You gotta hear this new Big Girl EP. The Brooklyn-based band, led by Kaitlin Pelkey, is working closely with Ekko Astral, whose Jael Holzman explains them as "the punk version of Chappell Roan." (The two acts have a collaboration in the works, and Big Girl are playing Ekko's trans rights festival Liberation Weekend.)
The Roan comparison makes sense immediately within a few seconds of pressing play on DYE, the five-song collection Big Girl released today. I'd add that the extreme hookiness and jump-from-the-speakers immediacy reminds me of the 2010s moment when Chumped and Charly Bliss were fresh new forces in the indie scene. This is big, brash, exceptionally catchy pop music from a queer perspective, bolstered by hard-smacking drums and an arsenal of guitars. The songs are explosive, and Pelkey sings them forcefully, with an appealing melodic sweetness. On opener "I Can't Tell," she rips into the lyric "All the ways that I am!" with a force-of-nature howl worthy of Heart or Paramore — a power she conjures again three minutes into "Dye My Hair" with a to-the-rafters outburst worthy of Wicked’s "Defying Gravity."
DYE is full of lyrics that manage to be both searching and slyly funny. "I ask the internet how to love/ I swear to god, there's a WikiHow about everything," Pelkey sings on "DIY GOD," while "quit ur job" beckons with the enticing pitch, "Quit your job/ Come on tour with me/ We'll sing in the car/ And watch less TV." Pelkey's bandmate Crispin Swank produced the EP with an assist from indie veteran Justin Pizzoferrato; they gave each track a radio-ready sheen without compromising the energy of Big Girl's chaotic live show. Taken all together, it's just about as impressive a calling card I can imagine from an upstart rock band.
Stream DYE below.
