the moaners

The Moaners are a female rock duo that manages to capture the unapologetic sexuality of PJ Harvey with the raw amplified blues of the Fat Possum crowd. Featuring former Trailer Bride front woman Melissa Swingle and transplanted Baltimore punk drummer Laura King, The Moaners unleash a batch of hard love songs on their debut, Dark Snack. From the opening yowl of feedback that precedes the album's pounding opener, this album is an exuberant expression of freedom and sexual emancipation from a distinctly female perspective. Whereas Swingle's previous band, Trailer Bride, conjured visions of dark, Flannery O'Connor-esque tales, moss-covered trees and mournful secrets, The Moaners are a rock band that are as comfortable invoking the spirit of Chapel Hill-born folk/blues legend Elizabeth Cotton as doing their own reworking of "House of the Rising Sun" with lyrics inspired by a local rural joint, the Paradise Club. Swingle's Mississippi-bred drawl wraps around the lyrics like a warm wind - an instantly recognizable voice that can go from honeydrip sweet to searing in seconds flat. Playing a bottleneck guitar that would make White Zombie or Paul Leary of the Butthole Surfers proud, but infusing it with the best classic garage pop sensibility of 60s and 70s punk, Melissa Swingle and Laura King blast through a set of original rockers that should put the fear into any other guitar/drums duo left standing after the initial assault. Sure you can trace the blues influence in Swingel's riffing or the Stooges' Scott Asheton's tribal pounding in Kings brutal drumming, when all's said and done though, The Moaners just Rock with a capital "R." Their debut release came out this week on Yep Roc. Buy Dark Snack here.

Catch em on tour through the midwest in the next couple of weeks!

SA 01.29.05 - Chapel Hill, NC
TH 02.03.05 - Asheville, NC
FR 02.04.05 - Cincinnati, OH
SA 02.05.05 - Chicago, IL
SU 02.06.05 - Appleton, WI
MO 02.07.05 - Madison, WI
TU 02.08.05 - Bloomington, IN - 2nd Story
WE 02.09.05 - Detroit, MI. - The Belmont
TH 02.10.05 - Dayton, OH. - Elbo's
FR 02.11.05 - Cleveland, OH. - Beachland Ballroom
SA 02.12.05 - Cary, NC. - The Hibernian Pub

The Moaners - Heart Attack