Duos: good in music. A rhetoric, yes, but think White Stripes, Carpenters, Death From Above 1979, Crystal Castles, Electronic, the seminal and legendary Charles & Eddie… *totally* backupable. Duos in rock’n’roll are ace. FACT… and so it is with Diet Cig.
Hailing from New York and flying the punk rock flag first hoiked up nearly forty years ago by The Ramones and Blondie, the pair – Noah Bowman and Alex Luciano – will be releasing their debut LP Swear I’m Good At This in April, via Frenchkiss. The record apparently is a rally against unfair dismissal and discrimination for non-conformity to societal norms: and Tummy Ache is paving the way for its socially-conscious arrival.
Speaking via a statement, the band describe the single as “all about unpacking the feeling of approaching punk with radical softness, and the struggle when it’s not always read as powerful or cool or whatever enough. It’s the shout into my pillow when what I’m saying isn’t being heard, and a big old I FEEL YA to all the femme folks creating space for themselves in a world that wants to keep us quiet.” A statement of intent, then: a gentle war-cry wrapped in crunching steel, a kiss with a fist.
“I don’t need a man to hold my hand / and that’s just something you’ll never understand”, cheeps Luciano in the sweetest of tones, surrounded by a maelstrom of pounding drum syncopation and chomping meaty power chords. Punk is once again sounding the war-horn – and we’re listening loud and clear.
