Studio 52 is a community artist space located in the heart of Allston, and is proud to support the Boston music scene and local artist community.
There’s a new band straight outta Somerville making some wonderful noise today, and the drummer used to be in Protokoll.
We reference that off the bat because another member in the band, after sending us the EP yesterday, specifically said they’d probably hate it if we mentioned it in whatever post we did about them, so we’re getting it out of the way early.
Anyway, the band is called Leopard Print Taser and they’re pretty awesome, describing themselves as “dream-punk,” which we’re sure is a label they’ll probably grow to hate by November. Today they drop their debut EP, and its a feisty ripper of a record full of aggressive sincerity, clocking in at under 10 minutes over four songs, falling somewhere between the musical worlds of Bikini Kill and Savages.
Here’s how it all came together: “Shannon Donahue had chosen Leopard Print Taser as the band name before she even knew how to play the bass. It all started with Shannon and Nicholas [Wolf] writing together from their home as a way to help Shannon accelerate her learning. The songs just started pouring out. Leila Bower was originally going to try out as the drummer, but when she missed the tryout date they ended up jamming with Reid Calkin [Editor’s note: Hey, that’s the guy from Protokoll!]. Nicholas and Reid had just freed up time with the ending of their band lunglust. Leila decided to try vocals instead and proved to have an amazing voice and presence. This all occurred in a matter of a few months. Self proclaimed ‘Dream Punk’, LPT is a mix of experimentation and indie rock tradition.”
Sounds good to us. Fire up the EP below, be sure to get all the way through to its standout closing track, a punk echo jolt titled “To You,” and see Leopard Print Taser’s first show, October 17 at O’Brien’s Pub in Allston. They’re also playing Hassle Fest 9 at ONCE Somerville in November.
