ModRocket are:
a) an all-girl band made up of b) teenagers who make c) really tight, spiky rock songs that sound like they could have come out in any year from about 1971 to the present. Now try to guess which of the three preceding points never comes up in any of their press blurbs. Wouldn’t you think that after more than 30 years of Heart and Waitresses and the entire fucking genre known as riot grrrl, people would be ready to deal with the fact that both sexes and most age groups can learn how to put their hands different places on a guitar or hit things with a stick?
Anyway, whatever. ModRocket cranks out excellent tunes and stands alongside other young ’uns like the Virgins as one of our favorite local groups right now. They also just won the vLES’s inaugural edition of Kickstart—an online competition between bands to see who can get the most audience votes. As the winners of this contest are subject to all sorts of fame-engendering rewards like being put on TV, we thought it’d be prudent to try and get a quick chat in with them before they’re too famous to look at us.
Low Life: How did you guys start your band?
Alice Blythe: Well, me and Alex [Niemetz, guitar] live half a block away from each other and one day she just stopped me on the street and said, “I’m starting this band. You wanna sing in it?” I knew her but we never really hung out, and I was like, “Um, OK?!?” We had similar taste in music, which can be rare when you’re 15 and into Bowie and stuff like that. Sandra [Nazz] was best friends with Alex and had just picked up the drums, and I went to school with Alanna [Higgins], who plays bass. It just kind of all fell into place. We didn’t really know how to play anything, but we learned.
