Music Magazine
No. 3, June 1999

THE HISSYFITS

"I'm in a bad mood. All my best laid plans are shot to hell. I could have been in drag race heaven at the Mopar Nationals in Carlisle, PA, but I had to stay in town. I remember that The Hissyfits are playing at Meow Mix. The Hissyfits write songs that have that summer-time girl group style with a good deal of punk push and occasional bitterness (i.e., early Slits, Brix's Adult Net). Each song is complex in that there are multiple hooks, fugues, and rounds, using three voices and three instruments at times all countering each other. They are not shy to use a big hardcore burst, even with soft, sing-song vocals. The band is playing all cat ears and tail...a glitter explosion.

A couple of songs into their set...a guy walks up to Princess (the guitar player) and complains about the feedback. This jerk becomes a symbol of everything that is wrong about the current state of music (and art, and literature, and film). Is everyone afraid? --Why is everyone holding back? And why do they want to hold others back?--The Hissyfits' guitar leads are based on feedback, the type of feedback that sounds like a hundred kittens writhing in pain. I mean, they have a cassette single called "Kitty Cat Smack" (for Christ's sake)...thus, the "FIT!" in Hissyfits. This sets their music apart from other pop/punk bands, not to mention they counter pretty songs played with the intent to sabotage conventional pop music from within. They are the most pop band that I have seen in a long time while being decidedly ANTI-POP. Working all the cliches like that old school punk name game, The Hissyfits are: Suzi Blade, Princess, and P-Girl. After the show we all lick our paws and get ready to leave Meow Mix."

(The author then talks about another band, Flux Information Sciences, who sound kind of like an electronica/noise band and then goes on to say...)

"Even though these bands sound very different, they have one thing in common: being the products of art schools, they manage to transcend artiness for expressiveness. Both bands are heavy on the d.i.y. side and conceptually their work incorporates philosophy, look, product, and sound. Whereas Flux Information Sciences is music for a new corporation, The Hissyfits mimic the Carrie Nations (the fictional, mega girl group in Russ Myers' Beneath the Valley of the Dolls) exploiting themselves before anyone else can. Both bands have a positive outlook about the possibilities of what they are doing. Breaking it down to build it up, they are very different from my generation's love of the negative. I am still in a bad mood, but I like these bands."--Steven Parrino, p.55