Just when music was starting to seem boring, here comes Chicks on Speed.
When this electronica trio arrives at WOW Hall with Le Tigre on Tuesday, get ready to dance. Chicks on Speed live shows merge performance, graphic design and homemade outfits while playing their music through mini-disc players and compact samplers with video montages bopping behind them.
Chicks on Speed includes New Yorker Melissa Logan, Australian Alex Murray-Leslie and Munich native Kiki Morse. The three women, who met at the Munich Academy of Art, need no guitars to play their modern music.
“We don’t like fucking guitars,” they scream on one of their tracks.
The band actually began as a “fake band,” a merchandising project in 1997. On stage the Chicks sometimes wear paper dresses, which they sell on their Web site for $86.
“It usually lasts about 10 minutes if you are dancing, longer if you are only walking,” according to the Web site. A variety of other merchandise is also available including bumper stickers and homemade clothing and a blow-up, pink, latex “Boob Monster.”
“Just merchandising, but the band doesn’t exist — that was the whole idea,” Morse said.
When they started to play shows, their original idea expanded to a full-fledged band.
“We love to create works in various mediums, and it’s not about professionalism in any way,” said band member Murray-Leslie. “It’s about collaborating with many different people and being creative together.”
The Chicks have transcended the idea of a rock band. They create art shows that consist of giant breasts, and they create experimental videos. They have also released more than 15 albums, singles and compilations in the past five years, including “Chix-52,” an album of B-52’s covers.
“We want to be as productive as possible in the shortest amount of time,” Murray-Leslie said.
The lyrics the Chicks create are reflective of their art school backgrounds as well as punk culture.
On “Glamour Girl’, their 10” release from Go records, they sing, “Fashion victim on the air/I shaved off my pubic hair/Sometimes they think I’m vermin/I’ve got more faces than Cindy Sherman.
Their modestly titled full-length “Chicks On Speed Will Save Us All!” and their recent U.S. debut on K Records, “The Re-Releases of the Un-Releases,” have fared remarkably well in their limited printing run. “Re-Releases” swells at nearly 72 minutes in length via 33 tracks.
Fellow collage musicians Le Tigre will headline Tuesday’s show. Le Tigre consists of former Bikini Kill member Kathleen Hanna, Johanna Fateman and J.D. Samson. The idea for Le Tigre began with Hanna’s solo project “Julie Ruin.” When Hanna decided she wanted to do live shows for the project, she recruited Fateman and video artist Sadie Benning. The live endeavor morphed into Le Tigre. Samson replaced Benning on the second album.