Ridin’ the Wave: Tacocat coming to Marie-Antoinette

by | New Music, Preview

Getting drunk on margaritas or waiting for a late bus: no matter the situation you may find yourself in, Tacocat will have a song to go along with it.
The band plays with the mellow sounds of surf punk just as much as it does with the seriousness of riot grrrl. This September, they’re coming to play an intimate gig in Berlin.
The eclectic members of Tacocat can already look back on an impressive number of releases. Bonding over the music scene in the 1990s to post-apocalyptic movies, the four emerged from their ritzy punk houses in 2007. Their crisp DIY debut Shame Spiral earned them a record deal with Hardly Art, an indie/alternative rock imprint of Sub Pop – the pioneers of the ‘Seattle Sound’. In the following years, they went on to release a couple of EPs, including a split with folk punk duo Ghost Mice and a riot grrrl cover compilation, on which various artists are having their take on the feminist anthems written by Huggy Bear and Bikini Kill. Outside of their big label releases, the band continued to hand out self-made tapes on tour.
Tacocat gained popularity with their 2014 LP NVM, that refined their style of mixing the serious with the sarcastic. Featuring tongue-in-cheek songs about seasonal depression, the serenity of gardening, and tentacle monsters, it was especially the video for Crimson Wave that caught the public’s eye. The shrill surfy track presents the band in crab costumes, camply dancing on the beach – all in an effort to banish period pains from one’s mind. But that’s not all NVM has to offer: there’s also the The Crabs cover (and the fact it’s actually a song to song response to Nirvana’s Nevermind).
 

Lost Mind (2016) is a reference to the pilot episode of The X-Files, which deals with the titular topic. The show served as an influence for the album, obvious on the opener about the character Scully, one of the band’s childhood idols. At other times, it’s a love letter to their hometown of Seattle, an analysis of anonymous internet users, or a comment on the phenomenon of horse girls.
This Mess Is A Place is Tacocat’s newest effort, released earlier this year. More insightful and vulnerable than before, it doesn’t fall short of their elevating indie punk sound.
On their promotional tour, they will stop by Berlin’s Marie-Antoinette on September 10th, supported by dream pop/psych rock band Twen. The show will be presented by Puschen and Collage Collective Berlin, a volunteer-based DIY group that is aiming to bring more inclusivity and accessibility to Berlin’s venues. Find your tickets and more information on Collage Collective here.

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