Showing posts with label Taxi Girls. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Taxi Girls. Show all posts

Friday, June 26, 2026

Taxi Girls - Static


On New Year's Eve of 2024, I wrote, "If we finally get a Taxi Girls full-length next year, it may very well be my album of the year for 2025!" Well, I was a year off in my estimation, but my prediction is surely looking spot-on. In what has been the best first six months of a year for new music in recent memory, Taxi Girls have my absolute favorite release of the half-year with their fantastic debut long player Static (out today on Stomp Records in North America and the great Wild Honey Records in Europe). 

Jamie Radu, Vera Bozickovic, Lynn Poulin, and Gabrielle Noël Bégin were smart to take their time and make their debut album something special. As good as the debut EP Coming Up Roses and follow-up single "Rainy" were, Static blows those releases away. It's that rarest of things: an album that carries the appeal and influence of late '70s/early '80s punk rock yet sounds genuinely current in the contemporary punk/garage/rock 'n' roll universe. Influences run the gamut from classic punk and new wave to power pop to '90s feminist punk and alternative rock to modern-day garage rock. Yet Taxi Girls aren't trying to be anyone but themselves. Jamie Radu, in fact, described the album to me as "us on a plate." And that's what I love about this record. The influences are all over the place, but these songs are uniquely and undeniably Taxi Girls. These four women are not just extraordinarily talented; they also have a chemistry and kinship with each other that is immediately palpable. You're getting different musical influences from everyone in the band, and it all coalesces into something that only these four individuals working together could have created. I've never heard a record that sounds quite like this. 

Whichever corner of the punk and punk-adjacent underground you gravitate to — whether that's old-style punk, power pop and pop-punk, garage rock, or the more rock 'n' roll side of punk — you are sure to find much to love about Static. It's full of superb songwriting with killer hooks. It rocks hard. It's got punk rock attitude all day long. The lyrics are meaningful and relatable. The production is incredible. And Vera and Jamie, as co-lead singers, have an amazing hot sauce & honey dynamic going on. Their styles are contrasting yet also beautifully complementary. Both individually and in harmony, they make a formidable tandem. I can't think of many bands with two lead singers/songwriters where I don't like one a little (or a lot) more than the other. But with these two, it's a dead heat. Add in a lead guitarist who totally shreds and one of the best drummers in punk rock, and you've got yourself a band that ought to be huge. 

Taxi Girls certainly chose well with the three singles it has released off the album. But I'm hard-pressed to find any song on here that wouldn't have been a fine choice for a single. The sequencing of this record is flawless. It comes roaring out of the gates with a great mix of powerhouse rockers ("Say It!" and "Red Flag Crush") and energetic, super-catchy punk tunes ("Try Harder" and "Auto-Hysterics") before taking a surprising turn with the sweet, sentimental power pop of "So Quaint" and the delightful, effortlessly cool new wave throwback "Midnight Mixtape." And from there, the ride remains a great time but never gets predictable. By the time I got through the four-song run which includes the furious punk scorcher "Kill Your Darlings," the poppy punk earworm "Secret Handshake," the punk rock 'n' roll fireball "It Makes Me Think," and the genius New Order/Go-Go's mashup "Highs//Lows," I started to wonder if this band has secretly been together for 15 years and is just compiling greatest hits! And one thing that is always a deal-clincher for me is when an album offers an extraordinary pair of bookends. I always love an album that starts off with a song that makes you want to listen to the whole record and closes with a song that makes you want to immediately play it again. "Say It!" opens the record with a proverbial bang, and album closer "Other Heart" is this simple, unassuming little ballad that just tears your heart out. It's beautiful, tender, and instantly memorable — a perfect punctuation mark on the best album I've heard in a long, long time. 

So is Static everything I thought it would be? Yes and then some! I have been known to sometimes overstate things a little bit (ha ha). But it's not hyperbole to suggest that this album puts Taxi Girls right in the thick of the "best band out there" conversation. For people my age, this is one of those records that reaffirms that it's a healthy thing to keep up with new bands and not assume that music stopped being good 30 years ago. If you have young daughters, granddaughters, nieces, etc., this is the kind of album that could very well inspire them to start their own bands and grow up to be total bad-asses like Jamie, Vera, Lynn, and Gabrielle. Honestly, I have a hard time imagining any regular reader of this blog not being into this record. It's just so freaking good! I have a different favorite song every day. You hear a record like this, and you believe in rock 'n' roll again. You'll want a tattoo —or at least a t-shirt! When I see the critical and fan acclaim Taxi Girls are receiving, it makes me happy because it shows that even in these times when algorithms are king, talent and hard work still matter in music. There are still some huge albums due out later this year, but it's going to take something truly out of this world to top Static.

