Le Butcherettes – Cry Is For The Flies

Le Butcherettes are back, after front woman Teri Gender Bender was composing and touring with Bosnian Rainbows, on the side of Omar Rodriguez Lopez, she returned to her own band that is performing since 2007. And since 2007 Le Butcherettes stand for extreme performances, bloody stage rituals, ecstatic dances, housewife dresses and stained aprons crossed with punk attitude and a lot of rock and roll spirit in their performances as well as in their sound.

Based between the genres punk-rock and garage Le Butcherettes do stand for female rage and are therefore closely related to the riot grrl movement. Musically related to mostly female-fronted bands or singers like Skunk Anansie, Garbage, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Kills, PJ Harvey, Amanda Palmer or The White Stripes, Le Butcherettes always were more than simply a punk rock band. It is all about the female revolt here that counts. And in times when male dominated music media still refers to them as underrated it’s time to stop underlining the gender aspects, as this is one of the topics directly transported by Le Butcherettes music, lyrics, performances and video clips.

Because besides their passionate and sometimes aggressive music performances, Teri declares herself as a true feminist and referred to feminism in their early music. Even though later on she renounced on the movement because it was in her opinion dead, but wanted to be a feminist icon through actions, the lyrics, imagery and performances are feminist. Machismo and exclusion as well as discrimination against women in Rock’n’Roll are nothing new and nothing past, but in Mexico, the home of the band, things are way worse in daily life. Machismo is all over the place as well as traditional ideals of gender roles, early marriage, motherhood and the prevalence of housewifehood. This may explain the extremity of this band’s attitude.

Le Butcherettes have been “discovered” by Omar Rodriguez-Lopez during a live concert and he decided to produce and promote their first album “Sin Sin Sin”. Now after playing together with frontwoman Teri Gender Bender in their new band The Bosnian Rainbows he is back to support Le Butcherettes as a producer and also as their bass player.

“Cry Is For The Flies” is starring some great distorted organ riffs that reminiscent a soundtrack for a weird circus show, a dark cabaret show or a spooky horror carousel. “Burn the Scab” shimmers in this sinister vibe of the organ while in “Boulders Love Over Layers of Rocks” the organ creates the impression of an crazy circus orchestra. Dark cabaret style piano tunes reminding of the Dresden Dolls carry the track “Child” that deals with a lost child. Powerful vocals and bold guitar and bass riffs guide the listener through the 12 track album, outstanding is that the vocals vary in different tones and moods, better and stronger than ever. A highlight is the duet with Shirley Manson “Shame, You’re All I’ve Got” a dark melancholic ballad that stars the two great singers in duet and has all the qualities to be a title track for a James Bond movie.

“Moments of Guilt” is a spoken words piece written and read out by Henry Rollins and splits the album in two parts, but does unfortunately not add anything more interesting to the album than confusion. “The Gold Chair Ate The Fire Men” and “Normal you were” are classic garage punk songs, “Poet From Nowhere” features organ chords to its exceptional ska-punk beat. The album closes with “Crying Out To The Flies” and “Blackhead” with two slower really strong tracks, especially the last song benefits of its suspenseful and dramatic structure. All together it’s a powerful album with some great tracks, a darker mood and a musical statement that must not be underrated ever again.*

* Noisey calls Teri the “one of the most underrated front women in rock”