THE NEWEST PROJECT from veteran Athens bassist Jeff Hannan, SheHeHe breeds and thrives in that post-rock hothouse where early American punk was conceived: Fast, loud, sloppy and fun. It’s no accident that the band has a woman (Nicole Bechill) singing lead and a woman (Noelle Shuck) on rhythm guitar and co-lead vocals; it fits with the SheHeHe garage manifesto—the music crashes and careens into metallic trash cans like an alleycat yowl, a runaway mashup of the Runaways and the Ramones. (For the record, the sexes are tipped by the presence of drummer Jason Fusco and blistering lead guitarist Ben T. Bone). Sometimes all five membersa of the band sing in unison.
There’s a healthy streak of New York Dolls-ish proto punk and flashy glam, too, in the grooves of the band’s New American Jet Rock full-length, and several songs that conjures the ghosts of such unlikely guitar heros as Blue Cheer and Jefferson Airplane—but only the Runaway Ramones could get away with a song like “Hail Vagina” (with lyrics consisting of just those two words, against fierce rock ‘n’ roll banging). Works for us!
Chicks rule with the opening band as well. Singer/guitarist Kimi Shelter (“she’s just a shot away”) fronts StarBenders, from Atlanta, and vocally she’s got that Wendy O. Willams-meets-Siouxsie Sue thing going on.
