Some Girls

“Basically, we wanted to brutalize people and have each song punch people in the face and not let up until they were choking on their own blood. None of this eyeliner-wearing, cupcake shit—just putting listeners’ open ears on the curb and stomping on their heads.” Sal Gallegos, Some Girls

The above is good an intro as any to Some Girls, a five-piece unit of punk pedigree hailing from San Diego, California. Sure, the group is comprised of the crème de le crass of musicians from the city’s famed hardcore/punk underground, but that’s not really the most important thing about Some Girls. Juicy quotes and name checks of the influential groups Some Girls’ members have played in (the Locust, American Nightmare, Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower, Unbroken) are fine and good, but all you really need to do to understand what Some Girls are about is to listen to their music—if you can handle it.

With Heaven’s Pregnant Teens, Some Girls’ first release on Epitaph Records, the group has honed its white knuckled assault down to 25 minutes of unrelenting musical psychosis while adding new dimensions of brutality to their now-trademark thrash attack. Throughout the album’s thirteen tracks, complex time changes invert riffs on their heads as layers of guitars trample each other before spreading out into electrified tendrils. Bassist Justin Pearson’s fuck fuzz-soaked bass and drummer Sal Gallegos’ unremitting percussive attack provide a manic backdrop to singer Wes Eisold’s frantic caged dog vocal assailments. In short, it’s a musical mindfuck. From the cannon shot intro of the album’s crushing opener “Beautiful Rune” to the death drone of its nine-minute closing suite “Deathwish,” Heaven’s Pregnant Teens is a document of five twisted musical minds making the most gloriously deranged noise producer Alex Newport (At The Drive In, The Locust, Sepultura) could commit to tape.

Some Girls began in early 2002 when singer Wes Eisbold (American Nightmare) and guitarist Rob Moran (ex-Unbroken) spoke of putting together a fast and noisy hardcore band that would “fuck people up.” The very next day, drummer and Two Miles Till Iocon studios owner Sal Gallegos was called in to assist Eisbold and Moran with their mission and, within a few sweaty hours, the first Some Girls songs were born.

After being floored by the raw demos the trio had cooked up, Deathwish Inc. Records honchos Jacob Bannon (Converge) and Tre McCarthy offered to put out the band’s first 7-inch release and after some remixing and re-mastering, the record buying public had The Rains EP to sink their depraved little teeth into. With a record out and plans to bring the group’s fury to the stage, the time had come for Some Girls to get a bass player—sorta. “The original idea was to get a different bass player for each show,” explains Gallegos. “We got into touch with Justin about playing our second show and after seeing that he had great ideas and was into what were doing, asked him to join.”

In the months that followed, Some Girls added a second guitar player (former Crimson Curse and current Tristeza member Christopher Sprague), recorded another EP (The Blues) that would later be collected with The Rains on the All My Friends Are Going Death compilation and embarked on a two successful (that is, if you consider, as Some Girls do, shows where the band members bleed, spit and trash their way into audiences consciousness a success) East and West Coast tours in 2004.

Shortly after the East Coast tour, Sprague parted ways with the band to concentrate on his work with Tristeza and was replaced by Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower guitarist Chuck Rowell. Charged by Rowell’s contributions to the band’s evolving sound, the group entered the studio in August 2004 to record The DNA Will Have Its Say, a blistering seven track EP that hinted at the band’s future musical ambitions to create something that was at once brutal and innovative. And, if you care, Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs sang on the title track.

With Heaven’s Pregnant Teens, Some Girls continue to abuse ears and limbs and go for the jugular as they take their songs to greater levels of experimentation and disorientation. “Hardcore is just another form of music that has its own musical uniforms and cookie cutter structures. With this record, we wanted to depart from traditional chord changes and time signatures and create something that doesn’t fit into an easily consumable format ” deadpans Rowell. “ We also wanted to punish, and I mean seriously punish people,” he adds.

And with that, you have the most crucial facts on Some Girls. Add to that list that the group is NOT a side project, and that guitarist Rob Moran has left the group to move to Seattle and pursue other projects and was replaced by Nathan Joyner in the Fall of 2005 and you are ready to dig into what the fivesome have spewed up. Which basically means that you are on your own from here. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Heaven’s Pregnant Teens Personnel /Resumes

Wes Eisold – vocals (American Nightmare/Give Up The Ghost)
Justin Pearson – bass (the Locust, Crimson Curse, Moly Molar, Swing Kids, Head Wound City)
Rob Moran – guitar (Unbroken, Over My Dead Body)
Chuck Rowell (Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower)
Sal Gallegos (Secret Fun Club, Two Miles Till Iocon Studio