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Saturday, June 06, 2026

Taxi Girls - "Secret Handshake"


At the end of this month, Taxi Girls are going to drop an album that will have people going absolutely bonkers. I'm talking about a record that will legitimately put these tremendously talented women in the thick of the "best band in the world" conversation (in my orbit, at least). You should clear your schedule for June 26th and prepare to rock out until you have to do something essential like eat or sleep. While we wait, the band has dropped another stone cold banger of a single. 

Compared to the edgy rocker "Say It!" (I can't even write the title without wanting to scream it), "Secret Handshake" brings quite a different vibe. It's still very much a summertime jam, but it does show a slightly softer side of Taxi Girls. In style, this is the sort of stuff I live for: classic poppy punk rock with an upbeat spirit that hits you with a massive chorus. That intro is pure gold, and then this snappy earworm will send you straight into head-bobbing, toe-tapping mode. Lyrically, you could probably call this a love song, but it manages to evoke something deeper and more universal than that. It's a song not just about the private language you might share with someone special but also about wanting that connection to never end. There's a sweetness and vulnerability to this song that Jamie's lead vocal fully captures, and every repeat listen makes me smile a little bigger. If this song were any catchier, we'd all have to be walking around in masks again. I always love tunes that are super-fun on the surface but something much more beyond it. 

Static, Taxi Girls' debut album, will be coming out on Wild Honey Records in Europe and Stomp Records in Canada. My math tells me that that's in three weeks, so you won't have to wait much longer! For now, I advise playing "Secret Handshake" on repeat and getting properly pumped. Get your pre-orders in while the colored vinyl is still up for grabs! 

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Friday, May 01, 2026

Taxi Girls - "Say It!"


Get ready, folks: Taxi Girls are about to drop a bomb with their forthcoming debut album! Static will release in late June on Stomp Records in North America and Wild Honey Records in Europe. It has been nearly three years since this Montreal-based now-foursome released its debut EP. I've been looking forward to a full-length Taxi Girls album for a long time, and I am pleased to tell you that it's everything I was hoping for and then some. Pre-orders for Static are now live, and lead track "Say It!" has premiered as the first single. This tune is an absolute ball of fire — a fierce and furious shot of super-catchy punk rock 'n' roll with a chorus that will have you screaming along at the top of your lungs. The lyrics paint a picture that will be all-too-familiar to so many of you who have given so much of yourself to someone who gives you so little in return:

I give you all of me  
'Cause that’s what you need 
My hand that feeds
It’s killing me 
I give you all of me  
'Cause that’s what you need 
My hand that feeds
It’s killing me 

Who's not going to be feeling that? The sentiment is simple yet incredibly relatable. And then that chorus comes along and hits like a ton of bricks. It's not just the words but also the conviction with which they're delivered that makes this song so powerful. The ability to turn personal frustration and hardship into something this thrilling and energizing is a true gift, and these four bad-ass women have blessed us with a bona fide anthem. However loud you've got your volume set at will not be loud enough once you push play on the video! A couple more singles are due before Static releases. In the meantime, you might as well pre-order the record on nifty colored vinyl. This is gonna be a Taxi Girls summer! And by the way: Go Habs Go!

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Tuesday, November 26, 2024

Taxi Girls - Rainy


Now here's a record I've been waiting for all year: the second vinyl release from the mighty Taxi Girls! This band had my top-ranked EP of last year, and it's on track to have my top-ranked single of this year. That single is called "Rainy," and I can't talk about it without invoking the dreaded "double A-side" cliché. One song is a kick-ass rocker, and the other is an old school punk rock sing-along. They're equally great, so the determination of which one is the "hit" will come down to personal preference or your mood at the time. If you're looking at the cover art right now, you may have noticed that this Montreal-based trio is now a foursome. New member Gabrielle absolutely slays on lead guitar, and her playing definitely elevates Taxi Girls to another level. 

The title track brings to mind the punk rock side of '90s alternative rock, and it's a total monster. I love the big riffs, cool harmony vocals, red-hot leads, and overall rocking vibes. The lead vocals and lyrics are A+ as well. How many of us knew Jamie all those years without realizing she was a freaking rock star on the mic? If this song had come out in 1993, it would have been massive! "The Lion's Share" picks up the pace with more of an anthemic catchy punk rock style. It's a total toe-tapper, and again the lyrics rule so hard. I can't listen to this song without thrusting my fist in the air and shouting along. And how amazing do those guitars sound? Both of these songs are full of spirit and attitude, and they straight-up rock. The liner notes do a great job of explaining what these songs are about, so be sure to check them out. Let's just say that Taxi Girls understand that a song can be catchy and fun to listen to yet still full of substance. If I had to pick a favorite track here, I would go with "The Lion's Share," but that's like saying I like oxygen more than food. "Rainy" is available now from Dirt Cult Records in North America and Wild Honey Records in Europe.


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