Skating Polly Release Video for Alabama Movies

Video on Vimeo – vimeo.com/83274223

Video on YouTube – www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDA-lzxcFyQ

Track on SoundCloud – soundcloud.com/skating-polly/01-alabama-movies-5

“Wicked and hellacious” – Prefix

“thunderous ugly pop tune kicks things up a thousand notches and thrills throughout.” – Prefix

Born from an impromptu jam at a Halloween party in 2009, Skating Polly is a punk/rock/pop duo made up of stepsisters Kelli Mayo and Peyton Bighorse. On their second album Lost Wonderfuls (produced by Exene Cervenka and mixed by Flaming Lips drummer Kliph Scurlock), the Oklahoma City-based band revealed itself as a wildly vital force in the resurrection and reinvention of classic punk rock. For their newest release, Fuzz Steilacoom (out Feb. 25th), the girls traveled up to Olympia, WA and recorded at Dub Narcotic Studios with Calvin Johnson (K Records/Beat Happening).

Raised on ‘70s punk and early-‘90s alt-rock, Mayo (age 13) and Bighorse (18) mine inspiration from artists as disparate as Johnny Cash, The Ramones, NWA, Nirvana, and Bikini Kill and saturate their own songs with a raw energy reminiscent of their musical heroes. Skating Polly takes a minimalist approach to songwriting, with the two largely self-taught musicians (Bighorse plays guitar, Mayo plays a guitar/bass hybrid called a basitar, and both girls play drums and piano) crafting super-catchy melodies mainly by “messing around with our instruments and figuring out how to make cool noises,” according to Bighorse.

Along with earning the adoration of Cervenka (whom they befriended after attending one of the X singer’s 2010 solo shows and playing their demos on a cell phone), Skating Polly has found fans in Rosanne Cash and Sean Lennon, taken the stage with punk legends like Mike Watt, and opened up for such indie heavy-hitters as The Flaming Lips, Wavves, Deerhoof, Band of Horses and Kate Nash. Tapping Mayo’s dad as their tour manager, the stepsisters typically hit the road with their entire family and optimize their travel time by making up songs on their ukulele, having secret conversations in sign language, and—most recently—studying Mandarin Chinese in hopes of touring in China within the next year.

Each track on Fuzz Steilacoom retains a rich emotionalism that’s at turns brutally in-your-face (“Alabama Movies”), gut-wrenchingly tender (“Ugly”), and irresistibly fun (“Scummy Summer”). The record ends with a stunning piano ballad (“A Little Late”) that will give you chills. It will remind you that Skating Polly is not a kid band, but they remind us what it’s like to be kids.

Mayo and Bighorse are intent on ignoring what’s fashionable and staying true to their passion for challenging music with long-lasting appeal. “The musicians we’re most inspired by are the ones who keep on going and going, who devote their entire lives to coming up with new and different stuff,” says Mayo. “A lot of times at our shows people will come up to us and tell us, ‘Keep on doing what you’re doing, don’t ever stop’ and we’re just like, ‘Yeah—we weren’t planning on ever stopping.”

Fuzz Steilacoom

Release Date: February 25, 2014

1. Alabama Movies

2. Scummy Summer

3. Ugly

4. Break Your High

5. Lily

6. Van Gogh

7. Dead Friends

8. Play

9. Blunderland

10. Your Honor

11. A Little Late

Tour Dates

03-01 The Observatory Oklahoma City OK Record Release show

03-12 Buffalo Lounge SXSW Day Party

03-14 Girls Rock Austin SXSW Day Party

04-22 Subterranean Chicago IL*

04-23 7th Street Entry Minneapolis MN*

04-24 Record Bar KC MO*

04-25 Replay Lounge Lawrence KC*

04-26 Hi Dive Denver CO*

04-27 Kilby Court Salt Lake City, UT

04-28 The Holland Project Reno, NV

04-29 Love The Captive House Show Fresno, CA

*supporting White Fang

Skating Polly Release Video for Alabama Movies