Holy Golden - Fun Sucker

Holy Golden

Fun Sucker
self-released; 2014

3.7 out of 5

By J Simpson

Imagine if Courtney Love's Hole and Kurt Cobain's Nirvana were to get together and have a baby. I'm not talking about Francis Bean. I'm talking about their bands.

In the mid-90's, Kurt and Courtney were the ultimate angst rock power couple, embodying the apathy and under-the-surface rage of the times. And while it certainly wasn't their fault, and not because of their music, which wasn't that dissimilar, Hole and Nirvana were packaged as the boy and girl version of grunge. And while I knew plenty of ladies who adored Nirvana, and a handful of lads who liked Hole, that's where the lines stayed, for the most part. These hard and fast delineations are not only not helpful but they are actually harmful to the way we interact with each other and with art. There's still this feeling, with the pink-ing and blue-ing of the world that "I don't belong here."

This just isn't that true to what it is like, at least in the underground music communities. While I may have been born in a male body, I spend shitloads of time hanging out with girls and women, as well as listening to music, reading books and comics, and watching movies, made by females.

Detroit's Holy Golden is truly androgynous with lead vocals and keys from Leslie Schott but with powerful guitars and drums from Andrew Valenti and Salvadore MacNamara. On their release Fun Sucker Leslie Schott sings about curling her hair on "People" but the guitars rage and shred. They don't soften it up for the ladies.

I'm super glad that music like this exists, as I feel like there's been tons of rad powerful women in indie rock that have been unnecessarily ghetto-ized - PJ Harvey, Liz Phair, The Breeders, to name a few - who would appeal to anyone who likes raw, lo-fi indie rock 'n roll, but seemed to be marketed solely to a female audience.

Enough is enough. Good music is good music, and bad music is bad. Holy Golden is undoubtedly good music - Schott's vocals are always on-point, while Valenti's guitars are efficient and restrained, but gorgeous, and raging in all the right spots.

Holy Golden is holed up in Detroit, and building up a new lineup after Salvadore MacNamare relocated to the East Coast, so expect to hear more from these guys and gals in the near future. For fans of Matthew Sweet AND Liz Phair, The Breeders AND The Pixies. Because you know we love them all.

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