Girls on Grass Review

Girls On Grass is a four-piece rock band based in Brooklyn, NY. They have a 50/50 male-female lineup, a radio-friendly, garage-rock sound with jangly guitars, pop hooks, and smart songwriting.

The group recently recorded an 11-song LP titled “Dirty Power” at Cowboy Technical Services in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

I spoke to lead singer-songwriter-guitarist Barbara Endes and drummer Nancy Polstein about their new record, video, and show opening for Canadian psychedelic country rockers The Sadies at Union Pool on Tuesday, April 2.

SR: How did you all meet?

BE: I saw Nancy drumming with Spike Priggen’s band, Gowanus All-Stars (and was blown away) back in 2014, I believe… also I would see her boyfriend out at shows and at one point I asked him what her situation was… he said she was very busy, but might be interested in forming a new band with me. She was definitely busy – I think playing in at least two other bands at the time? But she agreed to get together and try this thing and then we spent several months woodshedding, just the two of us. That was great for me because I hadn’t played guitar and done my own songs in a band setting in a really long time. It was a nice gestation period. Then we found our bassist Dave Mandl through a friend, and I asked my friend Sean Eden (guitarist of Luna and once my band mate in Elk City) to join and he graciously accepted. Recently Sean’s touring schedule with Luna got much busier, so sadly we had to recruit someone else, but happily, the super-talented David Weiss made himself available! I knew David through his work in the band Trailer Radio.

NP: My boyfriend was definitely the connector. He took me to see a band Barbara was playing bass in (Weal and the Woe?), and almost instantly I thought “Holy shit, I want to be in a band with her!” Then a couple of months later we ran into each other at Jalopy, a cool venue/music school/scene in Red Hook, where we expressed a mutual admiration and decided to get together and play to see what happens.

SR: What’s behind the band name?

BE: There’s a lot of imagery from my childhood/teenage years in there. The name doesn’t refer to any one thing per se, and it’s not a bluegrass reference. If you have another reference in mind, it’s probably not too far off…

NP: Yeah, it alludes to a number of experiences many can relate to…

SR: Who are some of your major influences?

BE: I think I’ve mostly been influenced by classic country and early rock n roll music over the past 15 years or so… Buck Owens, Patsy Cline, George Jones, Janis Martin to name a few favorites. As a kid I loved the early R.E.M. records, later got turned onto bands like X and the Gun Club… I still listen to that early LA punk stuff a lot. I love the Mekons.

NP: My earliest influences were 60’s British Invasion stuff, and some singer-songwriters like Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt. Along the way I was introduced to, and fell in love with, the bedrock country artists Barbara already mentioned, plus upstarts like The Flying Burrito Brothers and Dwight Yoakam. Other favs include The Pretenders, The Replacements, Tom Petty, The Band. I’m definitely more of a songwriter’s drummer than a drummer’s drummer. To some degree I’ve been influenced by the likes of John Bonham and Ringo Starr. But many drummers I admire and try to emulate, like Noah Levy of the Honeydogs/Brian Setzer Band, are not as well- known and, in my opinion, they should be.

SR: How does the songwriting process work?

BE: There’s no set process on my part. I generally either come up with a vocal melody with either real words or gibberish, and I build on that, or I sit down with my guitar and come up with bits and pieces, or sometimes a whole song progression in a sitting. A lot of my vocal ideas happen when I’m out walking around, that’s a great brain stimulator… In general I like to take a mostly fully-formed song (guitar and vocals) to the band and then we play it round and round and develop our parts.

NP: Barbara has an unusual, very rhythmic, guitar style that often informs where the drum part lands.

SR: Rock & Roll tends to be a dude dominated world, but your group is unique in having a 50/50 female/male split. Thoughts about this & being women in rock?

BE: It just kind of happened this way. It’s nice to have some balance in the band in terms of gender, I guess, although I’m not sure the four of us tend to follow stereotypical gender roles.

NP: I really don’t think about it. I was very much a tomboy growing up and gender was not a particular driver of many personal choices. Have always assumed the same mindset of the musicians who choose to play with me.

SR: Can you tell me about your new album & video?

