Melody Maker

“Why have we been deprived of this for so long?” Melody Maker, 1995

Melody Maker
April 15, 1995

Rolling Stone, 1995

4-star review in Rolling Stone August, 1995 by Evelyn McDonnell

“The most visionary of punk’s political bands.”

“Through seven albums over nine years, vocalist Jean Smith and guitarist David Lester have presented a consistent, evolving and luminous challenge to the reigning social order.”

Photographer Robert Karpa recently sent over contact sheets from the Rolling Stone photo session.

2020 “Sitting on Snaps” 25th anniversary

One of my favourite Mecca Normal albums, it was the first of our release on Matador Records and by gum, the start of a jolly good time in our trajectory!

“Smith is damn near visionary” – San Francisco Weekly

“Smith creates an approximation of a childhood game. The imaginary egg is cracked and the yolk is running slowly down your hair.” – Spin magazine

“David Lester and Jean Smith generate huge power with limited means.” – Select Magazine (England)

“Through 8 albums over 10 years, Mecca Normal have presented a consistent, evolving, and luminous challenge to the reigning social order.” – Rolling Stone

“When the mix is between brainy lyrics and a meaty beat, between mind and body, pleasure and awareness, that’s when Mecca Normal revs up. Like Odysseus, they have a clarity of vision that’s rare.” – Village Voice

“Long before Bikini Kill, the Northwest band Mecca Normal was churning out shards of minimal noise (no bass or drums) with a confrontational edge, and would eventually end up influencing many of Olympia’s current female artists.” – Los Angeles Times

“Oh, what a lovely sparse sound” – NME

LA Times review

BY LORRAINE ALI
FEB. 11, 1995 

Mecca Minimal: Long before Lois or Bikini Kill, the Northwest band Mecca Normal was churning out shards of minimal noise (no bass or drums) with a confrontational edge, and would eventually end up influencing many of Olympia’s current female artists. Even though its seventh album, “Sitting on Snaps” (on Matador Records), finds the Vancouver, B.C., duo channeling its acidic and seething energy into actual melody, as opposed to its previous din of hair-raising feedback and guttural shrieks, its burning style still has little to do with the more palatable Olympia pop sound.

Jean Smith’s hissing, melodramatic vocals, somewhere between Grace Slick, Patti Smith and a dental drill, slither and flail next to eerie guitar work, while Smith’s abstract lyrics provoke strong and disquieting images. Once again, Mecca Normal proves itself an intriguing, consistently challenging force.

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Video: Trapped Inside Your Heart

 

Trapped Inside Your Heart
Trapped inside your heart
You’re trapped inside your own heart

I am a swarm of possibility
That make him feel good or bad
That’s what he needs to know

Trapped inside your heart
You’re trapped inside your own heart

Invoking passion with false memories
A publically manufactured code

Trapped inside your heart
You’re trapped inside your own heart

The movie runs between my fingers
There’s always trouble when you have to invent yourself

It’s not love that I don’t feel
It is the loss of something that never was

Trapped inside your heart
You’re trapped inside your own heart

It is the loss