In just under 11 minutes, Grandmas House debut EP delivers a scornful display of punk-rock, fuelled by the queer women who are readying us all for drastic change.
Released, October 15th, 2021, Brace Yourself Records.
The shining light of the infamous, in your face nature of punk music, has somewhat dwindled over time. The past decade alone has seen a rise in Indie groups, desperate to shock fans with ‘heavier’ displays of indie-pop, labelling it as punk in the process. Influence and style have caught the ears of these fans who want a breakaway moment to ‘feel punk’, but the fad of using punk for pure shock factor, instead of evoking the need for change, has quickly become the hegemonic class.
Changing times bring different meanings and associations to genres especially. Anyone could tell you that. If UK punk were still today what it was in the ’70s and ’80s, frankly, you’d be bored shitless of listening to punk altogether. However, it’s groups like Grandmas House, who retain the bite and brass nature of early punk music, combined with quick-witted humour and new takes on anti-establishment messages, that will help see punk music into a bright new phase.
The EP’s opening track ‘Golden’ centralises on politically charged themes, criticising those in positions of power who feed their greed at the expense of others. While closing track ‘Pasty’, utilises the Bristol trios dry-witted humour, shouting about a woman who runs a pasty stand in Bristol. The group’s debut EP is a multifaceted display of what punk can be and the lives of three queer women not bastardised by the lens of the male gaze. Whether shouting about political injustices or BOGOF offers on Pasties, Grandmas House takes every opportunity to deliver unwavering punk-rock.
For each politically or socially motivated track, there are breakaway moments filled with delightfully mundane normalities in the form of ‘Pasty’ and ‘Feed Me’. The latter finds them asking to be taken care of while utterly hungover, an all too familiar situation for most zillenials, offering some respite from the full-force task of asking those in power to give a shit. These humorous quips balance with displays of raucous rage and empowering bouts of queerness throughout their whole EP, namely in the Bristol group’s most recent single ‘Girl’, an ode to queer women everywhere, that balances these three factors through the track’s music video. Queerness has always been a powerful force in punk music, and Grandmas House stands triumphant as loud, opinionated queer women, vocalising their anger while mocking heteronormative masculinity, channelling the cocky arrogance of cis straight men on ‘Never Out of Luck’.
The Bristol trio’s debut EP is a thunderous display of queer-rage and joy, bringing the many nuances of punk rock together with modern inflictions of humour and dry-witted lyricism. Grandmas House is 100% serious about not being 100% serious all of the time, shown through the breakaway moments from ‘Pasty’ and ‘Feed Me’. The trio shows that letting your foot off the gas to be human isn’t just normal but needed. A momentary break to refuel the fire of seeking change can be a powerful tool, and Grandmas House looks set to keep on burning up stages across the UK for a long time.
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