Feminist punk-dance posse Cursing & Swearing dropped a debut album of the same name, proudly featuring no guitars, fake drums and a real strong message buried in a dance party. The Saint John band go out of their way to stick it to the man in the loudest, zaniest way a punk band — and only a punk band — can.
Cursing & Swearing came together as a band sometime last summer, though lead vocalist Jennifer Megeney says that nothing much came of it at the time. The band included Gavin Downes (Balaclava/Little You Little Me) and Phil Jaguar (S.H.R.I.M.P Ring/Jaguar Knight), and between their busy band schedules and some roller derby it took until November for things to take off.
When they finally did come together though, they did it in a hurry. The band wrote all of their songs over the course of two practices before playing their first show in December.
“I’ve never been in a band or performed live before. I just overheard Phil saying he was looking for someone to sing on a new project, and I jumped on it,” says Megeney. “It’s definitely been a learning experience working with two musicians who have been doing this for years. I was really intimidated by all that talent at first, but they are both really great at making it a comfortable and collaborative environment.”
Megeney describes the songwriting balance the band have struck as beginning with Phillip Jaguar crafting a skeleton of beats. “Then, he and Gavin jam it out to find their respective bass parts, and I write all the words.” Apparently the trick to sounding like Saint John’s answer to Cansei de Ser Sexy is their blend of two bass guitars and pre-programmed beats. But the core of Cursing & Swearing’s songs come from Megeney’s nihilistic feminist bent.
The cleverly titled “Bitchcraft” gets the message rolling right away; the scattered bass sound at the beginning could imitate the breaking of a guitar as the band get into their crunchy bass and synth drum groove. Megeney’s lyrics put a foot down, letting listeners know that she’s the top dog around here.
“I’m well known for my feminism since I was a youngin. It comes across in some of the songs but it’s not really a goal to write feminist songs. Just a byproduct of who I am I guess.”
“Tough Stuff” offer is bold declaration of the band’s mandate. Their anthem makes no qualms of telling us exactly what they want us to hear — no filter and no holds barred. Cursing & Swearing are loud and proud in their feminism, their complete lack of guitar and their general sense of indifference.
“Slow Train to Dykeville” picks up the pace with high-flying percussion and spunky bass. We imagine the train to Dykeville has a bright neon paint job, and we’re positive that it isn’t moving slowly, given the album’s omnipresence of energy that spills out of every note and line.
“Double the Heartbreak” is a dance of ice and fire, with the everpresent dance-punk groove as strong as ever and Megeney’s preferences for “a princess and a knight” suggests there’s plenty of wiggle room when it comes to the laws of attraction.
“Words For Nerds” is an interesting detour; all the info you need about this one is right there in the title.
“That was the first one we ever finished,” says Megeney when asked about “Words For Nerds.” “Some songs were written on the fly like Words for Nerds.”
“We were just joking around about our sound while jamming and so I wrote it as a bit of a joke on how musicians sometimes take themselves too seriously and we just wanna be loud and have fun.”
Working in the same vein as The Feint’s “The Geeks Were Right” or Datarock’s “Computer Camp Love,” the track, and much of the album, is an off-the-cuff projection of Megeney’s priorities; essentially the unabashed celebration that defines geekdom.
Like “Words For Nerds,” “No Babies” has all the info right there. It cheekily gets in your face about the right to control one’s own body, and the synth bass is as spunky as ever, easy to strut along a crowded sidewalk to.
Cursing & Swearing have put together an unapologetic dance party with a message to match; are they too feminist? Are they not feminist enough? They don’t care.