Erase Errata @ Bottom of the Hill

Sem planos para um noite de 3ª feira, procuro na net algo de estimulante. A descrição da banda e o facto de ter sido referenciada numa compilação que recebi pouco antes de deixar Lisboa, levou-me a ir espreitar. Armazéns abandonados e o vazio circundam o Bottom of the Hill. A música que sai a custo pelas frestas deste bar despretencioso é o único som que se houve num raio de 5 quarteirões. Boa localização. O abrir da porta torna-se acolhedor. Por entre cervejas e whisky saltou-se ao som do baixo da foto. Gostei da atitude da sala e do vidro estilhaçado a decorar o palco. Apropriado.

Erase Errata are an all girl band from the Bay Area of San Francisco. They deal in intense scratchy sub Beefheart guitar lines and poinging over-exited bass. There are fast, jittery white funk rhythms and discordant climaxes. Their singer rants "I am a bird of prey!".

Song titles like "Retreat! The Most Familiar" and "A Thief Detests the Criminal, Elements of the Ruling Class" give you the idea of the territory: post riot girl, left-field and left wing. This is a kind of agit-prop, with "uncompromising" written all over it.

There is a tradition of music like this. Bands like Delta Five, The Au Pairs, Bogshed, Stump, The Pop Group. If you've heard of, and like, any of those, you will probably like this.

Another name that springs into my mind is the Dog Faced Hermans. They came out of Edinburgh in the mid 80s and were last seen in an anarchist squat in Holland. Erase Errata sound very, very like The Dog Faced Hermans. They even feature a badly played trumpet just like The Hermans. This trumpet irritated bourgeois male rock critics, but I liked it then, and I still like it now. I'm sure that Erase Errata sound so similar by accident rather than by design, but it's still odd.