Beyond listening to the music that arrives to the Trash mail, I like reading the bio’s that often accompany it. Especially those sent from other countries where the translation is way off and sounds like a garbled mess in English. They make me laugh. Then you get the pretentious, tangled verbage that you can’t understand and don’t bother reading. Inject something like, “FEMME are definitely not pussies” and I’m kinda interested.

Formed about two years ago, FEMME have been playing sold out basements in their hometown of Montreal, and spreading their sound to Ottawa, Toronto, NYC and beyond. They describe themselves as, “electro-glam-rock that are quite in touch with their feminine side – A dark, romantic, twisted dancefloor blackhole, where Nine Inch Nails and N-Sync get it on and spawn a wild and fresh electro, rock infused jam”. Well I don’t know much about N-Sync – Clearly they’ve got their personal take on the eighties coldwave and boy-bands.

Their first EP release, “Bathtub Clashes“, out 22 of April on Saboteur Records, contains two original FEMME tracks, “Bathtub Clash” and “Crimes and Nightcalls”, plus remixes (and 2 exclusives to Trash!) by Cosmo, Rawalpindi and CFCF (+ CFCF Remixes). On “Bathtub Clash”, they sing about random, obscure things like giant bathtubs, placebos, infection, and black water. Nothing has to make total sense these days, especially when there is a nice vocal behind. Cosmo and CFCF give the tune two totally different sounds.

FEMME are currently honing their art with live sets in the U.S. and Canada, and are in the process of recording their first full album, set for release in early 2009 on Saboteur. We may never know if Julien and Sidney of FEMME really are pussies, but I like their attempt at showing their ‘macho’ side, “We’re NOT pussies!!!!!!” (Guaranteed they’re going to be hearing the pussy thing repeated to them over and over if that bit stays in the bio.)

FEMME - Bathtub Clash

FEMME - Bathtub Clash (Cosmo Remix)

FEMME - Bathtub Clash (CFCF Remix)