Lefty Lucy is proud to be a riot grrrl band “re-doing riot grrrl.”
“We’re definitely riot grrrl, because we’re all girls and we’re playing punk rock,” said Lila Elm, the group’s guitarist. “But we’re more than just one genre. We do what we like in terms of sound.”
“Riot grrrl is a rebellion against conforming to gender norms and stereotypes,” added keyboardist Claire Duane. “But it’s also a big movement of including everybody. That’s a big thing for us — inclusivity.”
Lila Carpenter, vocalist, bassist and lyricist, agreed: “If you’re making music that isn’t meant for everyone, then why are you making it?”
The Charleston–based punk rockers are talking about the fangs-bared feminist punk movement that started in the ’90s in the Pacific Northwest. Riot grrrl bands such as Bikini Kill and Sleater-Kinney brought the subgenre to the mainstream, and its influence is still all over music today.
Lefty Lucy was born from its members’ mutual desires to start a riot grrrl band. Carpenter connected with drummer June Murdock in the spring of 2022 when they were both attending West Ashley High School, and Elm, a student at Charleston County School of the Arts, was asked to join the group after Carpenter saw her play guitar live with another band. Duane, then a student at James Island High School, had only heard of her bandmates through the grapevine of the Charleston music scene before meeting them at their first official band practice.
By the summer, the band was set to play its first gig, a homegrown show with other local high school bands at the Bridge to Nowhere, an abandoned development on Downtown’s upper peninsula.
“That first show was really fun,” Carpenter reminisced. “Setting it up was a big process because it was entirely DIY. It was all just Charleston kids who wanted to make a music scene happen.”
The band describes its third gig at fellow all-female rock outfit The Maxines’ album release show in Savannah, Ga., as a turning point. Elm spoke warmly of the connections made in Savannah and during their time gigging around Charleston, expressing gratitude for all the help and encouragement received along the way — without which Lefty Lucy’s journey would have been “impossible.”
Elm said, “It’s like the thing where if someone falls in the mosh pit, you pick them up. It’s that kind of mentality but for the whole scene.”
Righty Tighty
When it came time to record Lefty Lucy’s debut album Righty Tighty, the band first tracked a handful of songs live at 100 Watt Studios in West Ashley before trekking it out to Carpenter’s cousin’s home studio in the far reaches of Hollywood, SC to complete the album.
The only additional tracks to be recorded outside the Hollywood studio were the album’s intro and outro—cinematic instrumentals played by Duane on the piano in her James Island childhood home. The inclusion of keys is an element that sets the album, released this August, apart from its punk contemporaries. Duane’s cheeky synth line in “Talk of the Neighborhood” offers an unexpected melodic motif to a more straightforward punk song, while the gothic organ in “Love Vampire” cranks the song’s Halloween camp up to a haunted fever pitch.
Righty Tighty as a whole embodies Lefty Lucy’s spirit, rebellion and musical daredevilry. It’s a riot grrrl album that refuses on principle to conform to anything.
Musically, it delivers that distorted, get-out-of-my-face attitude while still venturing in unexpected directions. The album’s standout track “Mr. Telephone” is a spiteful lampoon of a two-faced ex set to sliding bass lines, jangly punk guitar and Murdock’s frenetic drumming, ending with a dramatic reenactment of a breakup voicemail.
The band experiments with longer song structures as well—the punk ballad “Manic Pixie Church Grrrl,” a song Carpenter identified as defining the band, aims to rip out hearts with her belted pleas of I’m feeling guilty / Don’t try to fix me.
“I think it’s still very cohesive despite how varied it is,” Murdock said of the debut album.
What’s next?
These days, the band is looking forward to taking advantage of the holiday break to write new music. After all, Lefty Lucy has a ton of gigs under its belt at this point; the band is fresh off a November appearance at Kulture Klash, a recent show at Royal American, and they’re still riding the high of playing at the Music Farm’s Riot Grrrls Night back in May.
They share they’ve noticed more young punk bands and women in the scene, something they’re humbled to be a part of, and passionate about promoting.
“Being in a riot grrrl band gives us a voice to talk about personal experiences,” Duane said. “I hope that our songwriting encourages others to speak up about their experiences, too.”
Stream Righty Tighty by Lefty Lucy on Spotify, Apple Music and other streaming services. Follow them @lefty_lucy_band on Instagram for news on upcoming shows and new music.
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