Thursday, August 01, 2013

Band Review: Eva And Her Virgins


We are back to going through bands who have followed me on Twitter for a while now (my next live show is September 8th), and that brings us to Eva And Her Virgins, a dark electro-pop band from New York.
I'm afraid I don't like them. I hate writing off bands like that, but it is not working for me. It is mainly the "dark" part. There is just kind of a nasty vibe, with a cynical vulgarity. Actually, they remind me a little of Romeo Void.
Singer Emily Powers is a performance artist, which makes total sense watching them perform. (There are a few videos on Youtube, though they do not seem to have an official channel.) It also means that I can't rule out that I am missing their point.
Looking at one video of  "Disrespect", one commenter said the song was a play on words of growing out of being disrespected. So, when she is singing about him beating her, but her staying, and her loving him for disrespecting her, that the message is actually that she is growing out of this unhealthy mindset.
This may be true, and the band could actually be working to subvert some of the more unhealthy trends in relationships. However, subversion done ineffectively can reinforce what it is trying to fight, and I am not sure this is working. It seems like it would be very easy to ogle Powers in her teddy and hope for his own woman he can treat badly.
Band co-founder Jabbath Roa is a classically trained composer and producer, and so the music performance is solid. Every now and then there are some musical surprises, like a different groove on "Hammer" or a change of pace on "Johnny". It's just not enough for me. If you are more into electro-pop, or more into dark, it might be.

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