Wildcat strike

The fast and violent rise of Cougarettes

FELINE FRENZY: Cougarettes

by ERIK LEIJON

It only took one show for local electropunk audiovisual quartet Cougarettes to scratch and claw their way into the hearts of Montrealers who like their music loud and electronically manipulated to the point of dehumanization. Their debut performance at Zoobizarre this past March not only attracted local law enforcement because of the noise, but in one mechanized assault, established these newcomers as an aggressive, sonically scything force to be reckoned with. They recently released a surprisingly hip-shaking noise riot EP, Milk Fangs.

“Some people have told us our show is violent,” jokes DJ PePe, “but we like to say we’re more about bringing as much energy as possible.”

The group consists of three shadowy figures—jARRy, Frank Garrett and PePe—manning the consoles and vintage equipment (including an Atari 2600 and film projector) along with frontwoman Cardy, a femme-hawked, tattoo-sporting former roller derby Contrabandita whose vocals are modified to Terminator-esque levels of robotic scariness. It was over a beer at one of her roller derby matches that PePe and jARRy realized their friend of a few years was the potential frontwoman they had been looking for, after a decade of musical collaboration.

“She leads the show,” PePe says. “She’s the trashy, hot girl who whips the crowd in a frenzy and gets all the attention. She’s up front while the rest of us can just concentrate on our music.”

For now, the band handles Cardy’s vocal alterations live on stage. Almost all the music is performed live as well—the only automated sound is one computer that handles pre-programmed drum beats. Even at noted auto-tune king T-Pain’s Bell Centre show earlier this year, the pudgy hip hop jester was unable to re-create his signature Cher-isms without overdubbed backing vocals. So spastically contorting Cardy’s intimidating shouts and shrieks on the spot gives the Cougarettes some much-needed fangs.

“Sometimes if all three of us are playing synth lines, we’ll use a computer that has a sequence of effects on Cardy’s vocals,” PePe says. “Otherwise, Frank has a couple of buttons he uses, and he just has fun transforming her voice.”

WITH VIDEOVILLE, OROMOCTO
DIAMOND AND LES STUPS AT
HEMISPHERE GAUCHE TONIGHT,
THURSDAY, AUG. 20, 9 P.M., $7