Feels Like Frenching (2007)
12 inch vinyl record
Released by Ecstatic Peace! in May 2007
Edition of 500
When Leslie Keffer lived in Athens, OHIO she was asked about the noise scene there. “You’re looking at it”, she responded. Indeed. Leslie is one of the more fascinating proponents of homegrown Middle America noise music. A single girl drawn to the more ravaged and magical aspects of noise as source music, art and lifestyle. She has since moved to Nashville where she has been developing and progressing her personal take on what is basically a highly marginal genre of music. Her inputs are radio transmission wave-noise, the living aura of Lindsay Lohan, punk, pop, Madonna, her amazing girlfriends and defiltering the terror of male-centric Power Electronic depravity and goon-ism. Her last two No Fun festival performances, in duo with Thurston Moore in 2006, and the Noise into dance beat into ‘Where’s The Party’ slumber party freak out where all the noise girls fem-exorcised an already somewhat de-clawed noise misogynist is already legendary. Leslie’s sound has been heard on various cassette labels (Rampart, Gameboy, I Just Live Here, Epicene, Cherried-out Merch) and most recently her own imprint Action Claw. She has issued a number of hand-made CDRs with her own touch of knitted fabric pouches. She has two tracks on the 2XCD Tarantula Hill Benefit (Ecstatic Peace E#107), one with Baltimore’s Nautical Almanac who have been championing Leslie’s work for years now. We are only too happy to release this premier full-length LP of Leslie’s demonstrating where she’s been and where she’s going. More releases are coming: an Ecstatic Peace cassette limited edition with Leslie performing live one side with Thurston Moore in Columbus, Ohio and the other with Kim Gordon in Easthampton, Massachusetts. And then the 12” dance noise jammer. That’s when the party fucking hits! Beware.
Cover painting by Adriane Schramm. Comes with double-sided laser printout insert.
-Original promotional description from Ecstatic Peace!
Sometimes I ask myself 'where did all the riot grrrls go?' before diving head first into my collection of Bratmobile, Bikini Kill and Heavens to Betsy records. It's true though, what started as a defining moment in rock history ended up filtering half-heartedly into the horror of the Spice Girls and then petering out almost entirely. The boys won, sadly, and their geeky electronic music took over the underground leaving little room for ladies to get even a look in without a similarly inclined boyfriend in tow. Then came the noise scene, typically misanthropic it very surprisingly saw plenty of ladies muscling in on the action, and more than that - they did it BETTER. We have Jessica Rylan holding sh*t up for the home-made power electronix (or flower electronics?) crew, Maya Miller literally running things in NY with both Religious Knives and the Heavy Tapes imprint, Metalux showing the Load records fellers that there's more to life than a co*k and a microphone and now we've got Leslie Keffer who isn't afraid to capture a little of that riot grrrl spirit, or maybe a lot of it. You know you're in for a treat just by reading the title (and seeing the hella good cover art) - it's the sort of title you'd expect to have seen on a Kill Rock Stars record back in 1991, and then you read the record's concept and everything falls into place. A protest record of sorts 'Feels like Frenching' takes its entire source sound from female fronted pop and punk music (taken from the radio of course) and filters it to almost nothing - all you can hear is vaguely shifting lo-fidelity white noise coursing through your veins as you become absorbed by the thick fuzz. It may as well be the screams of a charged Kathleen Hanna that you're hearing, there's the same kind of attitude, it's just with Keffer she's beating the noise-boys at their own experimental game and winning. Deconstructing a genre has never been more fun, and with a wry smile Keffer had me at hello - all hail the new wave of riot grrrl.
-Boomkat product review