Cover of Static by Taxi Girls: a tattooed hand crushing an orange in a splash of water on a turquoise background

Taxi Girls come from Canada, an all-female band formed in 2022 and one we’d already got to know a few years back thanks to the Italian label Wild Honey Records, run by the intrepid Franz Barcella, who put out their first official material — both the EP "Coming up roses" and a 7-inch (the single "Rainy/The lion’s share") — and also slipped the band onto the Bergamo label’s compilation "Hit mania rok".

After sharing stages with NOFX and the Hives, sharpening their chops and their chemistry night after night, and picking up a nod of approval from Iggy Pop (no big deal, right…), the Montreal quartet — Jamie Radu and Vera Bozickovic on vocals, guitars and bass; Gabrielle Noël Bégin on guitar and backing vocals; Lynn Poulin on drums and backing vocals — has finally delivered its debut album, "Static", again on Wild Honey (and Stomp Records for the American market).

Quebec has form when it comes to jagged rock ‘n’ roll — think of "Sympathetic Sounds of Montreal", the compilation that caught the raw energy of that underground scene on tape some twenty years ago — and Taxi Girls seem happy to plug into the same lineage. Their formula is fresh, exuberant punk ‘n’ roll, mixing goofy good humour, fragility and furious riot grrrl self-awareness. Across the thirteen tracks our ears pick up plenty of clear reference points: Distillers, Muffs, Runaways, Bikini Kill, Hole, Donnas, Pandoras, Bobbyteens (the highlights here are certainly the opener "Say it!", "Try harder", "Auto hysterics", "Kill your darlings", "Secret handshake") and, why not, they also bring to mind Italy’s own Cleopatras. All of it shaken up with infusions of melodic power pop à la Bangles and Go-Go’s ("Red flag crush", "So quaint", "Midnight mixtape").

Here’s hoping these women stay exactly as they are — loud, sharp, and impossible to ignore — and keep going down this road with their gut-level, emotional rock ‘n’ roll, without selling their souls to the glossy mainstream. Taxi Girls’ first full-length stands as one of the most interesting debuts of the year, and further proof that our small independent labels still have a nose for the good stuff coming out of basements the world over.

TRACKLIST

  1. Say It!

  2. Try Harder

  3. Red Flag Crush

  4. Auto-Hysterics

  5. So Quaint

  6. Midnight Mixtape

  7. Kill Your Darlings

  8. Secret Handshake

  9. It Makes Me Think

  10. Highs // Lows

  11. Dark Time

  12. Don’t Leave Me Hanging

  13. Other Heart