ARTSETC.
All-female group mixes ’70s rock with country
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by Adina Klein
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
When a five-person all-girl group comes to mind, most tend to think towards '90s groups such as the Spice Girls or All Saints. Antigone Rising doesn't even come close to this stereotype. No, this band is not one of P-Diddy's failed attempts at an all-girls group either. These girls have developed their own unique style of '70s rock mixed with folk and country. The Greenwich Village-based group has gotten the thumbs up from artists including Rob Thomas, Sheryl Crow and Stephen Tyler, acceptance received before the band was even signed.
Their debut CD, From the Ground Up, marks the first-ever music partnership between a band and Starbucks Coffee. The band is featured on Starbucks' Hear Music label, and the album was recorded live at Sony Studios.
The album opens with an intro song called "Hello." The track only has about six words for lyrics, but the power of sisters Cathy and Kristen Henderson's guitar work combined with the welcoming vocals of the singer known simply as Cassidy is too good to be ignored. Cassidy's voice rolls through the studio with a passion that is seldom heard anymore.
"Waiting, Watching, Wishing" starts out with a whiny guitar and has a sound similar to something of Melissa Ethridge. A band called the Push Stars wrote the song and although Antigone didn't pen it, the song is nevertheless done well and the guitar playing is absolutely excellent.
"She is Not Innocent" follows it. It's the kind of song you can imagine on a movie soundtrack at the point in the story when the female lead is setting off on her own after a hard breakup.
"Open Hearts and Doors" is about someone who is afraid to let themselves get involved in a relationship. It is a sad, slow song but powerful in that the sadness is not only portrayed in the lyrics, but in Cassidy's voice as well.
The CD continues with the song "Michael," inspired by a friend who passed away. Its lyrics, "Four o'clock in the morning/ before the break of dawn/ Michael left forever/ from the town that he was born/ and I woke up crying 'cause I knew you were gone," are decently written, but again, it's the song's powerful vocals that really convey a strong message of sadness.
A track where the band's lyrical ability shines is "What." It has a catchy melody and with the lyrics, "Your anger looks so ugly like a handprint in the icing/ on one more forgotten birthday of the child no one noticed/ lay the belt upon the table/ hope for punishment that's better than the silence that surrounds you/ and the love that never found you," it is a track that is definitely worth listening to.
The album continues with "Happy Home," a track about unrequited love that has catchy lyrics but is little monotonous with the music. "Longshot" is an intense song about a short-lived relationship.
The album's first single "Don't Look Back" has the melody of a Bruce Springsteen song and all the lyrics of a Janis Joplin song rolled into one well-done track. The bluesy "She Lived Here" and "You're The Reason" come back to back and provide a bit of diversity on the album. While bluesy, they still have a similar style to the rest of the album. While they do mix it up a little, it doesn't completely end the monotony that this album is plagued by.
The album closes out with "Rosita," a fun, fast-paced song with a bit of a Spanish flare. "Broken," the last track, is a bit of an inspirational song.
Listening to the album, I was left a bit confused. The music sounds good, but something isn't there. The group has an uncanny resemblance to Janis Joplin, but going back and listening to Joplin herself, you realize that Janis put her soul into each song she wrote, whereas the girls seem to sing from the outside. It sounds as if they are trying really hard to be soulful, but haven't quite mastered it yet. From the Ground Up is a good CD, but certainly nothing spectacular.
