|
|
Above: the new Mecca Normal singe "Water Cuts My Hands" is out today.
Mecca Normal have a new single out today, "Water Cuts My Hands," a preview of the album of the same name, which will be available from K June 13. Mecca Normal (Jean Smith, David Lester) started in 1984 with the express purpose of changing the world. Thus one discovers bursts of social justice interspersed with moments of introspection on Water Cuts My Hands, Mecca Normal’s third album, originally co-released by K and Matador in 1991. It is now being made available to the digital realm for the first time. The song "Water Cuts My Hands," Like many Mecca Normal songs, explores social norms and their underlying tensions. According to singer Jean Smith, "Water Cuts My Hands" resulted from "An encounter with a street person leaves a woman wondering why her empathy doesn't override his misogyny." All that and a catchy tune, too. Mecca Normal is known as a fore-runner and inspiration to the riot grrrl movement in the 90s. In her 1991 Bikini Kill zine interview with Jean, Kathleen Hanna said, “Mecca Normal: it makes me wanna cry, I am so glad they exist.” As part of the regional D-I-Y scene at that time, Mecca Normal co-founded the Black Wedge in 1986 – anti-authoritarian poets and minimalist musicians "setting wild hearts free, spreading the damn difficult word of how to combine poetry with activist resistance culture". This is a band that haas always been more than a band - - - they're a social force. "I don’t know of any other rock ‘n’ roll so closely attuned to the realities of women’s rage.” – Village Voice, 1990
Above: a still from the new Mecca Normal video "Water Cuts My Hands." Painting by Jean Smith. |
