Thee Headcoatees • The Sisters Of Suave LP (vinyl)
The Sisters Of Suave brings together 16 essential recordings from Thee Headcoatees, the all-female Garage Rock outfit assembled around the wild Medway sound of Billy Childish. Originally released across singles and B-sides between 1992 and 1998, this collection gathers together a wealth of hard-to-find material, including Davey Crockett, Headcoat Girl, Ballad Of The Insolent Pup, Johnny Jack and Spineless Little Shit.
Produced and recorded by Billy Childish alongside Graham Semark and Liam Watson, the album features vocals from Bongo Debbie, Holly Golightly, Kyra LaRubia and Ludella Black, backed by a stripped-down combination of guitars, bass and drums. The tracklist mixes Childish originals with wonderfully irreverent covers, including the Ramones' Swallow My Pride, The Sonics' Strychnine, Ray Davies' I Gotta Move and Plastic Bertrand's Ça Plaine Pour Moi.
From the primitive Garage Rock attack of I'm Happy and Evil Thing to the gloriously daft My Boyfriend's Learning Karate and Jackie Chan Does Kung Fu, The Sisters Of Suave captures Thee Headcoatees in their rawest and most entertaining form. Originally issued as a compilation in 1999 and reissued on vinyl in 2014, it's a particularly useful collection of the group's scattered singles material and a fine snapshot of the irreverent, lo-fi energy at the heart of the Medway Garage scene.
