Colleen
Green and I both lived in Boston, Massachusetts during the early part of this
century. My Brain Hurts and Milo Goes to College were listened to. Alcohol was
consumed outdoors. Colleen fronted a pop-punk band whose drummer suffered from
what must have been a form of narcolepsy. Eventually, she left town for points
west. Not long afterward, I heard she'd released a homemade tape called Milo
Goes to Compton. She sent me a copy, and I was floored: Her Ramones-driven
songwriting hadn't lost a step, but in the process of going solo she'd whittled
away most of the the genre trappings. What remained was sparse electric guitar,
a tinny drum machine, and Green's gorgeous voice, which sounded more confident
than ever. The tape sounded like it had been made in haste; intimate in a way
that pop-punk typically is not, and it came with a funny comic about smoking
pot. She had retained the self-awareness and disdain for frills bestowed on all
New England natives, but it had been tempered some by California's dreamy slacker
romanticism. It had turned into something new.
Upon arriving
at a Brooklyn loft show in 2010, Green arrived armed with her tapes and CD-Rs
of what would come to be her first Hardly Art release, 4 Loko 2 Kayla. Fast
forward a couple of years and another perfect EP (2011's CUJO), and Green is
ready to release Sock it to Me, her debut LP for Hardly Art. What used to sound
sparse out of necessity has been honed into an intentional, Young Marble Giants
kind of austerity focused on giving her voice the room it demands. The constant
presence of time-tested four-chord progressions and Green's faithful drum
machine keep Sock it to Me grounded in pure pop, but her breathy, emotive
vocals have taken an enormous leap forward, evoking all-time heroes such as Rose
Melberg and Tina Weymouth. "Time In the World," especially, recalls
the way Weymouth's Tom Tom Club combined straightforward, relatable lyrics
about the experience of really liking someone with earworm bass lines that end
up being the first thing you think about when you wake up in the morning.
Green has
been known to perform a cover of The Descendents' "Good Good Things"
so slow and intense that it's almost uncomfortable. Being so aloof and
laid-back that it exposes the personal, honest sweetness in a song like that is
Colleen's M.O. in a nutshell. Colleen Green encapsulates the best parts of the
Northeast and the West Coast. Colleen Green always wears sunglasses onstage.
Colleen Green is long hair and getting high. I listened once. I will listen
forever. Sock it to me.”