The Ettes
Words: Michael Rabinowitz
Photos: Courtesy of Band

“I was the bumblebee girl in the Blind Melon video!”

This is probably the most appropriate yet unexpected quote ever given me by a rocker to describe themselves.  After talking to Lindsay “Coco” Hames (she assures me its ok to call her Coco), I am confident she can thoroughly claim bumblebee status.  As lead singer of L.A. garage 60’s revivalists, The Ettes, she’s never been one to follow the beat—or buzz—of others.  The above quote being a confession from Coco’s of first encountering a swinging London club that actually played the music she and her bandmates championed.

Coco’s coolness dipped below the Dow average while growing up in Winter Park and eschewing the mainstream preference of her peers.  “It was weird, because the last couple of years there is more of a spotlight on country music,” she describes.  “But back then, I was into Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson.  Whatever my parents had on vinyl.  I never really listened to modern music when growing up.  I was always listened to the oldies station.”  Tough for a kid living in a city where anything pre-1977 is considered the Paleozoic era.  But this embryonic taste for classic handmade R&B motivated rock led her to leave Florida for Los Angeles and group with the common souls of her fellow Ettes, bassist Jeremy “Jem” Cohen and drummer Maria “Poni” Silver.

A rawer version of The Go-Go’s or The Three O’Clock, The Ettes join a wave of bands that are keeping the ‘60’s revival pastiche alive.  No longer part of the mid-90’s alternative Brian Jonestown Massacre wannabes, today’s acts like The Black Angels, The Gossip, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and The Kills are going beyond the kitsch of retro-ism.  And, thanks to a little Detroit band called The White Stripes, it is no longer a revival but a legitimate genre that is here to stay.  The simplicity of 60’s garage balances out the glam rock of emo mainstream and the progressive gluttony that is “indie” music.  Think of it as the refreshing cold pull of a P.B.R. rinsing away the decadent richness of a Mississippi Mud Pie.  You know, if you dig that kind of thing.

The Ettes are making strong head waves in the scene with their debut album Shake The Dust, a hard charging gasoline propelled collection of stripped down garage punk (with nods towards Sun Records’ country) that makes an appropriate soundtrack to any grindhouse cinema biker B-movie.  Coco’s melodies and Jem’s bouncing bass lines lead the way on an LP that is filled with fuzzed out rice burning hooks.  And, with lyrics on tracks like “No More Suprises” and “We Repel Each Other,” The Ettes casts all stones at of ex-lover arsonists still holding the box of matches of former charred relationships.  The track “Dead and Gone” in particular has the cadence of Dylan’s “Masters of War,” replacing the politics of war with the politics of love.  “The sentiment is if I were dead, I would be haunting you and ruining your life.” She adds with a sweet chuckle, “To haunt someone who’s wronged you. That just sounds sooo appealing.”  Ouch!  Even Dylan was never that vengeful.

Talking to Coco over the phone her pixieish voice is difficult to discern form the Nancy Sinatra looks on The Ettes’ Myspace page.  This paradox carries over to the assumption that Coco and The Ette’s wholesale their influences from 1990’s riot grrrls L7, Bikini Kill, or Elastica.  “When I am asked what my influences are, there are sooo few chick bands,” adding a few inherited valley girl “o’s” to her “so’s.”  “People always ask, ‘Oh, you must like Sleater-Kinney or Bikini Kill.’  I never did.  There is something about that pissy girl rock n’ roll that grated on my nerves.  Most of my influences are guys, Mick and Keith.” 

The Ettes live sound is accurately preserved by producer Liam Watson.  After caretaking The White Stripes on their best album, Elephant, Watson found himself with the luxury of selecting whom to work with.  In a studio built from vintage microphones, amplifiers, and the original soundboard from Abby Road Studios, Watson’s Rag Toe Studios in London is one of the only analog recording studios on the planet.  Based on a demo and a gushing email, Watson agreed to record The Ettes without any label backing.  (Consider him the anti-Scott Storch.)  For Coco, the economics were a no-brainer. “The difference of producing it in the States versus with Liam was the price of a flight to London.  Luckily, we were dumb and stupid and didn’t know how crazy it was to want to do that.”  From then on the bumblebee within Coco took flight.  “When he said he would produce us we thought, ‘Well, we can die tomorrow, we might as well fly to London and record a record.’  At least we can say we did that!”

A quick listen to Shake, I quickly see why Liam agreed to produce The Ettes.  They put forth a volume driven feedback with echoed vocals that is Liam’s signature on all of his productions from The Stripes to The Kills to Johnny Boy.  Relying heavily on yesterday’s technology gives one the assumption that Watson limited The Ette’s sound to simple lo-fi basement recordings.  “Its kind of a misconception that he can do just garage rock.”  Quick to correct me, Coco adds, “To me, when I hear our record, it sounds so modern and sooo full.  There are so many sounds, sooo many layers.”  The gamble with Liam paid off in a record contract with Sympathy For The Record Industry, an perfect match considering they house great British garage acts like Billy Childish and Holly Golightly. 

Still, even after finding a home, The Ettes still find themselves cultural outsiders.  “We get put out on different bills, a lot with emo bands.  When we play with those bands, with blank stares in the crowd,” Coco prefaces with a chuckle, “we kind of look at each other and think, ‘Are we freaking people out right now?’”  This maybe a current reaction dictated by current tastes but like The Ettes, great rock is great, no matter the era. 

Shit, even the Blind Melon bumblebee girl is still cool.