BE: This album is similar thematically to the first one, though I think my politics came to the fore a lot more this time. I see that as a reaction to the elections and all the bullshit that’s fallen out since. I also put my gay vegan self out there more this time lyrically. No holding back any more, the stakes are higher. In terms of instrumentation we kept things pretty straight-up again this time, but David and I have worked a lot on complementing one another on guitar, which I think really developed our sound heading into the sessions.

We recorded with Eric Ambel at his studio in Greenpoint. Eric was really great at helping hone our song arrangements and distill the songs down to their core. He was also super creative in the moment, came up with some beautiful vocal harmony ideas… the recording sessions with him were pretty darned efficient and full of brainstorming and collaboration.

The video for “Down at the Bottom” was shot primarily out at Coney Island which was a good fit with the water imagery and general theme of non-exclusivity and doing your own thing.

NP: Girls on Grass’ sound has definitely evolved. The songs rock harder and the surfy instrumentals came together really quickly and are super fun to play. Like Barbara pointed out, I think we’re more conscious of fine-tuning the essentials this time around.

SR: Upcoming shows with the Sadies? What’s your relationship?

BE: I’ve been friends with their bass player Sean on social media for a while. He’s the nicest dude. I guess I hounded him for a shot at a shared gig long enough that his management eventually wanted to let him off the hook! They’re my favorite live band, period.

NP: Barbara introduced me to The Sadies (thank you, Barbara!) They are just such great musicians and put out at shows like nobody’s business. Super inspiring.

SR: How have you seen the NY music scene change & where’s it at today?

BE: Nancy is better equipped to comment on this than I am, since I only moved here in 2004. But in the short time I’ve been here so many good NY venues have closed, and that’s a huge bummer. I don’t think that’s happening in some other big cities, for example, Chicago.

I have found that there is a NY/NJ music scene that is full of incredibly talented and smart musicians who really support one another – it’s great because I might not have expected to find that here, coming from the much smaller city of Milwaukee which has a cool but obviously smaller music scene.

NP: Growing up I was lucky to be able to see shows at legendary clubs like CBGB’s and the Lone Star. When I started performing around NYC in the early 90’s, there were so many venues like The Rodeo Bar, Nightingales, Ludlow Bar and Continental Divide that really supported the music scene I was part of. Those clubs were home to what felt like a family of talented bands and songwriters. including The Blue Chieftains, World Famous Blue Jays, Amy Allison and the whole Diesel Only label scene. A couple of years later, The Lakeside Lounge picked up the mantle and was THE place for a lot of bands in our evolving circle, until it closed in 2012. There was also the Hoboken/Maxwells scene which hosted the likes of The dB’s, The Bongos, The Feelies and Yo La Tengo. All those places are gone now… But not to be a total bummer, this is NYC — always reinventing itself which isn’t necessarily a bad thing for creativity.

SR: What’s your relationship with WFMU?

BE: Our own Dave Mandl (bass player) is a DJ at WFMU. We’re also friendly with several other DJs either through Dave or through other friendships. WFMU has been very good to us, super supportive. The culture of WFMU is fascinating to me. Their roster of DJs and staff is like a brain trust – a brain trust made up of really funny people with excellent taste. WFMU is a cultural miracle, and everyone should listen and support WFMU. Also their phone app is indispensable.

NP: Support WFMU! One of the very few actual free-form stations left.

SR: Anything else you’d like to add or for the public to know?

BE: I’d say we hope your readers take a minute to check out our new record on their preferred streaming service or on bandcamp – the album should be live (pre-release) by the time you publish this – and if they like what they hear, come hang with us at a show. Also – anyone who’s not already a fan of the Sadies, seriously, do yourselves a favor and get tickets for their Union Pool residency (preferably April 2nd, the night we open for them!). These guys are the real deal. And we’ll have copies of the record on hand at a pre-sale price. 🙂

SR: Any words of wisdom from either of you ladies to girls who want to rock?

BE: My advice is to see as many live performances as possible (online for now?) and that if playing music feels good, she never has to stop doing it no matter what society or anyone says.

NP: Play along with music you like a lot, look for opportunities to play with musicians who have more experience than you, and believe in yourself regardless of any noise that says otherwise.

For more information, see their website: www.girlsongrassband.com