It’s not often that you hear anyone take on the topic of poop chutes, but scuzzy Columbia garage-punk three-piece Chemical Peel sure do on “Sticky Situation,” the first track on their eight-song Bad Cream tape (self-released last month and distributed by Fork and Spoon Records). But don’t consider it a theme on the new release. As guitarist and singer Ony Ratsimbaharison says, it’s more of a footnote than a chapter to the whole song
“With Bad Cream, we’re shooting for an album that has more cohesion and direction than our first release,” she explains. “We took more chances and thought more about the structures of the songs. One new element of this tape is the vocal heaviness of it.”
The band is coming off a Northeastern-Midwestern tour with Massachusetts girl punks Potty Mouth, who share a drummer (Columbia-raised and Smith College-educated Victoria Mandanas) with Chemical Peel. “Tour was a blast and we played more consecutive nights — 10 days — than we had ever played,” Ratsimbaharison says. “We’ve met a bunch of cool people. It’s been very exciting to see how efficient and accommodating the DIY community is firsthand.”
Their Tin Roof show on Thursday with Southern Femisphere will be a semi-homecoming. “After being on tour, I always feel more inspired to play better back home,” Ratsimbaharison says. “I tend to appreciate more the people in our hometown who genuinely like and support what we’re doing.” The band, which also includes bassist Max Smith, felt a little bit of ambivalence about their impending return to the South, but they also miss the little things, like sleeping in their own beds.
Listen to Bad Cream at Chemical Peel’s Bandcamp page.
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