The Clorox Girls - or - the punks are all dancing the Twist!

After Andrea finishes up school, I'm half-seriously considering kidnapping her and dragging her with me to the Northwest. Yeah, it may rain a lot and be full of Gen X neo-hippies, but the Portland-Seattle axis has been churning out some of the best bands in recent memory. The ability to see the Briefs or the Epoxies several times a year sounds like heaven to a superfan such as I. Besides, having to put up with the ubiquitous coffee houses packed to the gills with smelly, would-be intellectuals is a small price to pay for the ability to turn a four hour roadtrip into an opportunity to stalk Joey Shithead.

One of the up and coming groups from the area (yeah, like there hasn't been buzz about them since their self-titled debut, but now that they're signed to BYO, people care) are Portland-by-the-way-of-Oakland's the Clorox Girls. They ditched the area mostly because the Bay Area, while awesome (I mean, c'mon, Operation Ivy, Crimpshrine, JAWBREAKER), is full of Maximumrock'n'roll types, La Policia Del Punk. The types that even Ben Weasel, one of the biggest assholes alive, couldn't stomach for very long. While it can be fun for a while, I imagine hanging around people who did nothing but drink stolen Steel Reserve, listen to Discharge, and bitch about who was and wasn't "pure" would get really annoying really fucking fast.

This is the situation that Justin Maurer and original Clorox Girls drummer Clay found themselves in. So, in order to piss off the crusties, they started playing a glammed up power-pop take on punk rock not unlike the Exploding Hearts, but less garage, more bedroom lo-fi. While their first two releases were spikey bursts of punk pop a la the first few Buzzcocks singles, their new record on BYO, J'aime Les Filles, is a poppier record, as evidenced by killer lead single "Flowers of Evil."

For people who want to put the Zero Boys and T. Rex in a blender together.

Flowers of Evil: http://www.mediafire.com/?bwhiq0zkrym

Upper Hand: http://www.mediafire.com/?75okjjztndt

Protect You, Girl: http://www.mediafire.com/?9jywzunkwwm