The most recent issue of Entertainment Weekly makes this intoxicating claim: “When the Noisettes connect, they’re a euphoric mix of Bow Wow Wow and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.”
That’s a great description. But I think it’s best not to try to describe the Noisettes. After all, they seem to be intentionally defying description: Just when you think things are going to settle into something sweet and bubble-gumm-y, singer-bassist Shingai Shoniwa will deliciously lose her mind and start shrieking.
Their official site describes Shoniwa as “a woman so far removed from the mainstream rock fringes that she has been known onstage to play her guitar with a loaf of bread.” Is that sort of thing “post-punk”? Is it a big joke? Is it something entirely new? (Nah, let’s reserve that distinction for Amy Winehouse.) Whatever it is, I like it. And it seems like more evidence that women get more chances to rock in the U.K. and Canada than they do in the U.S. (the Noisettes hail from London).
The new Noisettes album, What’s the Time, Mr. Wolf?, was released yesterday in the U.S.
