Granny is a Brooklyn super group of sorts; comprised of guitarist Leslie Hong, who also fronts Haybaby, drummer Mattie Siegel, who was the backbone for Lunchbox, and bassist Jenny Moffett, who was in Hippy. Together, the trio has been employing the same snarl that is present in all of their other endeavors, but with an earnest approach that brings a personal tone specific to Granny.
Explaining their origin, Hong told us:
We were joking about starting a band called Handjobs, but then Jenny’s band broke up and she was like, “sorry dudes, I’m kinda burnt out on music.” So Mattie and I were very bummed, but decided to go ahead and start a band anyway.
I had all this material that didn’t really fit with Haybaby, which tends to be much darker and heavier, and envisioned Mattie’s drumming style over them perfectly. After a few months of playing out with this material I got really bored and sad singing these songs by myself and despite several offers from people to join the band, I only wanted Jenny. Then one disgustingly cold February night she accidentally happened to be at a show we were playing, saw us, and fell back in love with music. We played the long game and won!
It might be cliché to say there’s a theme of sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll running through their debut EP, EGG, but with song titles like “Coke Slut”, “Text Me”, and “Punk Hunk”, Granny wears their hearts on their proverbial sleeves. A collection of six demo tracks, there’s an underlying sense of candor and humor that brings a experiential nature to the songwriting. All of the songs are in the two-minute range, and it doesn’t take long for Granny to reveal their efficiency.
“I had a dream that I died…” the EP begins on “Lemon Cake”, before Hong finishes, “…my hair blue.” This lighthearted approach allows them to broach serious topics with an authenticity and sincerity that never teeters on camp. Earlier in the year, Katie Capri wrote: “[Hong] sent a shiver through my tear ducts singing about the awkward gray areas of female experience; of being in bands, with a man, fake fawned over by a coked out bimbo, and trying to operate within a society organized into stereotypes when you don’t feel like one. All this cultural critique comes in riot grrrl reminiscent vocal stylings.”
In a two-song swing, Granny addresses the complexity of feelings that arise when your texts of yearning go unanswered, and on the next, the playfulness of your punk rock crush. It’s the sort of lyrical honesty (seemingly effortless) that will obviously give female listeners a point of reference they can relate to, but even when viewed through the male gaze, can offer insight into the parallels that exist between the sexes when we all wonder, “why won’t they just text me back!?”
Granny will release EGG via a limited edition cassette on December 21, and they’ll be celebrating with a release show at Palisades in Brooklyn that same night. You can stream it in full below.
