DROOLPUSSY: A Split Review

By Jonathan Burkhalter

In the midst of some great albums dropping over the past few weeks, Chicago natives Pussy Foot and Drool have produced a new split tape, titled DroolPussy, full of high-energy grunge that will get us through the days that come babbling down the hills of spring like idiots strewing flowers.

On Side A, Pussy Foot marches forward with their driving guitar. Their style embodies the word, forward. Pussy Foot’s members, Wendy Zeldin and Megan Homewood, don’t hold back from making noise and calling shots as self-described riot grrrls. The first track, “Glass”, features strong lyrical imagery, such as turning to glass and stone, given in the same cool tone that one might use when giving a monologue while exacting well-calculated revenge. This duo will make your head bob to their dark rock sound with a single distorted guitar, strong drumming, and pair of female voices. Often shouting and tight in their timing, their side of DroolPussy is hard and heavy. The duo has a haunting grudge that is going to cost someone big time, as they claim in their last song, “Lorena”. Side A of the split leaves off in a dreamy wave of grunge that is sure to keep listeners waiting to hear what they have to say next.

Side B features features another Chicago duo, Drool. Hersh Chabra and Ben Leach use low-fi vocals to brood and stir up a general sense of trouble. Their side has a thrilling speed to it, to be read as: you might not be able to sit still while listening to it. In their opening song, “1 latrobe 1”, forty-five seconds of entrancing rhythm pairs with their distorted vocals to give off a mysterious mood. “Terminal”, the quick-tempo second track, opens up to a variation in clever guitar rifts. Between the rifts, the guitar is muted to frame lyrics such as “stand there and suck it” in all of their post-punk glory. Their final track, “Youth Large”, is a hit. Using loops, the guitar is able to cover raucous lows to hi-fi highs. The melody is fast paced and deep, then overlaid with a higher-pitched electric guitar that builds up to a small solo at the end. This split is the first release out of many to come in a tape collective series called Base Tapes.

Both Pussy Foot and Drool fall into the same styles of post-punk, goth-grunge rock. While the vocal styles differ, the presence of only a guitar and drums along with the agreeing genres, give this whole tape a cohesive feeling of resilience and resolution.