Review: The Soviettes LP, LP II and LP III CDs

When you look up The Soviettes on Amazon the list page also offers The Epoxies, which is the wrong comparison except to say by the third cd Annie of The Soviettes learned to control her voice in a similar fashion as Roxy Epoxy, or maybe Martha Davis of The Motels. Roxy is the better singer, but no offense.

If you listen to these three discs in a row there's a progression through the short history of Grrrl punk from Bikini Kill to more recent Sleater-Kinney with stops for Cub, The Donnas, The Buzzcocks and even a Joy Division guitar lick thrown in for yuks. It's mostly based in power chord pop-punk, and they make every song rousing and interesting on some level. The Soviettes are also good at rendering "emotional" guitar chords, which I trace back to Cock Sparrer and always loved on Sloppy Seconds records.

I like Sleater-Kinney, Bikini Kill and their ilk like The Soviettes but never find myself putting them on for entertainment. I do love Cub though and will never part with my Anti-Scrunti Faction LP. Pretty Girls Make Graves are a few times more interesting to listen to but you should sample a few tracks from each cd and see what you think (you can do this at both allmusic.com and amazon.com)