called
There’s a Snake in the Steakhouse with its all-over-the place melody which can’t decide which key it should be in (a daring feat of atonal experimentation in the grand tradition of contemporary classical music and free jazz). Their song titles are great in general; there’s also
Hey You With The Crumby Face,
Not In a Biblical Sense (another masterpiece, this one legit bops),
G.U.S.T.O. – The G Does Not Stand For Geriatric (? it’s instrumental) and
Save Your Drama for Your Mama which I’m going to adopt as a useful phrase. Incidentally, this is a 6 second song and most of it consists of counting off. The record closes with
Superior Threat, an almost 6 minute track which features a dissonant organ and a sudden bright, playful electronic melody.
Fun facts:
- According to bandcamp the album was supposed to be called ‘Desperate, Scared, but So-Cal’ but the printer ****ed up.
- The bandmates didn’t live close to each other and sometimes wrote songs over the phone
- Their parents kept them from practicing because they thought they should study instead
Choice tracks: