Amy Surdu: a boot fetishist's dream.
Detroit rockers are a very big deal in L.A. this week, with upcoming shows there by the Detroit Cobras and the Gore Gore Girls getting the lead headline, above both MF Doom and the reunited Squeeze, in the ROCK PICKS section of the L.A. Weekly. The respective shows -- the Cobras play the Troubadour next Thursday (Aug. 16th), with the Gore Gores at Amoeba Music the night before (Aug. 15th) and then at the Echoplex, also on Thursday -- were written up by noted music journo/famous cross-dresser/Leaving Trains leader/former Courtney Love hubby Falling James, who raved about both bands. James wrote of the Cobras: "No offense to Amy Winehouse, but it was the Cobras' Rachel Nagy who first reinvented the '60s soul-pop diva as a boozy, punk-informed, smart-mouthed chanteuse in the late '90s...It doesn't hurt that Nagy is a charismatic, fiery song interpreter and that Mary Ramirez keeps things raw instead of slick with relentless garage-rock riffing." Of the Gore Gores, he notes "Amy Surdu's feral yowling and judicious guitar ravaging," terming the gals "a boot fetishist's dream." He'd be right on both counts...but, hell, Detroiters have known that for years. As my transplanted Detroit friend J. Kordosh said to me years ago (after asking deadpan, "Bill, why are all these people we don't know kissing us all the time?"): "These Angelenos ain't got nothing on us." In related news, Detroit heroes the Go headline the Knitting Factory in Hollywood later this month on Aug. 21st. You can read James' full show previews here.
