Are Baby Guts and Solid Gold the Twin Cities' ticket into the national spotlight?

 

it's true it's like the new york times of the uk! see it right here. it's kinda silly, and keith says we're thrid wave riot grrl, but still. someone buy us some plane tickets and loan us their equipment so we can tour across the pond.

First sight: Baby Guts

Michael Hann
The Guardian, Friday 30 January 2009

MustangDaily.net
"Why  Won't You Hug Me?"
A review of Baby Guts' first full-length release
By Jack LaPorte

As I'm writing this article, I have a throbbing headache, my entire body aches, and I would like nothing more that to have a nice and gentle cuddle with a tender, beautiful, and sweet female vocalist. A Joanna Newsome to lull me to sleep would be nice. I could go for a Mariee Sioux to make me swoon or maybe The Finches would be nice to keep me at home in bed. But instead, I have Laura Larson of Baby Guts and her album "The Kissing Disease" released by Guilt Ridden Pop; I don't feel very comfortable alone with this woman and that's why I love her so.

She couldn't care less that I have a headache because she isn't here to find a man and make him feel good. She is a seriously independent woman, not the kind you'll find on Craigslist's "women seeking men section" under the disingenuous title "Independent woman seeks man with sense of humor." Baby Guts, which translates to "infant courage," doesn't only label the idea of a woman with few ideas as cute, it shatters its kneecaps in broad daylight while the rest of the world walks away uncomfortably, pretending not to notice.

"The Kissing Disease," which is the outfit's first full-length release, is a half-hour-long scream session that extends an impressive middle finger to my headache and my wanting a soft-spoken woman to take care of me when I'm sick. She takes back everything I thought was given to me with the track "Fire Truck Vagina" shouting "Live in my house, live by my rules." She isn't some hysterical girl upset because her man doesn't take care of her, she is an angry woman infuriated that a man thinks he understand anything about her and she isn't going to take it. What I want or need doesn't matter anymore, my damage has been done, I've burned all my bridges and it's time for me to stop.

As a whole, the album is more than a two-bit punk band that just blindly punches at things that make them angry or at things they don't understand. She knows and believes in what she's singing and not some dumb parrot regurgitating a stale mantra from her female punk predecessors. She stands out in a world of typically adorable women as the winner of the City Pages best female vocalist. Her backing band, two gentlemen actually, set the tempo with bass, drums, and even screams that at no point overpower or intimidate our young heroine.

This is why I love this band. It features a woman who absolutely rejects my parasitic need for her and offers nothing but a complete disregard for me and my well-being; I just want to numb my pain with her abuse.

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scenepointblank

I have to wonder what rock critics would've done without L7 and Babes in Toyland, as it seems every writer feels compelled to make comparisons to these bands whenever a female-fronted group is being discussed.

That said, Minneapolis' Baby Guts show a bit of the ol' influence themselves. This is no sludgy L7 stuff and there's no pitch-shifting Bjelland on the mic, but vocalist/guitarist Laura Larson certainly has that angry scream down. If I have to, I'd compare Larson's wailing to Corin Tucker in her Heavens to Betsy days.

Baby Guts don't slow down, even for a moment, with fourteen songs in just under half an hour. There are multiple songs with dirgy, doom metal intros but after ten/twenty seconds the frantic drums and piercing screams take over, hardly offering respite from the intensity. This is the kind of music that keeps your feet bouncing involuntarily. Baby Guts primarily plays dirty rock'n'roll with more swagger than the Riot Grrrl bands, more like a Motörhead-influenced punk band than something on Kill Rock Stars.

The band shows a variety of influence on The Kissing Disease, from upbeat and melodic songs to the circle pit inducing "Hamster Bite." Following it, the band immediately shifts gears toward a more straight-forward garage-tinged rock on the cover song "Dispelled." Meanwhile, Larson shows the range to keep a melody (albeit with rough edges) in songs like "Asbestos/Esophagus" and "Tiny Cuts." There are largely two types of songs on here: melodic, garage-influenced punk with attitude, and angry, angry hardcore.

To nitpick with my criticisms, there are too many of these metallic intros, where just a couple would've been fun. Similarly, Larson only really sings at one pitch, and slightly more group vocals would mix things up nicely. This is a very solid record and these are minor preferences. Besides, by avoiding the pitfall of group choruses, they aren't so easily lumped into the ghetto of chant-along punk bands while the shortness of the record keeps Larson's voice from sounding too redundant. Bassist Taylor Motari pinch-hits on occasion with his own throat shredding screams that make Larson's seem even more melodic.

