GRIM STREAKER – Lucky 7
LUCKY 7 is the feature where we ask artists to name their 6 favourite songs by others, and a lucky 7th song of their own…
Brooklyn’s underground scene has spawned a noisy, new neighbour in Grim Streaker. Whilst their contemporaries in Bodega, B Boys and Public Practice are pasting the art back into ‘art punk’, the five members of Grim Streaker (made up of singer Amelia Bushell, guitarists Dan Peskin and Micah Weisberg, bassist Bill Dvorak and drummer Piyal Basu) are stamping their incendiary, frenetic noise-punk on growing NYC audiences.
This crew is armed with a fierce live show designed to draw blood, sweat and cheers for those searching for an explosion of angular, post-punk energy akin to the likes of Fugazi, X-Ray Spex, The Fall, Sonic Youth and early Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
Over to the band with their Lucky 7…
1. Devo – ‘Gut Feeling’
Micah: We’ve been covering this song in our set lately. It’s fun to see which crowd members react to the opening guitar line. Everyone seems to be chanting the chorus with Amelia by the end.
2. The B-52’s – ‘Give Me Back My Man’
Dan: Been fans of this band for a long time. Especially their first record. Them and DEVO have definitely provided some inspiration for our band at times. However, we recently saw this video of ‘Give Me Back My Man’ performed on a show or something back in the early 80s and it really floored us. It’s now an all-time favorite from The B-52s.
3. Fontaines D.C. – ‘Big’
Amelia: My current fav song right now. Caught them at SXSW. The song is only a minute and 45 seconds long…all you need for a great hook. Plus the video is perfect.
4. Bauhaus – ‘Third Uncle’
Dan: Another huge source of inspiration for us is Bauhaus. Particularly on guitar. The sounds they were creating back then (especially on this track in particular) were really phenomenal. The controlled noise and use of flange to an extreme, that still wasn’t overbearing, was truly awesome. It really paved the way for generations of music through today in the same vein as us.
5. Surfbort – ‘Billy’
Piyal: Punk can just be fun sometimes, y’know? This song makes you want to grin while you stomp a hole in the ground with your boots. It’s short, it’s hooky, it’s intense – it’s really just a great pop song that they stripped down and smeared some dirt on.
6. Squid – ‘Houseplants’
Micah: Such a catchy track. “The Dial” is really good too. We met these guys down at SXSW this year. A bunch of us were partying at this random castle in Austin…there was a basement bar room underneath a glass ceiling. Squid played an hour long improv set around 4AM. Really fun band, with that post-punk urgency like no other today. Looking forward to playing a show with them in Brooklyn.
7. The Damned – ‘Smash it Up, Parts 1 and 2’
Bill: This a great example of being a punk band at heart but pushing the boundaries of the genre by adding other elements. The song begins with a clean, almost psychedelic instrumental intro section (Part 1) and then breaks into a song that’s more power pop/new wave than punk (Part 2), and damn catchy at that.
In a bit of a twist, the lyrics also mock hippie culture, yet the instrumental section was clearly inspired by 60s psych and folk rock. Part 2 is very anthemic, and invokes nostalgia for the 80s (even if we were too young to be aware of what was happening at the time). If our band somehow ended up playing characters in an 80s period piece movie, I’d hope this song was on the soundtrack.
LUCKY 7: Grim Streaker – ‘Today New York’
Our new single! and the second song taken from our debut album, “No Vision” out May 17th on Local Fun Boy Records.
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