Maids, the Newcastle-based four piece, have been hanging around for quite some time now. You’ve most likely seen them at one of the many shows they’ve played over the years or you’ll be familiar with one of their absolute bangers. If neither of those things are true you need to have a long, hard think, assess your priorities in life and get your ears around their back catalogue immediately.
The band have just dropped their latest single, Girl Power, and it’s a testament to their ability to write catchy, engaging pop songs doused in a layer of rock and roll so thick you feel your blood pressure sky rocket almost immediately.
Newcastle’s Maids are back with another slice of bellowing, booming power rock, Girl Power, laced with a surprising feminist message: don’t be a sleaze-ball.
From the searing, gritty lead vocal lines and punchy drums of Sean Cook (yeah, that’s right; a lead vocalist drummer!), as well as those of co-lead Matt James, to the absolutely filthy bass lines Dylan Thomas churns out in verse two, this is the kind of classic that most bands spend their careers trying to create or replicate.
What’s really interesting on Girl Power, more so than the layers of musical greatness, is the lyrical content. “I don’t think we’ve ever met before, but I feel like I know you so well, there’s something in the way you talk when you move your lips, move your lips,” drawls Cook in the opening line of the track.
The immediate, grumbly reaction is “oh man, come on Maids…sleazy…”. What transpires, however, is not the tale you first expected. Rather, Cook tells the story of a sleazy guy hitting on a woman in a club, using nothing but alcohol-fuelled archaic pick up lines and gets kicked to the curb harder than he could’ve anticipated.
“Women are often sexually objectified… I wanted to write something that was empowering for women”, says Cook of the lyrics, proving yet again that feminism is more kick-arse than good punch.
The ever-touring, never tiring Maids are currently parading around the country. Catch them at one of these dates:
April 8 – The Old Bar, Melbourne
April 9 – Captain Cook Hotel, Sydney
April 22 – Miami Shark Bar, Gold Coast
April 23 – The Milk Factorty, Brisbane
April 24 – The Small Ballroom, Newcastle