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Big Takeover Magazine

As a father of a two-year-old I'm happy to report that this Minneapolis, MN band's sobriquet refers to 'infant courage' rather than any other disquieting possibility. As a fan of fast, obnoxious punk rock, I'm even happier to report that this female-fronted trio delivers the goods on all fronts. Fourteen raw, smart and emotionally-charged songs by a band that does not play by the rules. This reminds me of the (L.A.) Bags and in a good way!
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Pulse Zine

In the great tradition of riot grrrl punk bands like Bikini Kill, Bratmobile and Hole, Baby Guts-The Kissing Disease does not disappoint. Jammed packed with gut-wrenching, conformity-stomping lyrics and amped-up, raw melodies, Baby Guts makes you want to feel a dozen emotions at the same time, then scream about it for hours.

This CD will quickly steal your ear with the emotionally charged "Badmouth" which screams "she knows how many holes can bleed at once/cuz she needs that validation/and everything you kill is so much smaller than you," and pounds right along with the brutally honest "Firetruck Vagina" that admits over and over again "this is what I deserve" which ultimately makes you feel like you are worthy of the sincere beating this album offers.


Other highlights on the fourteen track indie record headed by front woman/ferocious music warrior Laura Larson, is the lyrically charged "Meat & Gesture" and the animalistic "Drag" which proclaims in the first verse "I sucked the nutrients out of his legs/it's not so cannibal" and ends with the verdict "and when my body gives in I'm gonna drag." While some might try and classify Baby Guts as either great talent in the making or a good effort from a bunch of fed-up punks, I prefer to label the band neither, instead giving The Kissing Disease a much-deserved place in my CD collection. A band that makes music with a fierce passion that overflows out of each song, Baby Guts is guaranteed to rev up your heart rate and make you want to get up and dance, jump, scream and cry all at once. Produced by the independent label Guilt Ridden Pop, The Kissing Disease can be purchased for only 8 bucks from cdbaby.com.

What Baby Guts ultimately offers listeners is a kind of therapy that allows you to unapologetically break loose and scream just because you've been told in the past that you can't or shouldn't do so. So be brave, buy the Kissing Disease, crank up the volume and see what happens. Let Baby Guts' roars release you and always, repeat as necessary.

Baby Guts Scream with You, Not at You

Positively Furious

By David Hansen

BABY GUTS
The Kissing Disease
Guilt Ridden Pop

It only takes a moment's contemplation. "Work," says drummer Rob Goswitz. "Rude people at work, who leave their carts all over the place. That's fuckin' annoying."

Laura Larson, who reclines near a drum of empty beer bottles on the top step of a swaybacked Uptown duplex, chimes in: "What about people in line on their cell phones?" Goswitz visibly fumes.

On an idyllic May afternoon, the members of Baby Guts enumerate the vexations that power their singular brand of grungy punk rock. For a minute or two, their examples touch on everyman, plebeian plagues of the modern age.

"When you're at a show," says Larson, who plays guitar and sings for the Minneapolis three-piece, "and the majority of people want to dance, there's always that one meathead guy who's trashed and huge and barreling through everyone and just wants to shove." Visibly discomfited, Larson makes fists.

But then the focus falls on bassist Taylor Motari. In a pair of stained Zubas, he crosses his legs.

"Injustice," he declares.

"Ooh," says Larson. "That's a good one."

Let's make this clear—Baby Guts are angry, and on The Kissing Disease, their debut full-length that follows the Gasoline EP and a 7" split with Unicorn Basement, it's all point blank. Within the album's 14 tracks, Goswitz's beats move from impassioned pound to hungover shamble in a single measure while Larson and Motari, audibly straining their strings, scream toward unintelligibility, seeming to approach exhaustion in each bridge and chorus. It's as if you can hear them falling apart in unison, collapsing in catharsis. The Kissing Disease is a fast and ruinous blunt force assault in which one can hear three generations of outsider anxiety, beginning with the Ramones and ending with Bikini Kill, crumbling like Athenian ruins.

