January 15, 2003

By Vivian Host

ONCE UPON A time, there were two girls, both from indie mecca Olympia, Wash., both with bangs. Both bonded over a shared love of Cheap Trick and power pop and that other '70s phenomenon: the Ramones. They wanted to rock. They had to rock.

The year is 1997, 20 years after 1977. Sarah Utter has been sitting at home, bored, listening to Black Sabbath and Blue Cheer. She decides to start a band, inspired by the sound "bang." She runs into drummer Jesse Fox at a party in Tacoma. Through friends, she gets a phone number for Maggie Vail, who is related to indie rock royalty, being the younger sister of Tobi Vail of influential riot grrrl outfit Bikini Kill, as well as a member of no fewer than five bands herself. Known as a drummer, Maggie has played guitar but has never picked up a bass before. She really wants to be in a new band. She borrows a bass from her mom, and Bangs are born.

Bangs play backyard shows. They do a West Coast tour with new wave band Satisfact. After less than a year of performing together, they crank out their first album, Tiger Beat (1998), in three days. Released on Kill Rock Stars, where Vail works in publicity, the record – 10 spitfire-quick tracks – clocks in at 26 minutes. It makes you want to carve their name on your locker with a switchblade. Its cute-but-lethal vocals (the two girls, Utter and Vail, trade off singing) and reckless pace beg comparisons to the edgy pop moments of the Go-Go's and girl punk bands like Sleater-Kinney and Team Dresch; Utter's love of wailing cock rock guitar riffs has not yet reared its powerful head on record. The band heats up on tour: they crash on living-room floors, get invited by the Girl Scouts to record its theme song, and tighten up their sassy sound.

Burning through drummers

As in all fairy tales, the princesses do get the prince, but only after a few tries. After barreling through four drummers in four years – one was too flighty, one's sound was too incompatible, one just didn't want to tour – Vail and Utter settle down with Peter Connelly in November 2001. Connelly turns out to be just right, a laid-back musician of all trades who sings a mean backup falsetto and whose punchy one-two drumming contributes extra verve to Bangs' 2002 EP, Call and Response. "I think the inspiration for a lot of the EP came from the excitement of playing with Peter," Vail says. "We have really good chemistry songwriting-wise, and I think he's a crazy musical genius."

Bangs' sound has been refined in the past two years into a perfect melding of happy melodies and angry punk pacing, with surprisingly tearing, metallic riffs that wouldn't be out of place on a Skid Row or Bon Jovi track. The trio make the perfect road music, bursts of manic energy that make you want more, with their longest song topping out at four minutes.

Being surrounded by other Olympia bands known for their DIY ethics and feminist lyrics has definitely had an influence on Bangs, although their sound always seems less focused on lyrical content than on overall force, from the powerful drums to the rocket-fast vocals. Vail and Utter have sweet, still-girlish voices, although the latter's has more of an angry hiccup to it. Some songs tackle distinctly feminist topics, like Utter's fierce response to a man heckling her on the street in "Call and Response," although many, like "Train Wreck," are just pure pop fodder: "Hey you standing by the jukebox," Vail sings. "Hot stuff, just the kind of boy I've been dreaming of."

"Most of my songs are more personal," Vail says. "They're almost all about a bad relationship, while Sarah has broader political lyrics." Bangs aren't continually raging against the machine like some of their Kill Rock Stars label counterparts, but Vail gets annoyed when music critics suggest that the band isn't political. "I just don't think that's true," she says. "We haven't been that overtly political lyrically, but being women fronting a loud rock band and speaking about personal issues is political."

Although all three band members collaborate on the instrumentals, the songwriting and melodies are usually left up to Utter and Vail to work out on their own. "We're both terrible procrastinators at lyrics," Vail says. "I was writing the words for 'Leave It Behind' while I was sitting in the cab of my truck, and Sarah was doing guitar overdubs – it was already on the next stage of recording, and I was still scrambling to finish. That track was kind of hard to write. Actually, they're all sort of like that. I wait until the last minute because the lyrics are personal and hard to talk about. And then at the last minute, when I have to do it, I'm just like, 'Fuck it, I'll say whatever. I gotta say what I feel.' "

Roadside attractions

After five tours supporting acts such as the Makers, the Hot Snakes, and Sleater-Kinney, Bangs are souped-up, supercharged, and gearing up to embark on their first solo outing. "I'm kind of nervous but I'm excited too," Vail says.

"This time there's no person to take us out of our band reality," she adds with a laugh. "So it might get kind of intense."

They'll be setting off from Olympia Jan. 17, with Vail behind the wheel of the minivan and Rocket from the Crypt on the tape deck. The girls are particularly excited about their San Francisco stop Jan. 19; Vail says the city now almost feels like a second home. "It's probably the place we've played the most often, maybe even more than Seattle," she explains. "I'm really honestly looking forward to playing the Bottom of the Hill again because we haven't on the last few tours. And so many of our friends have moved from Olympia to the Bay Area that it will be good just to be there."

By now Bangs have plenty of on-the-road rituals. There's the usual stuff, like whoever drives gets to have control of the tape deck. There are practical rituals, such as the money-saving all-grain diet that keeps Connelly sustained. "For some reason, I always seem to leave on tour with no money at all," he says. "On the last tour, we were in Iowa, and I walked a mile to the nearest Wal-Mart just so I could buy a cereal bowl. And then I ate cereal in the van a lot of the rest of the tour. It's really fine for any meal of the day with me."

Vail takes charge of the rest stops and refueling. "I remember every place we've ever eaten on tour and how to get there," she says. "They're always really amazed by that. I'm like, 'Oh, we're in Columbia, Missouri. I know exactly where that juice bar/health restaurant is.' " Vail is also the designated organizer, and on this tour, she's going to try kicking things into gear for Bangs' next album. "I want to try to start writing stuff on tour because there's so much downtime," she says. "I just got a four-track, and I have so many song ideas in my head."

Their glass slippers may have been replaced by Chuck Taylors, their coach and horse may be a minivan, but you can bet Bangs' ball will still be fantastic.