I.U.D. shows us how to have The Proper Sex

By Amy Kaufman
Published: March 24th, 2009 | 4:30am

Sadie Laska and Lizzi Bougatsos aren’t intimidated by their busy schedules. Instead, they embrace their moments spared from tours and rehearsals with their respective bands to perform as the duo I.U.D. The two met in their first days at West Virginia University and formed a fast friendship that was kindled over their mutual appreciation of fine art. They soon became frequent collaborators in both musical and dramatic performance pieces around campus, and after graduation, they hit the Big Apple where they immersed themselves in the rich soil that has been home to the American Avant-garde. Laska had already started playing with the new-to-New York noise boys of Growing when Bougatsos, who had just returned to the States after an overseas tour with her band Gang Gang Dance, approached her with a personal project.

At the time, Bougatsos was captivated by the heavily percussive styling of Japanese noise act Boredoms and the band’s side projects, like the all-female band OOIOO. Their experimentalism inspired Bougatsos to develop a new act, one where she and Laska would focus on similar primitive beats. They set the ball in motion, lining up a first gig as E.U.D. without having a set song list in place. “Just so we would make sure that we actually got the band together,” Laska explained. “That seemed like the easiest way to get it going: book a show and then we’d have to make songs.”

They later changed their name from E.U.D to I.U.D., both liking the ambiguity of acronyms. The band’s name is not meant as a political statement. Rather, Laska says, “it seemed kind of gross, punk, and just the perfect name for our two-girl band. It could have multiple meanings: Idiot Ultrasonic Disciples or something like that.”

Soon I.U.D. had developed a song list and were playing at underground places in and around New York. A brief, four-day session at Vacation Island Recording Studios prompted the duo to prepare for recording, using a set of songs from live performances as the backbone. They recorded the drums live in studio and spent the remaining time building the 38.5-minute album that would become The Proper Sex (The Social Registry), out March 24, 2009.

From the reggae-infused “Daddy” to the relentless and epic 11-minute “Girls Just Wanna (Time for Sex)” Laska’s collage of undetermined noises that are mashed up, distorted, and spit out through a pitch-shifter is the perfect match for Bougatsos’ blend of ominous cries and occasionally discernible lyrics. At first harsh and incongruous, the heavily textured tracks take their shape with ever changing tempos, taunting listeners to give in to their spontaneous ebbs and flows.

The Proper Sex, derived from an antiquated notion of “the softer sex,” seems to have outwardly obvious themes, but Laska insists that was unintentional. “With us it’s a little tongue-in-cheek, because we’re two ladies playing drums,” she said. “I thought that was a really cool title because it was so suggestive and vague in a way, like, what is proper sex? Are we talking about male-female or some other sex?”

The glossy glamor shot gracing the release’s cover is ripped straight from the 1976 Sparks’ album Big Beat, yet it fits seamlessly with the duo’s sense of humor and their whimsical approach to crafting their sound. “There’s no real intended statement behind anything,” Laska says of the band. “It is very reflective of our personalities and the things we enjoy, and I think that we both do have a real connection to fine art, and that is definitely in the record.”

Regardless of their elusive nature, one thing is for certain — when Sadie Laska and Lizzi Bougatsos set up face-to-face in the center of a stage, be prepared for an experience that is anything but proper.

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