{"id":9767,"date":"2014-12-16T16:14:26","date_gmt":"2014-12-16T16:14:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=9767"},"modified":"2014-12-16T16:14:26","modified_gmt":"2014-12-16T16:14:26","slug":"chica-boom-boom-two-girls-one-drum-kit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2014\/12\/16\/chica-boom-boom-two-girls-one-drum-kit\/","title":{"rendered":"Chica Boom Boom :: Two Girls, One Drum Kit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"10655217_345222368982118_8375012855497397731_o\"<\/a><\/p>\n

by Sheldon Birnie<\/strong><\/p>\n

Take a fuckton of pure raw rocking talent, age with thousands of cold road kilometers, season heavily with equal parts Fu Manchu, Scorpions, Alice Cooper and Dolly Parton, free pour in some whiskey and blood, two girls, one drum kit, and shake it up, hard.<\/p>\n

Voila: Chica Boom Boom.<\/p>\n

While still a relatively new project, Chica Boom Boom, the heavy dark fuzz duo of Joanne Rodriguez and Alana Mercer, are already a force to be reckoned with. Considering the bands these two gals have had a hand in over the years — the Vagiants, the Quiffs, the Gorgon, American Flamewhip, the Angry Dragons, the Gunness, and many more — how could it not be?<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved the Quiffs,\u201d says J-Rod.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I loved the Vagiants,\u201d responds Alana. Chica Boom Boom met up with Stylus<\/i> at the ANAF Club 60 for a few rounds of Irish whisky and cold Half Pints one snowy November evening. \u201cIt was really just like, we were playing the Albert a lot together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to be like, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s awesome being a girl\u2019,\u201d J-Rod says. \u201cBut when you see another female band or musicians, I\u2019m always like \u2018Awesome, another girl on the scene.\u2019 There\u2019s no room for like cattiness or competition, like Jem & the Holograms and the Misfits, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been done!\u201d says Alana.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou gotta help each other out,\u201d J-Rod opines, before wondering, \u201cWho was that Misfit that was always on the Holograms side?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cStormer,\u201d answers Alana without pause. \u201cShe was just a little<\/i> bad at heart. She couldn\u2019t help the way she was drawn.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cStormer was always like, evil, but still a good guy, you know? You gotta be a good guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which is to say that Alana and J-Rod go back a long, long way. After meeting in the ladies room at the Albert way back when, the two have formed a long lasting musical friendship and bond after their various bands shared hundreds of bills and travelled thousands of kilometers together on the cold roads that connect disparate Canadian music scenes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen that weird, tunnel vision tour talk gets started,\u201d Alana says. \u201cYou can tell we\u2019ve toured enough together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you click, you click,\u201d J-Rod says. \u201cAnd we definitely click. We lived together for a while, we date brothers [Joe & Karl Warkentin FYI], we shared a deodorant for a year. But, I mean, it was a large, men\u2019s deodorant, not a tiny girl deodorant.\u201d<\/p>\n

These two powerhouses first joined forces when Alana stepped into fill the Angry Dragons drum stool when Bill Northcott had a baby. But when the Dragons went on hiatus (\u201cpeople get married, people open shops, people get management jobs\u2026\u201d), J-Rod and Alana knew they wanted to continue making music together.<\/p>\n

\u201cLess people = easier scheduling,\u201d explains J-Rod. They did the math.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe both figured out pretty quickly that we both wanted to play something a little heavy,\u201d Alana explains. \u201cSomething where we know our hair is gonna be falling out from whatever we put it up in by the end of the set.\u201d<\/p>\n

Based on their mutual love for heavy, fuzzy rock (Melvins, Fu Manchu, et al.), and a penchant for \u201ccovers of covers of covers,\u201d Chica Boom Boom was born. Alana either plays guitar and a kick drum while J-Rod tackles bass and a pedal-bound tambourine or high-hat, or Alana\u2019s on the full-kit while J-Rod rocks bass for heavier, stoner inspired jams. Both women share vocal duties.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re kind of meeting in the middle with our voices,\u201d Alana says. \u201cShe can actually sing and I can\u2019t. I sound like cookie monster. But we find a way to harmonize that doesn\u2019t sound crazy. Or too crazy, anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something to be said about achieving a heavy sound between two people,\u201d muses J-Rod, citing the influence of heavy duos Japandroids, Death From Above 1979, and the Pack AD.<\/p>\n

And so, nearly two years in, the band have four songs in the can, with dates in the studio set for late December to hammer out some more. How those songs will appear has yet to be determined, but they\u2019ll be out in some form in the New Year (\u201cmaybe a 7\u201d, maybe a full length?\u201d) courtesy of Transistor 66.<\/p>\n

Chica Boom Boom are also rather ebullient over their upcoming opening slot for another influential Winnipeg duo, playing a rare reunion show on Boxing Day: Duotang.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuotang were cutting edge in their heyday,\u201d says J-Rod. \u201cI saw them on the Wedge all the time. But to hear they were playing a reunion show in their hometown at the Good Will? That\u2019s awesome. And two girls opening up for two guys? That\u2019s perfect!\u201d<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss Chica Boom Boom and Duotang on Boxing Day at the Good Will Social Club. And keep your eyes peeled for their debut vinyl release early in 2015.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Sheldon Birnie Take a fuckton of pure raw rocking talent, age with thousands of cold road kilometers, season heavily with equal parts Fu Manchu, Scorpions, Alice Cooper and Dolly Parton, free pour in some whiskey and blood, two girls, one drum kit, and shake it up, hard. Voila: Chica Boom Boom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[563,1033],"class_list":["post-9767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-local","tag-transistor-66"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9767\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}