It's getting deeper into summertime, and you still need that feel-good summer vibe jam. You know the one. It makes you float on a euphoric cloud of lazy thoughts and warm breezes, gets your feet moving a bit as you sip a beverage and hold your special someone closer as the fireflies dance or the summer rains gently fall. Well, hold onto your nether regions, because the new release by self-described "eccentric queercore punk rock" duo Damsel Trash will most definitely
not be any of those things! This is fun, sexy, fed up, in-your-face, balls-to-the-wall metal punk. It's a Pride fest stage if that stage was in a field in Norway swinging a broadsword and sing/screaming a Taylor Swift cover at you. (Oh, spoiler, there's a Taylor Swift cover!) It'll make you pump your fist in resistance, and it'll make you laugh a bit with their ironic sense of dark humor. A band with recordings like
What's Inside Your Butthole,
Wasted $ Broke, and
Soup for Sluts can only mean you're in for a good time!
We're a queer band. We take up space without shame. And we have a lot of fucking fun doing it.
Full disclosure, yer boy Hank here has been a fan of Meghan and Emily, the powerhouse duo that make up this stripped down grindfest of a band, for years, and spent my time getting bumped around in their mosh pit, loving every sweaty and loud moment of unabashed queerness that rips from their guitars and pounds from their drum kit. So I was super psyched to learn they had a new release,
Battle Hymn of the Queerpublic, that released this week. I chatted a bit with Meghan and Emily about the new album (available for download
here at their BandCamp page). They let me in on their influences, their process, and what city they prefer to play in.
(Answers have been slightly edited for length.)
Photo courtesy of Damsel Trash.
Hank: The title track, "Battle Hymn of the Queerpublic," pretty much says it all as far as this being a political album in response to today’s political climate. Or so I'm guessing. It’s a grinder, with crunching, driving bass and an unapologetic command that “Nazis can suck my dick!” Tell me about how much this is in response to what’s going on. Politics isn’t new for you to sing about, but have you felt a greater need to address issues head-on?
Emily: The title track is absolutely a political anthem - both my visceral response to the current moment we're in, but also everything that's led up to it. I wish any of this was new, but the reality is that we've been dealing with Nazis and their relatives for way too long. And I'm not alone in being pissed off about it, or the fact that they're resurgent and emboldened under the current administration. Plus all the shitty tech bros who think they can save the world by being the richest, most incurious assholes on the planet - as opposed to focusing their time and money and energy on making the actual Earth a better place to live for everyone. All of which is to say, I set out to write a sort of queer battle cry in response to all of that.
Anyway, funnily enough, that song started life with a totally different title and lyrics, called "I Like to Fuck." But the more I thought about it, and the more shit's happened over the past year when we've been working on this album, the more I was like, "I need to write a song that involves screaming about politics," both for my own catharsis and, I hope, everyone else's. So I told Meg about halfway through the process that I was totally rewriting that song, and she was like, "Good, yes, great." Part of our core, guiding principles in Damsel Trash is this idea that songs shouldn't take longer than a couple of hours to write, shouldn't be overthought or overly complex, and we can do whatever the hell we want with our music. So this fits that idea very well.
Photo courtesy of Damsel Trash. Emily on drums, Meghan on guitar.
Hank: The opening track, “Twelve,” had me laughing out loud. Anyone who grew up with Sesame Street will recognize the allusion to the counting songs, in this specific case, the
"Pinball Number Count" song. Your songs often have a strain of humor running throughout, and this one reminded me of the 45-second banger love song “
Kirsten Dunst.” How important is humor for you while you’re also thrashing and slamming and getting the crowd moving? Does it serve another purpose for you besides enjoyable irony?
Emily: I can't even remember why we initially busted out "Twelve" but I think it was during our jam sessions where we initially wrote the music for the album. That song (which was written and performed by the fucking POINTER SISTERS, if you can believe it) has lived rent-free in my head since childhood. I sing it aloud on a not-infrequent basis. And it just felt fun to Damsel-Trashify it. We played it live for the first time at our 10th anniversary show last year, and people really loved it, so we thought it made sense to include it on the record. A little nostalgia, especially for a kick-ass kids' song, never hurt nobody!
Meghan: I rather enjoy a song with a number for a title. It is a consistent, random earworm for me, too. Perhaps this is true for most elder millennials?
