Metro Pulse/Music/Fairmount Girls

Comment
on this story

What:
The Fairmount Girls, opening for the Ass Ponys

When:
Saturday, April 13 at 9 p.m.

Where:
Pilot Light

Cost:
$5

The Fairmount Girls sound like Cincinnati

by John Sewell

Cincinnati boasts a relatively large music scene, but it's not exactly the kind of place that outside bands relocate to in search of a big break. The bands that cause a buzz in the area generally have to work hard and play out for a while, developing idiosyncratic styles of their own.

With five years of experience under their collective belts, The Fairmount Girls have indeed carved out their own niche in Cincinnati. And now the band is spreading its touring radius through the South and East Coast, gathering fans along the way (this week, they're teamed with fellow Cincinnatians the Ass Ponys). No strangers to Knoxville, the Girls have already played the Pilot Light several times and received a lot of airplay on WUTK.

The release of their sophomore album, Tender Trap (Dreary Me Records), finds the Girls at a creative peak. It's nearly impossible to pigeonhole the band, which is a good thing. The Girls' music is based in pop, but there's something just a little unsettling about their delivery that draws comparison to Come or The Pixies. Let's just say that Fairmount's most famous residents have obviously digested their share of post-1980 college rock, including an obvious diet of esteemed Ohio stalwarts like The Breeders and Guided By Voices. These Girls know their stuff.

And The Fairmount Girls really are girls—well, four out of five of them anyway. So sometimes an issue is made out of the "women in rock" thing. But being a female-dominated band is really not an issue, a selling point or a stumbling block for the group.

"Well, women in rock is what we are," says organist/vocalist Melissa Fairmount. "Really, we've never perceived any kind of a stigma or anything like that. I'll have to say that I've really never noticed any kind of problem presented by the band being primarily female. And we've never had anybody say, 'oh cool, it's a chick band,' either. Isn't that refreshing?"

The tracks on Tender Trap impart a sense of desperation that is certainly not limited to male or female experiences. But the general feeling of dread and tension conveyed by The Fairmount Girls' music is certainly palpable.

"So you think our lyrics are bleak? Well you know, we all go through changes, man," says Fairmount, laughing. "There are some bleak parts I suppose, but that's really a 'half empty or half full' way of looking at the songs. And I don't think that you're necessarily supposed to be able to say, 'this song is about X' when you hear a song. The songs come out how they come out. I think they're pretty clear myself—maybe a little bit confusing at times, perhaps. But if you can relate to the songs at all, that's good enough."

"I really don't think the lyrics are gender specific," adds drummer Cuddly D (a.k.a. Dana Hamblen). "Most of the lyrics are more like Bob Pollard's or John Lennon's lyrics. They're that honest."

Honest perhaps, but are the Fairmount Girls' lyrics on par with the aforementioned lyrical masters? "I think sometimes the lyrics really are that good," Cuddly D continues. "I mean, John Lennon's songs were simple, plain and honest, just like ours."

The band is truly proud of their Ohio heritage, and Fairmount truly is a place, though the band's idea of what it's all about might be contrary to a description you'd find in the Chamber of Commerce. "Oh baby, Fairmount is my neighborhood," brags Melissa Fairmount. "Right now, you have satellited into the backyard of sunny South Fairmount, Cincinnati, Ohio. It's a beautiful place: balmy, beautiful grass, sunny, as of now we're sitting out on my back porch and the thermometer's around 70 degrees." (Actually, after looking at The Weather Channel, this intrepid reporter discovered the temperature to be around 25 degrees at the time of the interview.)

But there surely is a bright and sunny forecast for The Fairmount Girls' musical neighborhood. The band was chosen as best indie/alternative band by Cincinnati's City Beat magazine for two years running. And just moments before the interview, they received word of two upcoming shows in the big pool of New York City, one at the esteemed über-punk hellhole, CBGB's.

Five years of creative interaction and the rigors of travel have done nothing to diminish the band's fervor for their music. The residents of Fairmount all seem to have achieved an equal say in the band's direction.

"There is neither a queen nor a king of the band," says Melissa Fairmount. "And we've never really gone through a battle royal when we put together the songs—absolutely not.

"For the most part, Dana and I do the lyrics. But there is always room for other people to bring in their lyrics, which they do. They [the other members] bring in their ooh-la-la's and their other input, we all just stick it all together, and it works."