Goat Girl: 'We're seen as harmless because we're not men'
South London quartet Goat Girl were deep into making their second album when it became clear that something was very wrong with their youngest member, guitarist-vocalist Ellie Rose Davies. At the end of 2019, she had had lumps on her neck for some time, which eventually spread to both armpits. It wasn’t until the 23-yearold’s “fourth or fifth” trip to the doctors that she was finally referred for a blood test, then a biopsy. “By which time the cancer was at stage four,” she says.
Davies had Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer of the blood, and had to start a six-month course of chemotherapy immediately. “We were pretty worried because we knew it was getting worse,” says their bassist, Holly Mullineaux. They had been mixing the record with their producer, Dan Carey, when Davies got her results, “and we all just started crying”.
“It was a really shocking moment,” says lead singer-guitarist Lottie Pendlebury. “A lot of silence. A lot of hugging.”
Then came the pandemic. Davies decamped with her family to Cornwall, where the risk of Covid was lower, and underwent treatment. She is in remission now, although the experience is clearly painful to talk about. “The thought that death was knocking at the door was very real for me, and that still hasn’t gone away,” she says.
When Goat Girl were signed to Rough Trade in 2016, they were still teenagers, and lived and breathed the DIY spirit. They had been playing together since school, came up around the same time as other rabble-rousers who populated Brixton’s Windmill venue such as
Shame and Black Midi, and rehearsed in Davies’ mum’s garage. Their music, spanning swampy psych-rock, grotbag grunge and unkempt post-punk, spoke to the angst and uncertainty of being young. But Davies’ diagnosis, coupled with the political joyride of the past year – from Black Lives Matter to Brexit – was a wake-up call.
“I feel like [we’re] a different band. I’m a different person, for sure,” says Pendlebury, still in bed in her pyjamas, and hungover from her 24th birthday last night. She and the drummer, Rosy Jones, who is absent from today’s Zoom call, live in a Lewisham terrace strewn with homemade banners calling for “trans rights now” and to “end the hostile environment”. They have always been outspoken on issues they care about, they say, but the protests that followed the death of George Floyd were a particular cause for reflection.
“It’s my duty to educate myself further on these things and understand my privileges,” says Pendlebury. “We’ve always felt we are anti-racist and we strive to create some kind of change in society; obviously we’re all trying our best, but it’s not really enough.”
There’s plenty of anti-authoritarian attitude in On All Fours, the followup to their acclaimed 2018 self-titled debut. The new album title conjures an image of Maggie Gyllenhaal in the film Secretary: complete submission, letter in mouth. The band partly liked that it felt a bit “animalistic” but also evoked a power struggle; it considers climate change, the egocentrism of the western world, and mental health, often with unwavering specificity. The new song P.T.S.Tea is about a ferry trip, when Jones, who is non-binary, was burned with boiling hot tea by someone who did not apologise. “That can be broadened out into a more general feeling of: ‘Why am I not being listened to, why isn’t my identity respected?’” says Pendlebury.
Or there is They Bite on You, which must be the first ever song about scabies and uses Pendlebury’s experience of losing her mind to mites as a metaphor for “capitalist parasites”. Her lyrics are not prescriptive, but try to channel the band’s “feelings of helplessness in a positive way, rather than being complacent … Whatever I’m writing is always gonna be inspired by politics in some way, but I don’t think I’m ever that explicit.”
For all their obvious brilliance, you do get the sense that Goat Girl are sometimes not taken as seriously as their male post-punk peers, such as the Irish band Fontaines DC, who have been nominated for a Grammy. “We’re pissed off,” says Davies, although it’s impossible to tell if she’s joking or not. “I mean, I’m happy for them. But we’ve been going for longer. There do need to be more female artists being pushed for this kind of stuff.”
They share the barbed ferocity of Fat White Family, they say. “Remember when there was an uproar and people said they shouldn’t play Glastonbury because they’d said some controversial political things?” says Mullineaux. “On our first record, a track like Burn the Stake has a similar sentiment” – it says to put the Tories on top of a bonfire – “but it’s like we’re seen as harmless because we’re not men. It’s not even recognised as being on the same level of intensity.”
On All Fours still has the elastic live feel of their early material but Goat Girl are very much upping their game. It is the first album they have written collaboratively, and they have added more electronic elements. The melancholy dance-punk of Sad Cowboy has a synth breakdown that recalls Caribou’s Can’t Do Without You, and there’s a Broadcast-like airiness to songs such as Where Do We Go from Here? and Closing In. Their enormous track The Crack – “About the power of nature and how, when it comes down to a pandemic, or your health, it doesn’t discriminate,” says Pendlebury – is a song cleaved in two, starting with the clanging thrust of early Franz Ferdinand before it wafts into psychedelic pop.
Lockdown gave them time to involve themselves with more of the creative aspects, too, says Mullineaux, such as the artwork and their visual aesthetic. For all their press photographs, they appear in coordinated reds, oranges and yellows; defiant and radiant and ready to take on 2021. “We’ve been through a lot together,” says Pendlebury. “Being in this band is what brings us the most joy.”
• On All Fours is out on 29 January via Rough Trade
We’ve always felt we're anti-racist and we strive to create change; we’re all trying our best but it’s not really enough
Lottie Pendlebury
former president; the youngest inaugural poet in Gorman; “an amazing singer wearing her own Etsy store” with Lady Gaga in her Hunger Games-esque get-up; “an old man on his way to the post office” in Bernie Sanders, with his Vermont dad-chic mittens; and “even a lady whose outfit called me a broke bitch” with Michelle Obama in a widelegged fuchsia suit.
