Girls On Grass to Release Sophomore Album, 'Dirty Power'

Brooklyn's Girls on Grass announce the release of their sophomore album, Dirty Power, on April 5, 2019. The video for the first single off the album, "Down At The Bottom", premieres on The Big Takeover today.

Providing a bit of sunshine and summer dreaming during this long winter, the video for this upbeat, catchy song was filmed at Coney Island. With lyrics that reference beach imagery and embracing who you are, Coney Island's accessibility and diversity was perfect for a starring role.

Girls on Grass, despite their moniker, is precisely 50% girl- Barbara Endes (writer, singer, guitarist), drummer Nancy Polstein (the Friggs, Cheri Knight, Star City)-and 50% boy: blues/alt-country vet David Weiss on lead guitar (replacing Sean Eden), and WFMU's own Dave Mandl on bass. Upon her arrival in NYC in 2004, Barbara served time in a handful of bands; it took a decade for her songwriting identity to blossom, and when it did, it contained multitudes: not only her Wisconsin working-class folk-country sensibility, but all the strains she took in as a kid and as a working musician. Think very, very melodic roots-y but also psych-inflected bands: the dBs, the Rain Parade, plus a big dose of surf and rockabilly. Plus, just warm as heck.

"Down At The Bottom", kicks off Dirty Power, a collection of 11 songs that continues Barbara's lay-it-on-the-line approach to songcraft but ups the ante musically with a more-developed guitar interplay that's equal parts Sticky Fingers and Marquee Moon. The album was recorded with producer Eric Ambel (alum of Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, Del-Lords, Blood Oranges) and engineer Mario Viele at Cowboy Technical Services, with mix engineering by Michael James.

Things sound a bit richer this time around, noticeably the vocal harmonies. There's also more a distinctly political edge- which only occasionally turns literal, as in the pounding, garage-y "Commander in Thief" (guess who?)-but even then, the lyrics side-steps the obvious. Come to think of think of it, this is kind of a (gasp) concept album: a meditation on how power, in its various forms, shapes both our private and public lives. And how these realms interpenetrate.

Dirty Power is bookended by "Down at the Bottom," which sets the tone with an invitation from our girl to join her in opting out of a hypercompetitive society, and "Thoughts Are Free," which makes a poignant case for love over conformity. Its concluding line: "You're the only responsibility I don't want to avoid."

In between, the personal and political vie for equal time; in "Street Fight," our singer is a righteous bicyclist, in "Friday Night" she's in the throes of an awkward teen crush. "Got to Laugh to Keep from Crying" features the immortal line, "Left my man for a woman who looks like Aimee Mann"(!), and the amazing "Into the Sun" is a rousing cry for freedom-from a pig in captivity. All this and two (count 'em) instrumentals, of the psych-surf and Balkan variety, respectively. Oh yeah, and a great song recounting the time John Doe wrote in her journal LOTS TO DO, DON'T WAIT. She didn't.

Girls on Grass will be supporting The Sadies at Union Pool on April 2nd.