| “delicate and demanding” – LOUD Women “sour-mouthed riot grrrl energy and pulpy exuberance” – Bandcamp “a debut that grooves, thrashes and seduces.” – Sherwood Zine The Pits as in bad times, shit luck, sweat stains… but also cherries. Penny & The Pits is the new project from Maritime stalwart Penelope Stevens. Perhaps best known as one third of the feverish art rock band Motherhood, Stevens is also a vital organizer, collaborator and visual artist in New Brunswick’s weird art and music underground. Liquid Compactor, the debut statement from Penny & The Pits, is the result of Stevens putting their voice front and center for the first time. It’sa gritty, adventurous punk-rock album that processes feminist joy, rage and revenge. Across the album’s ten tracks, Stevens tears through a series of personal and collective traumas with a pulpy sense of exuberance. “I spent a lot of time making challenging work that would test both myself and the listener,” they reflect. “Now, I’m trying to make music that feels good; music that connects the heart to the body.” |
| – listen // order LP/CD/DIG // watch videos for ‘Pool Party‘ & ‘Headcrusher‘ – |
| That connection is felt immediately on lead single ‘Montenegro On Ice’, a rollicking song about the lure of hard memories and the lengths we go to avoid them. It’s a heady number with a buzz on–confidently skewing the line between vintage Deerhoof and present-tense St.Vincent. ‘Pool Party’, the second single, is an allegorical surf-punk banger about solidarity. It portrays a badass group of femmes who ‘crew up in the deep end’ and ‘shave their heads like Sinead’. This emblematic gathering is a crucial node in the album’s noir narrative. “matching head-banging heft with an abstract, poetic lyricism which plays like a personal journey into the strange currents and slacks of this thing we call life” – Various Small Flames The songs on Liquid Compactor process pain into power through the use of transformative symbols. Water, and more broadly liquid, is a recurring element. The Bay Of Fundy, The Nashwaak River and Fredericton’s Lord Beaverbrook Hotel pool all appear as backdrops. Baths come to a boil. Period blood is summoned as a source of strength. Chuds from the local bar are haunted ‘til they sweat. Perpetrators are overtaken by the turning tide. “irresistible riffs and feminist lyrics that lend a deliciously dark undertone to a fun time.” – CBC MusicFor every drop of darkness on Liquid Compactor, there are corresponding sparks of levity. This link between joy and pain is what gives the album its unmistakable fervor: it’s a celebration of healing cloaked as a gnarly romp. And this was Stevens’ hope from the outset: “When I was writing these songs, I imagined my closest femme & queer friends right up front, singing along. If I couldn’t picture them rocking out, then I would set the idea aside. With this album, I’m trying to manifest the heaviness, the intensity and the joy of our lived experiences.” |