Photo via Facebook / The Bobby Lees
Images of desperation, decay, sex, death, drugs, and, uh, salad dressing drip through the Bobby Lees’ gutter-shaking and joyous, Jon Spencer-produced Skin Suit, released in 2020 on Alive Naturalsound.
To support the album, its second, the Woodstock, N.Y. quartet had planned a run of 80 dates last year that would have also taken them to Europe, but the tour—like most everything else—was cancelled by the pandemic. The group pieced together as much of the original tour as they could this summer, and, fortunately, added a Milwaukee date at Shank Hall on Sunday.
The new dates will also see the band open for indie metal legends Helmet on a series of dates in September and head to Rotterdam, Netherlands, for a festival in October.
“We’re very happy and very grateful to get this point and have all these dates,” says lead vocalist Sam Quartin.
The months of waiting has led the group to transform some of their songs like “Wendy,” “Coin” and “Redroom” from the way they sound on Skin Suit, which was recorded at Woodstock’s Dreamland Recording Studios, once a church. Sometimes the group, which combines rollicking elements of punk, garage, and ‘70s rock among other influences, even likes to meld and play songs from the album at the same time.
“(After recent shows) people have asked us why we didn’t play a certain song, and it’s like, ‘We did,’” says lead guitarist Nick Casa.
The is-it-dirty-or is-it-really-about-dressing ditty “Ranch Baby” has not been in their recent set lists.
The down time has also resulted in the creation of songs for a new album they are recording with Vance Powell, a six-time Grammy winner who has worked with Jack White, Dead Weather, and many others, in Nashville. The Bobby Lees hope to mix and finish the album in December for release in 2022.
Label Attention
They are uncertain if Alive Naturalsound will release the new album. The band, which self-released their debut album, Beauty Pageant, in 2018, came to the longtime label’s attention thanks to Cynthia Ross. Ross was a member of the B-Girls, a New York City by-way-of Toronto all-girl punk band that supposedly was the basis for the group in the movie Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains. She also worked with Beechwood, another Alive band from New York who are friends with the Bobby Lees.
Quartin says their relationship with Spencer came about unexpectedly when the Bobby Lees were asked to open a show for him in Hudson, New York. She says the show was the first time the band had a guarantee, and it was also their bassist Kendall Wind’s high school graduation night. They met and talked to Spencer afterward, and he ultimately agreed to produce Skin Suit.
“(Before he started) he wanted a copy of the first record,” Quartin says. “I was a little embarrassed. Here it is—it’s not amazing.”
They recorded and mixed the album at a lightning speed in a few days, she says, but it was an awesome and enlightening experience. Spencer’s greasy, dirty production style gave the band an idea of the sound they could build on, Quartin says.
In addition to performing with the band, Quartin is an actress and producer who has appeared in feature films and shorts. One of her upcoming movies, Candy Land, stars William Baldwin, Eden Brolin, and Oliva Luccardi and was filmed in Montana in April; Wind and Casa served as production assistants.
Quartin says she enjoys acting, but it doesn’t hold the daily place in her life that music does.
“I love to do it when I can,” she says.
The Bobby Lees perform 8 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 8, at Shank Hall.
