“If I could kick his head in, fickle little boyfriend, I’d be satisfied
If I could smack some sense into his senses, I might feel alright”

Lines from ‘Wishing He Was Dead’ there, a song which encapsulates what I love about this band, or at least their second album

Yes, a 60s Girl Group with modern aggression is a gimmick but it’s a good one and they execute it perfectly. It took quite a while for them to get there though. That’s from 2010 and they formed in 2001. Originally a 3 piece with a combined age of 46, they were a precocious bunch, but given that Z Berg and Charlotte Froom were both children of record producers and Tennesse Thomas’s dad was the long term drummer fo Elvis Costello a musical path was always likely. They released 3 EPs in as many years steadily increasing their audience and making the soundtrack of the movie Thirteen with the song ‘So I’ll Sit Here Waiting’

It’s not bad, not great. It sounds like early 00s Indie really, like a less striking Veruca Salt. Their first LP, ‘ Are You Thinking What I’m Thinking? released in 2005 wasn’t a great step forward, (it contained several re-worked track previously released on the EPs) although it was a more polished record.

The band re-booted in 2009, With Froom leaving and two new members joining, Reni Lane and Laeni Geronimo. They went on tours with UK bands like Arctic Monkeys and Razorlight, meeting Mark Ronson on their travels. This led in turn to their change of sound and the Ronson produced album Release Me coming out in 2010.

As I said before, this is more like it. The Shangri-Las with a modern approach is exactly my cup of tea. I can’t help but feel there’s room for a lot more of this

Sadly, for whatever reason, the world disagreed. Or at least failed to elicit a strong response one way or the other and didn’t set the charts on fire.
Which is a shame. The only other vaguely similar act I’ve seen is Chantal Claret and this should definitely be more of a genre. Feel free to suggest any others below. Thanks