Civet

Hell Hath No Fury (Hellcat)

By Anne C. Johnson
Published: August 30th, 2008 | 12:10am

Long Beach, California all-female foursome Civet, like many others, is committed to keeping punk rock alive. This band's spin is of the “femme fatale” variety. Sure, why not, everything else has been tried at this point to resuscitate the punk rock corpse; Civet, however, considers itself free of the “reflexive feminist stance” that “burdened their predecessors.”

If you view a picture of the band before hearing Civet, you might be surprised at how tough the girls actually do sound. This is due mostly to the ferociousness of Ms. Liza Graves' vocals, although they do fall short of the boldness demonstrated by their second generation feminist (yeah, I said it) forebears (L7, Seven Year Bitch). Civet is at its best during anthemic songs; “Do A Line (Of Alibis)” and “Son Of a Bitch” fit the I-am-pissed-off bill perfectly. Meanwhile, “All I Want,” a nice tribute to the spirit of friendship, paints these ladies as a loyal bunch.

In 1986, seminal punk band Crass released a compilation called Best Before 1984, which offers a great way to view anything that bears the descriptor “punk rock.” Once hardcore punk exhausted itself in the mid-‘80s, it was pretty much time to hang it up. Musically, the punk movement has been strictly lateral, and some might argue that the sound has absolutely worn out its usefulness. Civet can be kinda bad ass for sure, but many of the songs are simply just indistinguishable from another. As the record limps towards the last song (which also happens to be the title track), Graves starts dropping her fearsome growl, almost as if she too is tired of the whole charade.

—

Civet’s official site

Civet’s MySpace page