By DONNA BALANCIA
Teri Gender Bender of Le Butcherettes displays her innermost feelings with the new music trilogy “struggle/STRUGGLE.”
With “struggle/STRUGGLE,” the amazing frontwoman for Le Butcherettes, known for her wild, physically demanding, red-dress-and-high-heels, crowd-surfing performances, goes the distance and reaches out to people who also need to fight intimately familiar but harmful influences in their lives.
Le Butcherettes play a sold-out show at The Troubadour in West Hollywood on Saturday night.
Produced by Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads and The Modern Lovers, “struggle/STRUGGLE” is basically a three-sided single that takes different viewpoints on life’s challenges. The challenges are not unique to Teri and she shares her work so others might not feel alone in their fight.
Innovative Approach to Production and Distribution of Music
The digital trio represents an innovative approach for distribution and it’s a fitting delivery and form for a music industry that’s is also struggling on how to get the attention of the alternative-rock music consumer.
When put in the context of knowing who Teri really is, it is heart-rending to understand her take on the new releases. The trilogy of work is significant on many levels for Teri and the audience, but also marks the first time Le Butcherettes are collaborating with Eureka the Butcher and Harrison.
READ ABOUT THE BUTCHERETTES at CALIFORNIAROCKER.COM
“The struggle is never ending,” Teri said. “As a latina woman, the constant battle within a steaming pool of perverted wagging tongues becomes a part of life, which on a sadly angled upside only makes for thicker skin … yet none of those struggles can compare to the internal fight of self versus m/other, m/other versus your world. ”
Teri Supports Others in their Struggle
On the darkly majestic first of the three parts of the topic, called “struggle/STRUGGLE (bi),” Teri talks about the negative influences that can take over one’s life.
“‘The other’ was trying to get inside to damage me,” she said. “Since I wouldn’t open the door, it would then begin to bang and bang and continue to bang on the outer walls while yelling outside at the top of it’s lungs that no one would ever love and respect me because I am a ‘stupid evil girl.’ It’s hard to not let ‘the other’s’ words poison you especially when ‘the other’ is a big part of your supposed existence and the very reason why you even breathe.”
She said “This take has an eeriness that magnifies the dark and moody moment of when I felt like a little child walking between the destruction of life and death. It’s also very special to me because Marcel AKA Eureka The Butcher wrote the music of the song, which is a first for Le Butcherettes catalogue.”
The Struggle is Real for Everyone
“‘struggle/STRUGGLE (/MEN)’ is the twin of the song that explores the light and the positivity to a dark and miserable existence with an urge of finding a climatic breath,” Teri said. “This is the ‘What if I had opened the door and “the other” and “the self” suddenly embraced in forgiveness’ take.
“It’s also very special to me because Jerry wrote the music to this version of the song on the spot, which is a second for Le Butcherettes’ history,” Teri said. The acoustic guitar is played on the recording by Harrison.
On the third installment, Teri takes a more focused look at her demon:
“struggle/STRUGGLE (TAL)” is the runt of the three, Teri said.
“The triplet runt of the song that was born deformed with all it’s divine eccentricities,” she said. “The take on this came from exhaling in all the fumes of father dear’s ashes and spitting them back out with a rancid clown-like spite, watching the phlegm slide down the wall as the ‘other’ pounds on it from the other side. The intentions coming from a nightmare that induces sleep paralysis while feeling your body fall without ever landing, inside the mind of a frantic Alice In Wonderland … Teresa in Mother’sland.”
“struggle/STRUGGLE,” produced by Harrison and mixed by Chris Common,is available now on all streaming sites and on a limited run of Flexi Discs that will be sold exclusively at the band’s shows and online at riserecords.com.
Le Butcherettes on Tour with Flaming Lips
Le Butcherettes have already spent most of 2018 on the road, with a European tour. The band has joined Hot Snakes in the U.S. for a run of dates in May. They’ve also just announced a tour with The Flaming Lips in August and a performance on July 14th at Taste of Chicago. See all tour dates below.
On tour w/ Hot Snakes:
5/11 San Diego, CA – Observatory North Park*
5/12 Los Angeles, CA – The Troubadour* – SOLD OUT
5/14 San Jose, CA – The Ritz*
5/15 San Francisco, CA – August Hall*
5/16 Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom*
5/18 Denver, CO – Oriental Theater*
7/14- Taste of Chicago – Chicago, IL
8/16 – Fort Wayne, IN – Clyde Theater^
8/17 – Cleveland, OH – Agora Theater^
8/20 – Montreal, QC – M Telus^
8/21 – Portland, ME – State Theater^
8/22 – Providence, RI – The Strand Ballroom^
8/24- Pittsburgh, PA – Stage AE, Indoors^
8/26 – Louisville, KY – Iroquois Amphitheater^
* w/ Hot Snakes
^ w/ Flaming Lips