7. The DistillersCoral Fang
I picked this album up shortly after it came out, and at the time I was in a teenage band, who were awful, and I wanted to scream and I wanted to sing but I didn’t know how to do both, and I heard this record and I just kinda gave up on the idea. I remember thinking ‘Brody Dalle’s doing this better than I ever will, and it’s a girl,’ and immediately I just loved everything about it. When you’re a young teenage boy in the suburbs at some point you’ve got to get by on testosterone alone just to survive in that field of football games you don’t want to play in. I just loved Brody fiercely, unapologetically being herself, and it just sounded like a glass of fucking acid in your face. I really like every record they’ve made, but Coral Fang specifically is as close to acid in the face as music gets.
Every now and then you’ll get a band that works purely on chemistry, and then sometimes there’s a person in the band that’s just magnetic, and for whatever reason you just can’t get away from them. I think it’s got a lot to do with that open sense of self and the confidence that comes from knowing who you are as an artist. It doesn’t really matter if you’ve got no idea who you are as a person – I’ve just become a dad and that’s turned everything I thought I knew about myself on my head – and she’s definitely a role model in that respect, in regards to just unashamedly being herself. She sings and there’s a sound, it’s like an extra instrument. It’s rare you can have someone who can put so much style into every word.
