Sohodolls – Ribbed Music for the Numb Generation

Release date: 3rd September 2007

Format: Album
Genre: Electro Rock
Our Rating: 4/5

Sohodolls’ debut album is a parody of wonderfully sleazy drunken night out – a sweaty basement bar dancing to big electro rock with a big grin on your face.  With thumping drums threaded with strong bouncing melodies, there’s something reminiscent of Goldfrapp with the quirkness and energy of CSS here.

The band claim that the aim of the album is to awaken primal senses and this music’s full sound and amplitude of styles and ideas certainly portrays their emotions and these rub off on the listener.

From My Vampire’s anthemic beats that slowly build to a rocking electro track with a melting vocal, Right and Right Again of fat drums and heavy guitars, to the delightful I’m Not Cool – sexy and sophisticated – making you feel like you’re swinging with an old school big band, and the sultry, assertive No Regrets: the lyrics “Hotter than your average bitch” over a raw bass, sung with a sweetness that throws your senses into that mild confusion.

With a huge mix of influences Sohodolls travel through this album with a strength and grace that means you can’t help but listen.  They can look forwarded to awakening their followers’ senses.  From the first listen the album makes you want to catch their next gig.

Review by Emily Kate Stephens

Press Release:
“Utterly magnificent slab of haughty electro-sleaze which makes Peaches sound as predatory and erotically charged as KT Tunstall. Let them get frosty on your ass – it is winter after all.”       NME [on last single ‘No Regrets’]

“Post-feminism sex rock n roll and it’s downright tasty…let’s do the nasty on the dancefloor”          The Fly

SOHODOLLS release their long-awaited debut album, ‘Ribbed Music For The Numb Generation,’ on September 24th.

Produced by Robert Harder (Whitey, Polar Bear, Babyshambles, The Sunshine Underground) and Steve Lyon (Depeche Mode, The Cure), ‘Ribbed Music…’ is a twelve-track trawl through an electro-tinged rock ’n’ roll underworld. ’’Ironically,’’ says Toni,  ’’an album about strippers, violence, paranoia and police car chases was actually recorded in a barn in Cornwall, surrounded by horses, sheep and summer berries in bloom.”
 
The band’s eclectic influences have conspired to create a multi-textured debut:  “We love rock ’n’ roll, electro, glam, ’77-british punk, jazz and hip hop,” says Maya. “All these extremes make our music ribbed. We don’t fit easily into pigeon-holes – not in music and not in life. We feel our generation has been cheated. Modern life has conspired to make us dumb, numb and un-questioning. We want people to tap into their primal senses again: lust, anger, love, fear, compassion, happiness and humour. Lyrically and musically the songs on this album express all of these feelings and instincts.”
And the band’s favourite tracks? “’My Vampire’ is one,” says Toni, “with its hypnotic dubby bass, twangy guitars and haunting vocals.  ‘Trash The Rental’ is Asbo Glam Punk for both narcissistic glam rockers and chavs. It’s a racy joy ride through London with the police on our tails. There are some nasty guitars, ballistic synths and antagonising vocals. Finally we all especially love ‘I’m Not Cool’ – an electro/rockabilly/old jazz track. It’s basically Marilyn Monroe having the Stray Cats and Soft Cell over for dinner.”
Other highlights include anthemic new single, ‘Right And Right Again’ (out September 3), last year’s acclaimed ‘No Regrets’ (“a flamboyant homosexual marriage between Dr Dre and Marc Almond,” said Maya at the time) – and longstanding club favourite ‘Prince Harry’. Not to mention the rather seminal debut ‘Stripper’.

Some History
Sohodolls’ first two singles caused enough of a stir to reach #7 and #’12 in the UK indie charts. These were followed by last year’s classic ‘Stripper’, which won acclaim everywhere from The Fly to Clash and NME. They just played the O2 Wireless festivals in Hyde Park and Leeds supporting The Klaxons and Daft Punk – at both their shows the XFM tent was rammed to the hilt. Next they’ll be playing the Secret Garden Festival. There’ll be a brief break before they embark on their 5th but most extensive headline UK tour in the autumn. Previously the band supported She Wants Revenge on a UK tour, played to packed out venues in Berlin and Cologne as part of British Music Week, performed at Hugh Heffner’s Playboy party in Moscow and the Big Issue’s 15th Anniversary Concert at the Shepherd Bush Empire.

Some Stories
Maya Von Doll was 7 years old when she was airlifted from war in Beirut onto a ship bound for Cyprus. “I wanted there to be bombs as it was more exciting,” she remembers, “but my parents knew they had to get me out.” Four years later, in 1992, the family decided to move to the UK permanently. “I’m going to be an English girl,” declared the headstrong 11 year old, who professed, too, that she “liked their school uniforms”. But whilst other girls in her class were getting down to R ‘n’ B and hip hop (“it was ridiculous!”) Maya decided to turn her attention to the burgeoning Britpop scene. And who better to show her a thing or two than Blur’s Alex James? “I met him at 16,” she sighs, “ although at the time I knew nothing about his band. But all I will say is that Alex instigated the desire in me to be a singer. Before then, I wanted to be a corporate lawyer. A cold bitch with a penthouse apartment.”
 
A couple of indie bands and one degree in economics later (“well, you need something to back you up in life”) – but with no penthouse on the horizon – Maya met Sohodolls co-founder Toni Sailor. 

 “My father was away on the boats for months and my mother was nowhere to be found.” So says Toni, who was placed in a children’s home soon after his birth in Hamina, a Finnish port town brimming over with sailors, the military and prostitutes. At the age of four, Toni was adopted by a priest and his wife, who brought him up. Playing in a couple of bands in his teens, he soon found himself in notorious Finnish garage-rock combo Lowdown Shakin’ Chills: “We achieved the sort of status where everyone knew who we were,” he says, “but no-one was buying our records.” So a move to London was in order.

And three years ago Toni met Maya. “I was watching her then band at the Rhythm Factory in East London,” he says. “Three girls and a mini-disc player for drums. I really didn’t like it.” He smiles. “Good songs though.”  After the gig, Toni was offered £80 a day to drive the band around and play guitar – and, somehow, he – unlike the other two girls – has been a Doll ever since. 

Aged 11, Weston Doll spent his time having organ lessons at a Yamaha Music School. By 14 he was more into socialising and the female species (“all I cared about was vodka, fags, girls and the local park”). From one organ to, um, another. After enrolling in a degree in Music Production a couple of years ago, he thought he should play an instrument again, and these days, whilst still fond of vodka, he’s also a dab hand with a keyboard: “I love them.  I have one for each corner of my room along with my set of decks,” he enthuses. Weston met Maya through MySpace last year. Actually, within ten minutes Maya and Toni asked if he was available to play their Istanbul date two weeks later. It really was that simple.

www.sohodolls.co.uk    
www.myspace.com/sohodolls 

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MyVillage, 17th August