Montreal quartet Taxi Girls make a sharp, hook-heavy kind of garage punk on Static, their debut. Jamie Radu and Vera Bozickovic share lead vocals, trading lines and then joining up over distorted guitar, bass and Lynn Poulin’s driving drums. Gabrielle Noël Bégin adds the lead guitar bite, while keyboards and synths from Sheenah Ko bring extra colour without smoothing off the rough edges. The songs move quickly, but the choruses are big enough to stick around, with “Say It!”, “Red Flag Crush” and “Midnight Mixtape” carrying the record’s direct, shout-along charge.
There’s a clear Montreal underground feel here, though Taxi Girls also draw on the punchy rock attitude of The Donnas and Joan Jett, with some of Bikini Kill’s vocal friction. Static deals with love, loss, mental health, postpartum depression and nostalgia, yet it keeps pushing forward instead of sinking into those subjects. Ryan Battistuzzi’s production leaves the guitars blunt and physical, and the band’s two-vocalist setup gives the songs a sense of argument and release. People after compact punk songs with strong melodies, loud guitars and enough emotional weight to make the hooks matter should find plenty to grab onto. It’s available as a paid release on vinyl and in lossless digital formats.
