NYLON - April 2009 - (Page 150) radar: riot act 150 the coathangers may be an all-girl band, but there’s nothing girlie about them. by nick marino. photographed by talaia amoura whisenant grrrl vitriol and eyelash-batting charm—the aural equivalent of getting mugged by a Girl Scout. The band formed back in 2006, and within a few months, was playing gigs around Atlanta. Since they grew up listening to punk rock, musical expertise was not a priority. Kugel, however, has had some classical guitar training and learned her first power chord from Jones’s boyfriend. (“She moves us to tears on a regular basis. On a daily fucking basis,” Luke cracks about Kugel’s skills. “I have to wear smudge-proof mascara.”) Today Kugel is the Coathangers’ de facto frontwoman, though truth be told, the band members’ roles are unusually fluid. Everyone sings. Everyone gets songwriting credits. And live, they all seem to jockey for the role of frontwoman. A few days later when the Coathangers tear through a set at the local nightclub Star Bar, Kugel starts out on guitar and eventually moves to drums. Franco also takes a whack at the drums, and sings lead vocals on a song called “Nestle in My Boobies.” At one point, Luke belches into the microphone. At another, she drains a beer then crushes the can against her BELIEVE IT OR not, the raucous Coathangers used to be kind of shy—so shy, in fact, that when they’d get on stage, they wouldn’t even move. Then one day, they watched footage of themselves at an early gig and were horrified at what they saw. “We looked bored,” says drummer Stephanie Luke, who’s gathered today with her bandmates at a burrito joint in their hometown of Atlanta. “We looked like we didn’t even want to be there, when in reality we were just petrified ’cause we wanted to be there so bad.” When the band headed out on their first tour in 2007, it turned out to be an exercise in confidence-building. “We came back,” says singer-guitarist Julia Kugel, “and we were like, ‘We should just not give a fuck.’ And then we just didn’t give a fuck.” Since then, the foursome—which also includes keyboardist Candice Jones and bassist Meredith Franco—has developed quite the swagger. Luke, whose right arm is sleeved with tattoos, describes the band’s temperament as, “I’ll whoop your ass, but then we’ll go get ice cream.” Adds Jones: “We’re all about talking it out. If you don’t listen to words, then you’ll listen to our fists.” Affected or not, their attitude is still effective. You can listen to said fighting words on their brash, confrontational, and playful sophomore album, Scramble. The Coathangers recorded it in seven days (that’s about six days longer than they spent recording their self-titled debut), and they wound up with a helter-skelter mix of riot-
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