Album of the Week: Basic Bitches – Go To The Movies
Recorded at their upstate New York home during lockdown garage rock duo Basic Bitches have released an album of songs inspired by the classic movies they set about watching while there wasn’t much else to do. It may have been born out of boredom but it’s damn fine garage rock meaning Go To The Movies is Popoptica’s first album of the week for 2021.
Artist: Basic Bitches
Album: Go To The Movies
Label: Self-released
Released: 1 January 2021
Find it: Bandcamp | Spotify
In their own words 2020 didn’t present many opportunities for doing stuff other than ‘stare at various screens and watch the potential collapse of civilisation as we know it’ but for upstate New York based garage rock duo Basic Bitches this became the inspiration for a creative challenge, rather than a blocker to them as a band.
They set about watching the Top 10 films from Entertainment Weekly’s 2003 list and wrote and recorded a track off the back of each viewing. In the absence of live gigs and in a time where inspiration is hard to come by the resulting album, Go To The Movies provided Basic Bitches with an opportunity to stretch their songwriting skills and a platform to perform new material each week via their quarantine morning show Good Morning Bitches (which went out on YouTube and IGTV).
‘More human than human / emotions are confusing / so hard to explain / can’t trust what’s in my brain / it’s all manufactured / my memories are fractured’ – Blade Runner
At times this album captures an instant reaction to what’s on screen, a snapshot of internal monologue as visceral and gripping as any cinematography and yet it’s also a move forward in the band’s set up and sound with surprising moments coming from the vocals – with lead singer and guitarist Naomi Scott sharing the mic with drummer Krystal Grow on a number of tracks, and in some of the sweetest and spookiest harmonies you’ve heard all year.
Often using the best known lines from the movies the songs are as witty as they are direct. Blade Runner captures the cool and creeping discomfort, while Scarface is the best critique of the overrated movie ever. As much a skit as a song the duo snarl about ‘a movie full of people doing awful things / blaming it all on a cocaine binge’ and fearing the film would never end. The boredom at the premise as much as the rendering of it rings through every chord and at under 2 minutes doesn’t outstay its welcome.
The music often evokes the worlds the films create – on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre its distorted sound and at times languid vocal as the brutality is dulled by what are now tired tropes; while The Rocky Horror Picture Show gets rock n roll harmonies and ooh la las while brilliantly echoing the films vanilla-view dilution of fetish; and This Is Spinal Tap (number #1 in the Top Films List) gets covered in squalling guitars and macho posturing.
Retaining their driving rhythms and shock and awe riffs Basic Bitches deliver the concept in fine garage rock style and show inspiration can come from the everyday and working fast can produce works of wit and wonder while moving their own musicality forward in a playful way.
Go To The Movies by Basic Bitches is out now digitally. You can watch Good Morning Bitches – including episodes discussing the movies and premiering the tracks – on YouTube.
Find Basic Bitches: Website | Twitter | Instagram | Spotify | Bandcamp
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We took a hiatus at the end of 2020 but put together a list of our Top 40 albums from the year – check it out here.
Sarah Lay
A long-standing music journalist she's also co-founder of independent record label Reckless Yes, an author of novels, and when not messing around with words and music, a digital strategist.
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