Grunge Punk Singles

Kitty Junk brings a playful edge (and Rock Paper Scissors) to grunge

The band upends a narrative, real or imagined, that grunge music is about little more than being seriously into facial piercings and heavy eye shadow.

Release date: May 27, 2021

Kitty Junk brings a playful edge (and Rock Paper Scissors) to grunge June 2, 2021

Sam Luikens is a writer based in Seattle. He lives with his husband and their daughter, Humbug, who is a cat of course.

Photo by Bill Bungard

While we were all navigating quarantine last year, punk guitarist and singer Ryan Lee (Mallory, Atrocity Girl) and metal drummer Angie Dane (Atrocity Girl) were busy forming their grunge supergroup, Kitty Junk.

“Head Rush,” the second release from their forthcoming, self-titled LP is the product of a year’s worth of canceled shows, quarantine, and virtual means of connecting with fans — exemplified best through their quirky, at-home talk show, Kat Chats. The unscripted, mostly casual banter offers a glimpse behind the scenes of life as women in the music industry. For Lee and Dane, vlogging is an opportunity to show fans they’re serious about music (everything going onto their LP is self-produced, recorded, and mixed), but that they don’t take themselves too seriously. The show is delightfully un-edgy. Every episode includes a lot of laughter — some they share, and some they direct (lovingly) at one another. It’s a compliment to the darker lyrical elements in their music (and the darkness inherent in grunge generally) that injects playful personality into their aesthetic.

That aesthetic comes to life on “Head Rush,” which opens on a softly spooky electric guitar strumming a hypnotically repetitive minor chord progression as Lee starts in with distant, reverberating moans. Her vocals are clean and edgy, calling to mind some femme combination of The Smashing Pumpkins and Green Day as she sings, “There’s a place for people like you, too / Where they drown for all the things you do.” It’s dark and mysterious, but Lee teases the consonants of some words with a confident lightheartedness — “sink into yourself and [sssss]wim” — like a cat chasing a spider: not to kill, but to play.

It’s this conviviality folded into the raw grunge of “Head Rush” that’s sure to make anyone skeptical of “edgy” music the least bit curious. Listen, I wear socks with sandals. I have zero edge. But during my research for this review, I couldn’t help but fall under the Kitty Junk spell — not just for their music, but the playful earnesty with which they allow fans in, even if it’s to reveal that Lee doesn’t know the rules to Rock, Paper, Scissors. They upend a narrative, real or imagined, that grunge music is about little more than being seriously into facial piercings and heavy eye shadow. Sometimes it’s about getting really honest with fans while sipping rosé from martini glasses.

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9.5

Vocals

9.0/10

Lyrics

8.5/10

Versatility

10.0/10

Glam to Grunge ratio

10.0/10

Offstage authenticity

10.0/10

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Sam Luikens is a writer based in Seattle. He lives with his husband and their daughter, Humbug, who is a cat of course.