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A Rose by any other name
Katy Rose throws her hat into the girl-rock arena, plus local faves Kay Hanley and Tanya Donelly
BY CARLY CARIOLI
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Katy Rose, no relation to Axl, descended from touring hippie folk — her dad, Kim Bullard, played with Crosby Stills & Nash and the Dead — and was thrust into the recording world just as teen pop gave way to Disney rock. She’s arrived at the ideal moment. Claiming the tweens-in-trouble flick Thirteen coulda been made about her life, she sports a slightly-more-classic-rocking version of the Avril/Lindsay/Hilary/Ashlee/Skye model on her V2 debut, Because I Can. (Maybe ’cause her dad co-wrote most of it?) First single "Overdrive" (featured in Thirteen and Tina Fey’s Mean Girls) roughs up its processed-drum sheen with a guitar riff that echoes "Whole Lotta Love"; "I Like" rips its crunch from "Kashmir." Katy’s also, like, best friends with kid-rock den mom Liz Phair, whom she’s accompanying on the Maybelline-sponsored "Chicks with Attitude" tour along with precocious piano-pounding pup Charlotte Martin and washed-up Swede cuties the Cardigans. They’re all getting their nails done on Monday at the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom (603-929-4100) in New Hampshire. We know of several chicks with attitude who may have been left off the itinerary by accident. We’re not saying Letters to Cleo are solely responsible for the current explosion of under-20 rock girls, but we’re pretty sure a few of their handlers are fans. As a model for how to do bubbly, sweet, and nasty (and rocking!) in the same breath, you could do a lot worse than Kay Hanley. Plus, Katy and Skye Sweetnam are young enough to have been in the target demographic for the Kay tunes on Generation O! This week, the prodigal Dorchester daughter returns from LA to hype a swell new EP, Baby Doll, with gigs tonight (August 26) at the Paradise (617-562-8800) in Boston and Saturday at the Wellfleet Beachcomber (508-349-6055) on Cape Cod. There’s less attitude than atmosphere on Tanya Donelly’s new Whiskey Tango Ghost (4AD), a spare album that sketches scenes from a turbulent marriage. But she’s saved a batch of more rocking, more politicized tunes — dealing with, she told us recently, "the shame and culpability that I think we’re all sort of experiencing on the national level" — for a live album that she’s making this weekend at the Windham (www.thewindham.com, or www.virtuous.com for tix), a tiny theater in Bellows Falls, Vermont. Donelly’s guests for the Friday and Saturday shows, both of which are being recorded, include Buffalo Tom’s Bill Janovitz and Fuzzy’s Chris Toppin. And beware, for the ghosts of teen-pop past haunt New England this week as well. Matthew and Gunnar, the twin sons of ’50s teen idol Ricky Nelson, have put their pop-metal duo Nelson back together for shows Saturday and Sunday at the Mohegan Sun (860-204-7163) in Uncasville, Connecticut. And former New Kid on the Block Jordan Knight plays the Wellfleet Beachcomber on Sunday. Lastly, our random suggestion of the week — check out Jagolinzer on Saturday at AS220 (401-831-9327) in Providence. Their demos sound like Thom Yorke fronting the Rapture while playing a set of top-notch New Order outtakes.
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