"I'm not constantly angry," insists Larson. "But there are so many things to be angry about. There's so much bullshit in the world. I can't imagine Baby Guts not being a band that's angry."

Over a four-year career that has led them from all-ages venues to punk basements strewn about the Midwest to release shows at the Entry, Baby Guts have found plenty of grist for the mill. After playing in separate bands as high school students in Burnsville, Larson and Motari quickly bonded over a love of the Riot Grrrl movement, which produced the principled, acidic sounds of Bratmobile and Huggy Bear. Empowered by a shared manifesto, the group formed with Brandon Lenz on drums, later replaced by Goswitz (who had played previously with the Men Who Control the Weather). The lineup locked, they set about unifying themselves behind a theme that finds its way into much of their work.

"We're all feminists," says Larson. "And it's not a thing that we're afraid to say."

Motari nods intently. "We've never wanted to be the band that ignores gender," he says. "We wanted to jam it down your throat."

It's lamentable that the gender gap and its accompanying disparities are still in play, but the persistent chauvinism of rock audiences forces the issue, and in a time when many coed acts content themselves with more passive stances, Baby Guts turn their gender politics into a glorious face plant. Larson sees no reason to play nice.

"There's still people out there who think bullshit," says Larson. "I've been called a 'chicky.' I've heard it all. And I've seen other bands with girls in them totally avoiding the subject." She shakes her head, flummoxed and contemptuous. "But if you don't talk about it," she pleads, "you're still gonna get the creepy bloggers who are telling girl musicians they have nice legs!"

In rock, there is anger and then there is pessimism. The former is an empowering combustible, the latter a deadening depressive, and they are separated by a coil of razor wire. Treading that wire is a daredevil stunt, and Baby Guts pull it off with the self-sacrificial glory of Knievel at Snake River. They have perfected the art of turning anger into a virtue, a hammer and chisel with which they hew gritty punk miniatures from volcanic stone. It's the same brand of ingenuity that refined crude into gasoline.

"There are bands that can use anger in positive ways," says Larson, offering the Gossip as an example. "You can do it in a way where you connect with it, and it doesn't make you feel bad about being angry. It makes you feel empowered." After a pause, she shrugs and adjusts her shades on the bridge of her nose. "At least you know you're smart enough to be angry at bullshit, and you can do something about it."

"No one feels we're putting you down for screaming at a Baby Guts show," says Motari.

Attend a Baby Guts show, and you'll see what he means—the thrill touches potently on the frustrated passions that made adolescence such a doomed paradise. From crowd to band to amps to ears, it's a visceral exchange—Baby Guts hit hardest when their crowd cries out, and when Larson screams, they sweatily swoon. Their sound is a grisly middle passage, and it leads to camaraderie, a celebration of life and all its attendant frictions, played loud enough to melt glass.

But is there happiness for Baby Guts? Are there comforts and pleasures to be had for them, the craftsmen and traffickers of so much vitriol?

You bet, and Goswitz, the band's smiling Buddha, sums it up.

"Waterslides," he says.

From the 1 1/2-minute opener "Bad Mouth" to the 3 1/2-minute closer (the longest track on the album), "The Kissing Disease" grinds, twists, pounds and punches its way through a mountain of pent-up angst and frustration, tempered with just enough subtle bits of pop to soften the blows.

"I wanted to put more melody into this record," Larson said. "I really like the catharsis of screaming through an entire song, but I think it pays off better if it's incorporated with a little melody."

"Plus," she added, "it's hard to keep screaming in every song."

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http://minneapolisfuckingrocks. blogspot. com/2008/04/new-baby-guts-drag-plus-new-album-info. html
MPLS punk trio Baby Guts make the kind of music that is so filled with glorious, righteous anger that it just might put the fear of God into you. Since that anger comes with a fuzzed-out guitar and banshee howl vocals, the group has earned a lot of comparisons to (riot)girl groups such as Hole, Bikini Kill, and Call The Doctor-era Sleater-Kinney. Those frames of reference still apply to "Drag", the new single from the trio's upcoming record The Kissing Disease, the release date of which, May 29th was announced through the group's website a couple weeks back. We're quite excited. Here's the tracklisting of the record:

1. Badmouth
2.Tiny Cuts
3. Shark Teeth
4. Asbestos/Esophagus
5. Firetruck Vagina
6. Tarantula
7. Rum & Coke
8. Bedsheets
9. Hamster Bite
10. Dispelled
11. Meat + Gesture
12. Medusa, Stomach Acid, Brain Cancer
13. Drag
14. Cricket Lung

