PREVIEW: Piney Gir @ The Head of Steam

By Lee Fisher on September 11, 2012 in Music

Living in London in what I believe we’re supposed to call the noughties, it seemed like Piney Gir (Angela Penhaligon to her ma) was everywhere. From electro duos to cropping up on Broken Family Band singles, she was a restless force to be reckoned with, and she doesn’t seem to have settled down a whole lot since I fled up North.

Born in the States but moving over here in the late 90s, she first came to people’s notice in the aptly named, suitably bleepy Vic20, but started to really get props when she reworked some of her Peakahokahoo album in a country style, eventually forming the Piney Gir Country Roadshow and releasing Hold Your Horses.

With the release of last year’s Geronimo album things shifted again, in a Super-8 sunshine jangle pop direction, and – as usual – it works. If you need proof, check out the imminent Damaged Goods single Would You Be There (the video is a Wonder Years credit sequence-style gem that Piney edited together herself).

I think it sounds quite a lot like Juliana Hatfield fronting The Byrds, if you can imagine such a thing. Backed by her Zig Zag Wanderers band (extra props for the Beefheart reference) and with Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Rob Campanella getting just the right sepia tint behind the desk (or “special sunshine machine”, as Piney would have it), it’s a bit of a gem. So not only should you pick up the single (out 17 September, pop-kids!) but you should head down to the Head Of Steam on Thursday 13 September to see her live. Of course by then she might have started playing gabba and changed her name to Lenny Genitals. You can never be sure with Piney.

Piney Gir, Correatown and Gem Andrews play the Head Of Steam in Newcastle on Thursday 13 September.

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