Immediately following the ceremony, Biden signed 15 executive orders, including measures to rejoin the Paris climate accord, shut down the Keystone XL pipeline, reverse the ban on travel and immigration from several Muslim-majority countries, mandate masks on federal lands for 100 days and extend the pause on student debt collection.
“Let’s just say, the White House bathrooms aren’t the only place Biden is looking to wipe out any trace of Donald Trump,” Noah explained, calling the flurry of orders a “huge reversal of Trump’s legacy”.
“Although with America’s Covid rates right now, I don’t actually think that last one is gonna make much of a difference,” he added about the infamous Muslim ban.
Samantha Bee
Despite Biden’s inaugural plea for unity, “Republicans are furious that Joe Biden chose to divide America by becoming president,” joked Samantha Bee on Full Frontal. “And if that weren’t divisive enough, he’s openly plotting to do stuff.”
With control of the White House,
Senate and House, “Democrats are in an unimaginable position: we can finally do things that help people!” Bee said. “For the next two years, we can confirm liberal judges and pass legislation that doesn’t suck.”
Bee looked ahead to possible Democratic achievements on paid family leave, universal pre-school, debtfree community college, and some form of student debt forgiveness. Their slim majority in the Senate, however, won’t allow for every Biden-Harris idea; if the new administration wants to restore the Voting Rights Act, pass immigration reform, or pursue statehood for
DC and Puerto Rico, which will require GOP Senate votes, Biden will “end up facing the Klan’s Gambit”, Bee joked over an image of the Republican senators Mitch McConnell, Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham, all abetters of Trump’s baseless election fraud claims.
Seth Meyers
Wednesday’s inauguration was “a little like getting rid of the last guy at a party”, joked Seth Meyers on Late Night. “We spent four years yawning and stretching and hinting that he should get out, and then when he finally leaves it is a relief until you remember that you have to clean up all his puke, and he, like, puked everywhere.”
The celeb-stuffed affair included performances from Jennifer Lopez and Lady Gaga – “a nice break from the Trump era, when the only musical acts who would associate with the president were 3 Doors Down and the kids who got stiffed by Trump”, he added, referring to USA Freedom Kids, who performed at Trump’s rallies and later sued him for lack of pay.
Meyers also turned to Biden’s moving inaugural address, in which he urged Americans to rise above partisanship and face the challenges of the pandemic, systemic racism and inequality together. “Republicans incited an insurrection, and then complained that Democrats aren’t trying to unify the nation,” Meyers said. “Meanwhile, Biden talked more about unity than a marriage counselor who only gets paid if the couple stays together.”
Jimmy Kimmel
And in Los Angeles, Jimmy Kimmel recalled Donald Trump’s inauguration four years ago, a “terrible day” during which he wondered: “Can our country survive for years of this?”
“And now we know the answer: not really,” he said. “Just barely. But we made it.”
Kimmel also reflected on the tale of two Wednesdays in January 2021: “Two weeks ago, a bunch of dangerous imbeciles with Donald Trump flags tried to overthrow the government. Today, on that very same spot, we had the national anthem sung by Lady Gaga. To paraphrase Michelle Obama, when they go low, we go J Lo.”
“And while Joe Biden was being sworn in, in Florida at Mar-a-Lago, an omelet bar attendant was being sworn at,” Kimmel added, as Trump slinked off to his Florida golf course following a sparsely attended morning sendoff in Washington. Trump’s sons Eric and Don Jr waved their father off with visible tears – “it is heartbreaking to see children separated from their parents, isn’t it?” Kimmel mused with a final jab at Trump’s legacy on immigration and family separation.
fighter, others singled her out for being a woman and targeted her with misogynistic comments online. This became particularly noticeable after LaRosa reportedly founded a Proud Girls offshoot of the male-only group.
Except it appears the Proud Boys do not want women alongside them. “Women … we love you but you cannot be in Proud Boys,” the Proud Boys wrote on several of their encrypted social media channels. “Proud Boy’s Girls or Proud Girls are both ridiculous ideas. Fuck that. Don’t ride our coattails. Want to support us? Get married, have babies, and take care of your family.”
While there appears to be infighting within the Proud Boys with regards to LaRosa and the so-called Proud Girls, LaRosa continued to attend protests that featured the hate group. Before the invasion of the US Capitol by a proTrump mob earlier this month, LaRosa tweeted: “Fuck you, I’m coming to DC. Got a problem? Come find me.” However, she later said she did not enter the Capitol.
LaRosa’s strange affiliation with the Proud Boys – a group with a long history of misogyny – is not the first time the organization has been linked to MMA and combative training. For a time, the Proud Boys had a “tactical defense arm” known as the Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights, led by convicted felon Kyle Chapman. The group used hand-to-hand combat as well as weapons like knives to attack protestors. The aim of the group was to “protect and defend our right-wing brethren” through “street activism, preparation, defense and confrontation.” It also claimed that violence was the only way to save Western civilization from “globalism, radical Islam, and communism.”
While LaRosa’s future with the Proud Boys remains uncertain, her presence over the past few years is yet another testament to MMA’s insidious role within far-right movements.