POTTY MOUTH

Imagine the cool girls from high school: the cheery, bottle-blonde ones who went to homecoming and had a lot of school spirit. Now imagine the girls who were cooler than the cool girls, the ones your parents hoped you wouldn’t date or be. Now you have a picture of the girls from Potty Mouth.

Funnily enough, they only fit their ultra cool-girl stereotype if that stereotype also paints them as incredibly bright and driven. Hailing from Northampton, Massachusetts, Potty Mouth was pulled together by bassist Ally Einbender, who wanted an outlet where she could write her own music, so she set out to start a group. The girls quickly settled into their instruments and recorded their first EP, Sun Damage, in September 2011.

Since that time Potty Mouth has been making their steady ascension into the music spotlight, garnering national attention with their debut album Hell Bent. The record is a fast-paced, danceable album that never stops to come up for air until it’s over. Guitar-centric and driven, if you weren’t paying attention Hell Bent might feel pretty expected. Where Potty Mouth, and Hell Bent in particular, break the mold is in their focus on content; lead singer Abby Weems fills her lyrics with intention, writing relatable songs about the quandaries of growing up that plague many of us: our dreams, our relationships, our identities.

Their newest release, the Potty Mouth EP, came out in August of this year and it is complex, beautiful and supremely catchy. It’s refreshing to see the group find ways to be more intentional in their musicianship as they always have lyrically. Where Hell Bent started and finished at a full-on sprint, their new EP slows down and highlights the band’s range. At a slower pace, the sarcasm and passion Weems so carefully constructs in her songwriting finds more resonance with listeners. It’s impossible to listen to any of their music and not find it absolutely dripping with sass, but in their newest release they seem to have found a perfect paradox between bratty and beautiful. »

– Sarah Eaton

Potty Mouth play Mississippi Studios on 10/21, buy tickets right here.