Emily: Humor has always been a big part of our music in DT. The band started out as a "side project" to another, more "serious" band we were in together (Little Red Wolf) - built out of this time we hung out with a few friends, drinking and badly playing hand drums while everyone went around and told hilarious dating/sex and life horror stories. Some of our earliest songs were based on those stories (with permission). Humor and punk rock go really well together, I think. There's an inherent irreverence to punk, alongside the anger and joyfulness of it. And humor is often a great way to de-fang the shitty actors of this world, highlight the absurdities of people who try to enforce their fascist worldviews on everyone.
But like, we also just enjoy being silly and loud. It's a great release for us, and our audiences always seem to really enjoy themselves. We want people to have fun! Activism and organizing and caring about shit should also involve joy, whenever we can find/make it. And you can be silly and loud and fun while caring about and for each other, making sure we're all as safe as we can be at the show and in our communities, and for sure that people who've traditionally been pushed aside or shit on by the dominant culture should get even more love and space. We're a queer band. I'm trans/non-binary and Meg is a mf WOMAN (sung to the tune of Kesha's song of the same name). We take up space without shame. And we have a lot of fucking fun doing it.
Hank: What’s your favorite song off this new collection? And what songs are you most excited to present to a club full of fans?
Emily: I'm biased toward Battle Hymn, because I wrote the lyrics, and also it just feels extra relevant right now. I really look forward to getting people to shout the "NAZIS CAN SUCK MY DICK" part along with us at a show. Also looking forward to making everyone a little (or a lot) wet with our cover of Melissa Ferrick's queer sex anthem, "Drive." Finally, super looking forward to Meg making everyone double over with laughter to "Hot Cats." We wrote the music for that together, but then she went off and wrote and recorded the lyrics without my being part of the process, so one day I just got this full song and those lyrics (and that delivery), and I just could not stop laughing. I love it so much. It's so unhinged, and so Meg.
Meghan: I think my favorite song is also Battle, but I’m going to use this answer for my second favorite song, which is track two, “Cousin of Birthday Queen." The story here is that while shopping for secondhand T-shirts at Goodwill, there was one T-shirt that was simply white with the words, "cousin of birthday queen" on the back in a basic italic font. The song is about the girl who I imagine was wearing that shirt from the perspective of a server at the presumed dinner function. I felt it was obvious that this person wanted ranch dressing on the side. I would also like to let it be known that I rhymed crouton with futon before I knew that Viagra Boys did it too. Thank you.
Photo courtesy of Damsel Trash
Hank (in which I fall into a male trap and think everything is about sex!): “Hot Cats” isn’t about our feline fur-babies, is it? I can’t think of another artist who puts their sexuality, and an enjoyment of sexuality, so far forward. Thoughts about the importance of unapologetic expressions of your sexuality?
Emily: I am pretty sure Meg just wrote it about actual cats! But I'll let her speak for herself. We definitely put our sexuality and sex out front with our music and our live shows. We've tried to grow into a band that's very sex positive, without denigrating people for their own desires. Like, we're not going to make fun of "men" or "women" as a category, or tear people down for the size or shape or type of equipment they have. We also have songs that are pretty ace-positive, too ("Hugs" and "I Fucking Love You" come to mind). But yeah, like, I'm a horny SOB and that's OK! Damsel Trash has provided me with a platform that feels comfortable for me to express myself in that way, where I might be more shy about it otherwise. It's honestly pretty liberating, and I take seriously the opportunity we have to make other queer and trans and otherwise deviants feel seen and held and free to fly their freak flags. Meghan: Hot cats is absolutely about our furry feline friends. It’s called "Hot Cats" because one of my cats, Pebbles, is mostly white and pretty svelte if you know what I mean, and me and our friend Luce had a joke that she is a hot cat. This song has a little bit about many of the cats in my life. The song was originally called "Tool Belt" and was going to be a sex song, but then I wrote "Hot Cats" and it worked. In the iconic words of Cogsworth, if it ain’t Baroque, don’t fix it.
Hank: Any artists you admire for their expressions of sexuality?
Emily: Absolutely. Just a couple off the top of my head: Megan Thee Stallion. Peaches, for sure (our spiritual godmother). Prince, forever.
Meghan: It’s basically Peaches. I also like Alaska Thunderfuck, Todrick Hall, Doechii, COBRAH, Le Tigre. Omg Princess Nokia!
