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Girls in Trouble
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Thanks to a TV special on the Suzuki Method, Alicia Jo Rabins, daughter of non-musicians, found herself playing a super tiny violin at age three.
Her parents didn't know what they were getting into. By age eleven, she was writing "avant-garde" pieces by bouncing tennis balls against piano strings at a conservatory. At age fifteen she was composing twelve-tone quartets. But it was in college, on a two-month sailing expedition for a semester abroad, that she found her real musical passion. An Appalachian shipmate taught her dozens of traditional fiddle tunes, and, playing on deck as the sun set and the gulls circled, she realized her true love: simple chords and old folktales.
The story could have ended there, but as she drifted across the Caribbean Sea, Alicia found herself dreaming constantly of Jerusalem. Sailors are superstitious, so she bought a one-way ticket, flew across the ocean with a backpack and her fiddle, and found a small school that would teach her Hebrew and Aramaic. Plunging deep into arcane texts and mystical ritual, she studied twelve hours a day. At night she snuck out with her fiddle to play in nearby bars.
After two years of (mostly) monastic life, Alicia rejoined the world with characteristic intensity. She moved to Brooklyn, toured with several different bands, earned two Masters degrees (one in Jewish women's studies, the other in poetry), and read and reread the Old Testament. She was haunted and moved by the sex, the violence and the twisted HBO-worthy drama. It was the ancient women's stories that devastated her the most, and Alicia made sense of them by writing her first songs. She wrote when she could - at Appalachian fiddle festivals, cross-legged on motel room floors, and at home on her bed, plucking an old guitar. She could hear the women speaking to her, correcting her, explaining their side of things. Alicia found herself writing in their voices: one song for each woman's story.
For Girls In Trouble's self-titled debut, Alicia recruited Aaron Hartman of Old Time Relijun (K Records) to play upright bass, Tim Monaghan to play drums, and Jascha Hoffman to play piano, keyboards, and vibraphone. They headed down to rural North Carolina and recorded with master analog engineer Scott Solter (Spoon, The Mountain Goats). Alicia arranged and performed all the string parts, as well as guitar and vocal harmonies.
Latest_news
Atlanta Loves DeLeon & Girls In Trouble
DeLeon and Girls In Trouble took over the Apache Cafe for the Atlanta Jewish Music Festival. Footage of the ruckus filmed by me, Patrick A. (Aleph) from the dark art-punk outfit Can!!Can.
Less talk, more rock. Watch these!
Girls in Trouble “June Gemini Tour 2010″
Girls in Trouble are gearing up for their “June Gemini Tour,” on which they will be playing everywhere from living rooms, to clubs, to arts & crafts stores and beyond. If they are stopping in your town or city, be sure to check them out, you won’t be disappointed.
And if you have yet to grab their self titled release, do it now from Amazon, iTunes or from the JDub Webstore.
AOL Spinner had this to say about the record, “Quiet but often energetic, the quintet plays a sort of old-timey punk rock, complete with circus organ and upright bass.”
6/4 Columbia, SC: (House Show) @ the home of Nathan Poole 1617 Heyward St., Columbia, SC
6/5 Atlanta, GA : Atlanta Jewish Music Festival @ Apache Cafe
6/6 Chattanooga, TN: Daytime craft store show @ Leo’s Handmade
6/6 Chattanooga, TN: Nightime club show @ JJ’s Bohemia
6/8 Knoxville, TN: @ The Pilot Light
6/9 Asheville, NC: @ Bobo Gallery w/ Pilgrim and Shane Perlowin
6/10 Durham, NC: House Show - DIY Craft Fair and Zine Swap (406 Queen St., Durham)
6/12 Washington, DC @ DC Jewish Music Festival w/ Golem
6/13 Baltimore, MD @ Wind Up Space w/ Garland of Hours
The National Post Loves Girls in Trouble!
The folks over at Toronto’s National Post were kind enough to invite Alicia from Girls in Trouble into their studio when the band was there on tour a couple weeks ago. Luckily for us, they’ve just released the video! You can catch that whole post, along with a podcast, HERE.
Girls in Trouble Spring Tour 2010!!
Girls in Trouble, led by the wonderful and talented Alicia Jo Rabins has been dubbed “Hauntingly Lovely” by LA Weekly, and thanks to some help from Tablet Magazine they might be coming to a town near you.
Girls in Trouble Spring Tour 2010
3/28 Pittsburgh PA @ Garfield Artworks (w. the Extraordinaires)
3/30 Youngstown OH @ Lemon Grove Cafe
3/31 Columbus OH @ Rad Dog, (w. Bird and Flower, Black Love)
4/1 Bloomington IN @ The Bishop (w. Early Day Miners, Mako Sica)
4/2 St. Louis MO @ Moishe House
4/3 Chicago IL (w. Judgment Day) @ Ronny’s Bar
4/4 Evanstown IL @ BooCoo Cultural Center (w. Naomi Less, Stereo Sinai) TIX
4/6 Detroit MI @ Cafe 1923 (w. poets Matthew Olzmann, Vievee Francis)
4/7 Toronto ON @ The Boat (w. THOMAS and Cigarettes)
4/8 Rochester NY @ The Bug Jar
4/17 Hudson NY @ Spotty Dog Books & Ale
4/25 NYC @ Cake Shop (w. Cars and Trains, Eric Lindley)
PopMatters Loves Girls in Trouble
PopMatters is running a great Girls in Trouble review! You can read that HERE. Full text below the cut.
“Girls in Trouble’s simple, folk instrumentation is ripe with influences from around the world, including Jewish and even Venetian-sounding tapestries of sonic bliss.”
8/10 - Lana Cooper
The premise behind Girls in Trouble’s self-titled release is straight out of those “what if” comic books from back in the day with a religious twist. Helmed by singer/songwriter/violinist/guitarist Alicia Jo Rabbins, the band brands itself on this ten-song album as what would happen if the women of the Bible got together and started an indie rock band. Each song takes a different Old Testament tale with a female protagonist and turns it into a kicky neo-folk ditty. Girls in Trouble’s simple, folk instrumentation is ripe with influences from around the world, including Jewish and even Venetian-sounding tapestries of sonic bliss. (Check out the gorgeous violin solo on “Hunter/The Bee Lays Her Honey” for a prime example.)
If you didn’t know the album’s underlying concept, the themes aren’t obvious, making the disc enjoyable in a (mostly) secular sort of way, too. The beautiful, tinkling “Snow/Scorpions and Spiders” is one of the only pieces that it’s obvious which Biblical babe the song is about, focusing on Miriam, the sister of Moses. Most of the disc’s other pieces tell the tales of more obscure women of the Torah, such as the maudlin “Mountain/When My Father Came Back” about Jephthah’s daughter—which shares sacrificial similarities to the story of Abraham and Isaac minus the happy ending. Overall, Girls in Trouble puts a fresh twist on ancient stories, as well as folk music in general.
Video
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Hunter/The Bee Lays Her Honey
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Mountain
Photos
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Sep 4
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Sep 11
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