Introducing: Junkyard Lipstick
Written by Jason Daniel Baker
Saturday, 07 February 2015 04:00
Founded in picturesque Cape Town, South Africa in early 2011 heavy metallers Junkyard Lipstick have honed a lekker sound which straddles the boundaries of multiple metal subgenres. The aural stylings were, if you go by their Youtube videos, developed painstakingly within the cramped environs of a tiny rehearsal space.
Behind the eyes of some of the most beautiful women in all of Africa was that creative spark which has inspired countless tunesmiths throughout the ages to pick up instruments and give voice to a muse. Whether indulging the compulsion is a practical life choice is, of course, immaterial. Finding the right collaborators is the correct imperative.
After several line-up changes Junkyard Lipstick has settled in to being the collective work of drummer Lucinda Villain, Jacky Roodt on bass, Tazz O on lead vox and Louise Gorman on axe. It is this line-up that has carved out a solid reputation in the Cape Town club scene within which heavy metal has a very real foothold. Jo Smit was added in January 2015 taking the place of Tazz O and Robyn Bruwer has joined on rhythm guitar.
Whether varieties of Afrikaanse musiek are in any way an influence upon the band is by no means evident. Heavy metal of any kind let alone the sludge/speed/doom mongrel sound the members of Junkyard Lipstick have crafted together may have seemed more than a little out of place in the part of the world they live in – one generally associated with Isicathamiya or mbaqanga.
But it is exactly where these gorgeous young women have made their way leaving their collective mark well beyond geographic confines. The barriers of time and space which once isolated us have been bridged imperfectly by the internet. As a result any band has a distribution point for their recordings.
Chatting with Louise gives me a better sense of the metal scene in Capetown – one in which local metal bands have but a few venues to play in and generally just for each other in a warm, communal but relatively small social circle. Louise identifies South Africa as a conservative culture, and one which looks down heavy metal in all its variants.
I’m told the scene is much bigger in Johannesburg – the largest city in the country. The band toured there in 2013. Reaction from concert-goers at Junkyard Lipstick’s appearance in the Emalyth Arts Expo was quite positive. Their slot at the Cape Town leg of Ramfest 2014 (headlined by Killswitch Engage and Trivium) was similarly well-received.
As with Killswitch Engage and Trivium, international acts like Behemoth, Konkhra, Kataklyzm and Sepultura have begun to play South Africa. An outfit called Witchdoctor Productions is behind organizing several notable metal festivals which host foreign bands. Witchdoctor brought Behemoth, Konkhra, Kataklyzm and Sepultura to the region.
Critical appreciation of the most effusive kind has followed fast and furious in the wake of their March 29th, 2014 EP release, ‘The Butcher’s Delight’. Their much anticipated new single, ‘Damned in the Deep South’, is now out.
http://www.junkyardlipstick.com/
https://www.facebook.com/junkyard.lipstick