Never Mind the Duty, Here’s Plastic Ants
Posted: January 7th, 2012 | Author: admin | Filed under: Cherry Music | Tags: afghan whigs, andrew mcmullen, anne brown, calvin brown, george gershwin, john curley, leviride, plastic ants, ultrasuede studio | No Comments »
Flouting the long-simmering tensions between the United States and Canada, Plastic Ants have tunneled through, crossed over, and crawled out—and now threaten to take over the world, albeit with tiny strides. Their first communiqué? The hard-jangle pragmatism of “Tough Girls (Got To Tough It Out),” out now on The All Night Party.
Formed in early 2010 after a long-gestating musical friendship fueled by armloads of duty-free beer, Plastic Ants comprises four musicians plucked from North America’s rival Queen Cities—singer-guitarist Robert Cherry and bassist John Curley from Cincinnati, and drummer Andrew McMullen and guitarist Calvin Brown from Toronto.
Curley captured the party at his Ultrasuede Studios, and in the aftermath of that first stolen weekend, playback revealed… whew. So it continued, with McMullen and Brown stealing across the falls and heading south toward the buckled plates above the Ohio River to further rumble Ultrasuede’s shag-skinned walls.
“Tough Girls” testifies to the magic that is Plastic Ants. Inspired by the late Anne Brown—Gershwin’s Bess who, performance by performance, integrated opera houses by sheer force of voice, decades before the Civil Rights movement—the song offers itself up as a nouveau New Wave anthem for the disenfranchised of any era. As Cherry croons, “You gotta drop the bombs you bring and tiny minds will expand in time to every word you sing.”
In the world carved out by Plastic Ants, you’re only as tiny as the height of your hopes. And things, well, they’re looking up.
credits
released May 29, 2010
Lyrics and Music By Robert Cherry, except “UFO Evidence,” by Paul Lahey
Robert Cherry – Vocals, Guitar
Calvin Brown – Guitar
Andrew McMullen – Drums
John Curley – Bass
with
Paul Lahey – Vocals
Austin Brown – Keys
Dan Barger, Rob Mulhauser – Horns
Produced by John Curley and Robert Cherry at Ultrasuede Studio, Cincinnati, OH. Mastering by Golden Mastering, except “Tough Girls,” mastered by Dave Davis.
Cover art by Jeff Johns