Frizbee

Reviews

Frizbee Sour Kisses cassette

Indianapolis femme-punks FRIZBEE lived fast and died young, with Sour Kisses serving as the tombstone marking the end of the project’s two-year run. It’s nine tracks worth of noisy and raucous art-garage played with a borderline hardcore intensity (and short attention span) not dissimilar to last decade’s brat pack of UK bands like GOOD THROB, FRAU, and WOOLF, as interpreted by four Midwestern women in a post-Lumpy Records context. Vocalist Maude’s conversational but deeply caustic lyrics cut straight to the chase, lining up targets with zero ambiguity—see the repeated demands to “Give me back my own space” in “Evil Eye,” or the rhetorical taunt of ”Tell me why I’m burning at both ends” from “Defective”—with seriously blazing guitar and a claustrophobic, pinned-VU bass/drums pummel perfectly mirroring that vitriol. If you’re going out, might as well go scorched earth; FRIZBEE certainly did.

Frizbee / Pal Splat split cassette

Rust Belt split cassette between PAL from Cleveland, OH and FRIZBEE from Indianapolis, IN. Let’s start with PAL. We already know ‘em, we already love ‘em. Kooky, artsy, hilariously insightful, heavy on the synth, and catchy as all hell. Their first cassette made my 2023 year-end top ten list, and their side of this release might be even better. Two originals and a cover of “96 Tears” by ? AND THE MYSTERIANS, and all three songs are absolutely killer. Moving on to FRIZBEE. Another three songs on their side of the split, also two originals and a cover, the cover being “I’m a Bug” by the URINALS. As far as I can tell, this is the first release for FRIZBEE and it’s a pretty cool start, tho after listening to the PAL side, FRIZBEE kind of comes off like a less kooky, less witty version of PAL. The inevitable issue with splits—the sides will be compared and there will always be a preferred side. In this case, advantage PAL, whereas on their own, a FRIZBEE demo would likely seem all the cooler with nobody else snagging all the accolades.