Potty Mouth features four ladies (guitarist Ali Donohue, bassist Ally Einbinder, drummer Victoria Mandanas and singer/guitarist Abby Weems) who call Northampton, Mass., home, which makes sense — the band’s full-length debut, last year’s Hell Bent, sounds like it hails from the same place that spawned Dinosaur Jr., with noisy, interlocking guitars evoking a distinctly early-’90s vibe. Weems’ endearingly modest vocal delivery recalls prime-era Liz Phair, which also makes sense — her lyrics mine some of the same coming-of-age themes Phair put forth in her heyday.
Potty Mouth has also drawn comparisons to the Riot Grrrl movement, an easy touchstone in the wake of 2012’s Sun Damage EP, which seems as infected by Jawbreaker as it does Bikini Kill. (Curiously, they insist the band’s name has little to do with Bratmobile’s Pottymouth.) In fact, Weems says Green Day is her favorite band and that Potty Mouth’s sound is the result of an organic evolution rather than an aping of any particular influence.
“Hell Bent is just the product of us finally settling into a songwriting system,” Weems told Bust. “Before Potty Mouth I had never written songs for a band, and I think Sun Damage reflects our experimental process of learning and writing simultaneously. Now that we’ve been a band for awhile we’ve each found our place in the writing process, and it gets easier every time to figure out how to make our parts work together.”
POTTY MOUTH plays a free show at MOTR Pub on Wednesday, May 14. More info
here .
This article appears in May 14-20, 2014.