NOTS
Nots by Chad Kamenshine
The shock of the unfamiliar greeted Natalie Hoffmann of Memphis psych-punk misfits Nots in June, when the brash four-piece plugged in for their first European tour. Complete strangers at King George, a dive pub in Cologne, Germany, stowed their smartphones and stared ahead. They hollered song requests, and, surprisingly, there were for Nots tracks. At the gig, one fan even offered to dissect how not-punk Nots really was. “It was news to me when I found out I wasn’t a punk band,” Hoffmann, 27, says in a recent phone interview.
Hoffmann, who fronts the all-girl noiseniks with drummer Charlotte Watson, 26, Alexandra Eastburn, 28, and bassist Meredith Lones, 24, says wilding out in Europe is the culmination of three years in the Tennessee bar trenches. Listen to their 2014 debut album “We Are Nots,” a loud and angry collection of 11 songs stuffed into 27 minutes of psych-noise madness, and you instantly hear a troupe rooted in the ‘90s tradition of all-girl punk bands Bikini Kill and . Hoffmann, with her Kathleen Hanna-like screams, sounds off on tracks like their recent 2015 EP “Dust Red,” in which she’s heard repeating “Is it in your head?!” against a backdrop of cosmic synths, mortarlike percussion and hallowed-out feedback. It’s a dead-on match for a David Lynch soundtrack.
Nots by Jake Giles Netter
Hoffman tends to reject such comparisons to girl-punk pioneers in her own description of Nots, likening the band to ‘70s and ‘80s punk-new wavers Poly Styrene, X-Ray Spex, Isolation Ward and Miami’s Iggy Pop. She’s also influenced by a rare 1980s compilation album, “FM-BX Society Tape,” a cross-section of similarly obscure hellraisers. “It’s less about the gender for me and all about the music,” says Hoffman, by day a server at two Memphis-area restaurants. “We’re weirder than punk. We have pop sensibilites, which in a weird way meets punk, and a psychedelic music style. I don’t even know what to call us anymore.”
After a year-long break from recording new music, the Memphis aggressors back with another blitz: In July, the band will release “Cold Line,” a new 7-inch, and a sophomore album in the fall titled “The Cosmetic.”
Nots perform July 14 at Gramps Bar in Miami. Doors open 9pm, $5 to $7. Facebook.com/memphisnots.
~ Phillip Valys