I, for one, am highly curious as to what a "Firetruck Vagina" entails. We will find out soon enough, though. As stated before, The Kissing Disease comes out May 29th via Guilt Ridden Pop
(Jonathan Graef)



http://minneapolisfuckingrocks. blogspot. com/2008/05/new-baby-guts-tiny-cuts. html
Minneapolis' own riot-grrl revivalists Baby Guts have posted another track from their forthcoming record The Kissing Disease up on their MySpace page. In contrast to the minor-key rage of "Drag", the first single from Disease, which you can listen to at the top of the post, "Tiny Cuts" is a little more melodic and old-school punk sounding--perhaps one could call this Dead Girls? Luckily for us, I doubt Laura Larson will have the same fate as Stiv Bators. She's too busy screaming like a hell-bent banshee bent on sweet, sweet world domination, and her band sounds like her devotedly trashing followers. Based on the quality of this, as well as "Drag", one can only assume that Baby Guts will have many more followers once Disease drops.

The Kissing Disease is out on May 29th.
(Jonathan Graef)

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oh yeah, and we have the flyer of the week at city pages!

It's true, Laura was voted best female vocalist in City Pages Best Of the Twin Cities for some reason. here's the article!

"BEST VOCALIST (FEMALE)

Beautiful female voices are something to be treasured. The sorrowful, bluesy wails of Joanna James, for instance, or the lilting harmonies of Allison LaBonne and Maria May of the Owls. But sometimes we're left wanting something less polished and more primal from our local ladies—and Laura Larson of Baby Guts is happy to fill the niche. Her traditional-singing voice is utilitarian at best, but in the land of the scream she is queen. If you're thinking, "But anyone can scream," think again—a great scream, especially one that doesn't cause permanent damage to the vocal chords, is an elusive skill. On the band's eight-track debut, Gasoline, Larson's screeches, shrieks, growls, and howls fling the listener headfirst through a plate-glass window of blind rage and wordless agony. "What will it take to keep my mouth shut?" she full-throat-hollers in the thrashtastic "Rocket Hips." We hope Larson never finds the answer."

(maybe i should start dating Mike Gunther now, huh?)

we're coming back to GR again really soon so in the meantime, watch us playing at Juke's! i don't know where it came from but it's totally shakey and cool.


also, our new album will be out in May so w-w-w-watch out!

laura and taylor got interviewed in a tiny room in the back of an apartment for this podcast and played some darts with another guy named taylor. it was fun and they were real nice, making us feel like we're actually funny and stuff. check it!
http://www.flakmag.com/podcast/radio020808.html

also in case you haven't heard, the show we play a week or so ago with Canaveral, the Sleaze, and Gumbi from Fargo was ultra fantastic even though i still felt like pukin' from the day before.
stay cool
-laura/guts

November 12th is the date of our release party for the 7" split we are doing with Unicorn Basement: Shark Attack/Shark Teeth! It will be at the Triple Rock and it is a FREE show! Also playing are Gay Witch Abortion and Brientering the Bratmosphere. It's gonna be outrageous.

THE RUMORS ARE TRUE we are going to be recording our new album at Pachyderm Studios within the next few months. Neil Weir of  The Chambermaids will be recording us. We are very excited!

From PogoPrincess blog:

A riot grrrl revival is tearing up the Twin Cities as we speak.  Among the perpetrators are Baby Guts and Kitten Forever.   Baby Guts see your Spiderfighter, raise you a rerecorded Pretty on the Inside that is actually listenable. Kitten Forever knit fat positivity, vitriol and Allison Wolfe-ian high irony (vocalisms, too--they end up somewhere between Bratmobile and Deep Lust). "This is a hostile takeover." Anti-nostalgia, non-capitulation.  Feminist riotcore, grotty punk brilliance. Kitten Forever holler in "Keep It Up": This is what we need to do/take it back from those dudes." Laura Larson is the singer/guitarist for Baby Guts, the bassist for Kitten Forever, and yr new heroine.  Kitten Forever have a cassette called "Sissy Party" and Baby Guts have the Pocketknife demo, as well as the Gasoline EP.  City Pages has already caught on, so should you.