Mrs. Piss, courtesy of Grandstand Media
Singer-songwriter Chelsea Wolfe and multi-instrumentalist Jess Gowrie have formed a new band, the sardonically dubbed Mrs. Piss. The duo’s debut album, Self-Surgery, is out May 29th, and they’ve shared two new songs, “Downer Surrounded by Uppers” and “Knelt”.
Mrs. Piss reconciles a long musical relationship between Wolfe and Gowrie, who once played together in a band called Red Host in the early 2000s. The idea to form a new band came when the two were touring together for Wolfe’s 2017 album, Hiss Spun.
The two singles showcase the duo’s sonic diversity and are more urgent and abrasive than Wolfe’s folk-tinged output. “Downer Surrounded by Uppers” is a ripping post-punk track while “Knelt” is a droning wall of sludge, slower but no less heavy. For Wolfe, the project has allowed her to dabble in new sounds and aesthetics that aren’t always appropriate for her solo recordings. The album was recorded at The Dock in Sacramento, California.
“Working on this project brought Jess and I so much closer as songwriters and production partners, after reuniting as friends and bandmates,” Wolfe remarked in a press release. “It was freeing and fun to channel some wild energies that I don’t typically put into my own music. We tried not to overthink the songs as we were writing them, but at the same time we did consciously put a lot into crafting them into our own weird sonic vision. This project was a chance for us to do things our own way, on our own terms, and we plan to invite more womxn musicians along for future Mrs. Piss recordings.”
Added Gowrie: “To me, Mrs. Piss represents a musical chemistry cut short long ago that now gets a second chance. Creating with Chelsea has always been very liberating for me, and we both push each other to try new things: anything and everything. Both of us have grown so much as writers and musicians since our first band together [Red Host], and with the journeys we had to take separately to get there, we both have so much more to say; so much more pain and anger to express. That said, we also had a lot of fun doing it, not to mention how freeing it is to not give a f**k and to just create.”
Editors’ Picks
After touring in support of her folk-based 2019 album, Birth of Violence, Wolfe has kept busy during the pandemic. She recently contributed to a new content sharing platform, Isolate/Create, and covered Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” while social distancing.
Pre-order Self-Surgery via Sargent House. Stream “Downer Surrounded by Uppers” and “Knelt” and check out the LP’s artwork and tracklist below.
Self-Surgery Artwork:
Self-Surgery Tracklist:
01. To Crawl Inside
02. Downer Surrounded by Uppers
03. Knelt
04. Nobody Wants to Party With Us
05. M.B.O.T.W.O.
06. You Took Everything
07. Self-Surgery
08. Mrs. Piss
