Purrrspective

Eve Evol ain't dissin' men

by John O'Neill

"I'm tired of guys using the word `pussy' in a derogatory way. It's where we all come from, and that's pretty powerful. It's awesome. It shouldn't be a term for weak or lame. So I wrote `Pussy Power' as a way of validating it as a positive. Pussy is not an insult, it's a privilege."

Meet Eve Evol, lead vocalist, guitarist, and frontal lobe of Boston's Purrr, a band who've been kicking up quite a storm on the local level in the past several years and who've played Worcester on a regular basis. With a sound that can best be described as a mix of L7, Motörhead, and Alice Cooper fronted by Linda Blair à la The Exorcist, Purrr certainly know how to bring the noise. But while most bands would be happy to just get out and rock, Evol is on a crusade to use this medium as a way to deliver her message.

"My raison d'être is that violence against women in this society is condoned more than it should be," she says during our recent late-night conversation. "If a cop gets killed, there's this big ceremony. If it's a woman or a child, no one cares that much. These are someone's wives, sisters, children. There's just so much violence."

Founded in late 1995, after Evol split from Boston's seminal all-female headbangers Malachite, Purrr, after finally settling the problem of revolving bass players, found themselves quickly swept up in the current frenzy surrounding woman-fronted bands. They landed on two compilation albums -- Runt of the Litter (Fan Attic) and Girls, Girls, Girls (Curve of the Earth) -- and released their debut CD, Pussy Power (In Heat Records), in November of '97.

With the advent of Pussy Power, Evol, along with the rhythm section of bassist Matt Sullivan and drummer Mike Logiudice, has been able to deliver her take-no-prisoners diatribes to a new level; and people are listening. The CD currently charts on CMJ in areas as diverse as New Mexico, Nebraska, California, and Nova Scotia. Locally, WCUW, WMBR, WZBC, WERS, WMPG and the band's biggest backer, the big-shots at WAAF, all have Purrr in rotation.

"The CD has been the best thing for [the band], and radio has been really good to us," she says. "Over time we've gotten better shows [they play Sir Morgan's Cove this Friday, then head to Rochester, New Hampshire, for a Sunday gig), things are beginning to build. We're more focused on what we want to do, and now that the band has jelled, I have more time to write music."

Ah, the music. Pussy Power contains six of Evol's power protests, ranging from a retelling of the 1995 slaying of Laura Rosenthal in the "Butcher's Wife" to the glorification of female sexuality in "Pussy Power," to her self-described ecofeminist apocalyptic, "Armageddon on Me." Evol's thunderbolts of judgment on domestic abuse, rape, and the testosterone-laced idiocy inherent in the more privileged of the sexes are delivered with scathing, in-your-face vocals and a pummeling rhythm that welds metal/punk aesthetics to riot-grrrl sentimentality. But what makes the riot-grrrl movement automatically obscure -- it's decidedly overt anti-male stance -- isn't as prevalent in Purrr's message.

"I'm not about dissing men," she explains. "I'm about dissing men who diss women. I'm antimisogynist, and Purrr is more what I'm about. I don't want to write stuff that's too abrasive where you exclude the audience. I just want to draw you in, in an uncompromising sort of way."

Teenage kicks

Besides receiving really boffo local and national CDs here at Phoenix Headquarters, every so often we get an item for our reading pleasure. Book of the Month goes to the outstanding The Great Lost Photographs of Eddie Rocco (Norton Books). Staff fotog for the landmark Rhythm and Blues magazine during the 1950s as well as house photographer for Hollywood hot spots like the Oasis, Mocombo, and the Trails, Rocco's camera captures much of the early Los Angeles and Dallas R&B scene as it was happening in black clubs and bars.

Included are incredible snapshots of Ruth Brown, Dinah Washington, Johnny Otis, the Treniers, Esquirita (the man Little Richard reportedly copped his look and sound from), and Chubby Checker doing their thing live to early '60s portraits of Jan and Dean, Roy Orbison, the Beach Boys, the Byrds, Bob Dylan, and the Yardbirds (the Jimmy Page/Jeff Beck line-up). Also included are liner notes by the indispensable Miriam Linna, who, besides always being a fun read, is one of the world's top rock-and-roll authorities. At $19.95, The Great Lost Photographs of Eddie Rocco is a steal for both the early rock-and-roll nut and anyone interested in having a good book around for those quiet moments in the bathroom. (Norton Books, Box 646, Cooper Station, New York, NY 10276-0646)