Hank: What are you saying in "Cunt Punt"?! I’m getting an inclination of what’s going on, but can you break it down for me and let me in on what you’re trying to say, and who your audience is?
EM: "Cunt Punt" is taken pretty verbatim (just trimmed for length) from an actual (utterly unhinged) email that a sorority leader wrote to her sisters, that subsequently leaked and went viral, and was eventually given the dramatic reading treatment by actor Michael Shannon. It's a bit of a deep cut. We talked about covering it years ago, but never got around to it until the anniversary show last year. And then we decided, fuck it, let's record it, too. We just thought it was bizarre and funny. No deeper meaning! Hank: You finish off the album in a surprising way, with two covers ("Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off" and Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone"). Was your decision to include these born out of how much fun your audience has when you play these live, or is there something more at play with them?
EM: These are both covers that we've played at live shows, essentially since the beginning of the band, over 10 years ago. And yeah, our audiences have always seemed to really enjoy them, so we thought it was time to record our versions for posterity. We genuinely love pop artists like Kelly Clarkson and Taylor Swift, and taking their songs and trashing them is very much meant to be homage. And also fun! The way Meg practically primal-screams "SHAKE IT OFF" gives me full-body frisson every time.
Meghan: The covers are there because, yes, they’re super fun to play, but the way we do them also subverts the songs a little bit. I am a huge Kelly Clarkson fan, from day one, from American Idol season one. And I just think "Since You’ve Been Gone" is one of the greatest rock songs ever. I’m not a Swifty, and I have problems with how often she flies that private jet, but I’m not here to hate hate hate hate on her because I’d rather be getting down to this sick sick beat. I couldn’t bring myself to sing that part, but I do love screaming “shake it off“ like it’s a primal incantation, like if I just scream it loud enough and long enough it will happen, and we can all shake it off, all of it, whatever it may be, in our case, the bullshit that is billionaires, oligarchy, greedy, corrupt politicians… When we scream shake it off, I feel like we’re telling it all to get fucked.
Photo courtesy of Damsel Trash. Emily (L) and Meghan (R).
While the band started in Madison, WI, a relocation to NYC by Meghan hasn't stopped the duo from recording and performing. They make jaunts to both cities, and some in between, for gigs and to lay down more music. We chatted a bit on how they make that work.
Hank: I’ve seen you live in both Madison and NYC.Do you have a preferred city to perform in?
Emily: My heart will always lie with our original Madison audiences, who've been so amazingly loyal and loving over so many years. But NYC is definitely growing on me, especially as Meg has met and befriended more awesome people and bands out there, which I get to benefit from/coattail ride. We haven't played there nearly as often as we've played Madison, but we're slowly finding our people, which is very cool. Also, all the venues in NYC have in-house drum kits so I never have to haul my own shit around to gigs, which is a bonus!
Meghan: Madison is more fun because people are generally happier and less inhibited. New York is more fun because mosh pits.
Hank: Hey, speaking of being in two towns, how did that work, bringing this whole thing together? Do you lay stuff down on trips to each other, or is there work done online and sharing recordings you send to each other?
EM: Yeah, it's definitely more of a challenge to write new music together, but we've kept making it work over the years. The first push was just getting together in person two summers ago when Meg was visiting - we holed up at a friend's recording studio and just jammed for a bit, found the riffs we liked, and made scratch recordings. Then we went back to our respective cities and did a little lyric writing for each. Met up again to practice and write in person when I went to NYC in February 2024 for us to also do the live-to-vinyl special recording at Leestavall. Then met up again in person in Madison last summer to record the drum tracks for each song at Clutch, our friend Brian Liston's studio in town. Then I worked with my friend and bandmate in my other band, LINE (that's Austin Lynch) to record all my vocals and send them off to Meg, who added her guitar and bass and vocal parts from her home studio in NYC. She also mixed the whole fucking thing. So yeah, bit of a puzzle, and definitely takes us a lot longer than the records we made when she still lived in Madison! Thank you both so much for your time!
Look for shows in Madison and New York this Fall as they roll out their awesome new music for fans with their record release gigs. You can stream and download Damsel Trash's new album
Battle Hymn of the Queerpublic NOW and all their previous recordings directly from
their Band Camp page here. You can also
follow them on InstagramNow, check out a bit of Meghan recording vocals for "Shake It Off" below!
Okay, one more because I can't resist, here's the official video for an older tune, their call-and-answer audience favorite "More Drunk, Less Pregnant."
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