Reunited in 1999, Bratmobile is slugging it out again in a post-girl power, post-Spice Girls, post-Lillith Fair, post-Donnas world. After almost a decade, the facade of their act remains the same. Wolfe's still randy, crass, and scantily clad; Smith and Neuman still boast their lack of musicianship. Yet, that said, the songs on the forthcoming Ladies, Women, and Girls could have never fit in with their repertoire in 1992. An older, wiser Bratmobile has emerged, and it would be the perfect antidote to the too-boy mall emo and the too-scary radio rock, if only it weren't too smart to care or pay attention.
How fitting then, that on this leg of their tour, Gene Defcon matches Bratmobile mark for mark in over-the-top rock peevishness. Defcon, formerly Chris Lyons, a Cypress, Texas, native and a University of Texas advertising major, fronted Austin's most sex-cellent Brit pop band, the Primadonnas, under the name Otto Mattik. After the synth-based act broke up, Lyons moved to Olympia, Washington. Defcon's first full-length recording, Come Party with Me, appeared last year, available in two versions: a cassette that contained over 40 tunes, and a CD containing twice as many, all under a minute or two and almost all containing the word "baby." Defcon's shtick is not merely a takeoff on sleaziness, but an attempt at being sleazy by a man too goofy to pull it off entirely. Sleaziness, as a whole, is a rather admirable thing. Between Wolfe and Defcon, here's hoping that any audience has as much fun as they do.