A listen through Le Butcherettes’ new album A Raw Youth claws at the seams of what one immediately considers ‘punk rock’. Through a poet’s heart and furiously wild spirit, the third LP from Teri Gender Bender and friends puts a far more political snarl in the Mexican garage-punk world they inhabit, and the ferocity of passion through which they operate is equal parts enchanting and electrifying.
Le Butcherettes have two previous album releases, their 2011 debut Sin, Sin, Sin and the 2014 offering Cry Is For The Flies – but the momentum behind A Raw Youth propels the notion that this is their time to strike on a much larger scale. The band is comprised of Teri, drummer Chris Common and bassist Jamie Aaron Aux, who recorded the album at RLP Studios (The Morgue Portable Disaster Unit) in El Paso, Texas. Omar Rodriguez Lopez once again produced, as he has done for both previous Le Butcherettes’ releases.
Early arrivals who tuned in or came to the band’s initial shows may have been drawn in by Rodriguez’s gravity through The Mars Volta, but make no mistake: this is Teri’s project. Born Teri Suarez, this Guadalajara export has become Teri Gender Bender, one of the rawest, most potently vulnerable and visionary minds in rock. With co-signs from Henry Rollins, Shirley Manson, Iggy Pop (who guests on A Raw Youth) and beyond, her sociopolitical gusto, passionately volatile voice and explosively emotive depth have found a proper home on Mike Patton’s Ipecac Recordings. At times a sweetly delicate heartbreak melody spinner and a wild creature exploring humanity through an alien vessel at others, Bender’s onstage charisma is an impossible captivation.
For our Band of The Month taping, Teri and Chris met us at an off-the-map restaurant in Hollywood, a secret location decorated with ornately weird artifacts, as if a rock star’s bedroom was decorated by Immortan Joe from Mad Max. The duo, in blood-red outfits, was astoundingly sweet and engaging in person, delivering a gorgeously stripped performance of a few new songs from A Raw Youth. Watch below as Teri commpletely inhabits “Shave The Pride,” with some impressive brushwork from Chris, exclusively on Crave:
Check back next week for another track rom Le Butcherettes, and pick up A Raw Youth on iTunes. Also keep up with the band on Facebook and Twitter.
Le Butcherettes Tour dates:
October 29 Burgos, Spain Estudio 27
October 30 Santander, Spain Niagara
October 31 Barcelona, Spain La De Nitsa
November 1 Cadrete, Spain La Ley Seca
November 3 Madrid, Spain Fun House Music Bar
November 6 Lisbon, Portugal Sabotage Club
November 7 Leiria, Portugal Beat Club
November 8 A Coruna, Spain Sala Mardi Gras
November 10 Bilbao, Spain Cafe Antzokia
November 11 San Sebastian, Spain Le Bukowski
November 12 Bordeaux, France IBOAT
November 14 Paris, France Point FMR
November 16 London, UK Underworld Camden
November 19 Brussels, Belgium Magasin 4
November 20 Delft, Netherlands De Veste
November 21 Landgraaf, Netherlands Oefenbunker
November 24 Berlin, Germany Kantine am Berghain
Previous Band of The Month Performances:
Alain Johannes / Grieves / Steel Panther / Vintage Trouble / Semi Precious Weapons
Hot Karate / RX Bandits / Nico Vega / The Mowgli’s / Dessa / Everlast / Motopony
