TWO 2 NICE GIRLS Rare Texas folk '88 Club Cairo POSTER Austin

2 NICE GIRLSCHILD BEARING HIPS11" x 17"CONCERT POSTERCLUB CAIRO AUSTIN TEXAS1988POSTER ARTIST: MALICECONDITION: EXCELLENT -8 OF 10 OR BETTERHARD TO FIND TOP CONDITIONFIRST ONLY ORIGINALBiography by Sandra BrennanTwo Nice Girls are a trio of women who play rock with a keen socially conscious feminist/lesbian edge. Known for their multi-textured harmonies and versatility, the Girls are equally at home singing everything from satirical songs to raucous parodies to smooth love songs.Two Nice Girls were a self-styled "lesbian rock" band from the U.S.A. featuring singer-songwriter Gretchen Phillips.The group's original line up (1986-1989) was * Gretchen Phillips - guitar, bass, mandolin and vocals * Kathy Korniloff - guitar, bass, violin, percussion, vocals * Laurie Freelove, guitar, bass, percussion & vocals.Members each wrote songs and took turns on different instruments. Freelove left following completion of the band's first album in 1989. She was replaced by Meg Hentges on guitar and Barbara Cole on bass. Drummer Pam Barger was added to the band just prior to Freelove's departure.Two Nice Girls won a GLAAD Media Award in 1991. The group broke up in 1992. Hentges went on to release an EP and two full-length albums.- Discography * 2 Nice Girls (1989) * Like a Version (1990) * Chloe Liked Olivia (1991)A Two Nice Girls Biographyby Gretchen PhillipsBack in the olden days it wasn't common to hear women on the radio, at least not on rock stations in Texas. You had the few who kept cropping up over and over again - Heart (God bless'em) and Pat Benatar - but the geniuses of the 1980s who were making ground-breaking albums dealing with sexual and cultural politics (The Slits, Au Pairs, X-Ray Spex, The Avengers), and just straight up rock and roll (The Runaways), were rarely to be heard. We fans had to find each other at the VFW halls and other makeshift spaces that we rented for punk shows. We had to make mix tapes of obscure Fatal Microbes British singles for each other in order to hear this good stuff. We weren't really getting it on the radio. And the internet hadn't been invented yet.Two Nice GirlsYet the 1980s were a great time for interesting and varied female-fronted bands. There were more of them than ever before. There were also lots of dyke bands that primarily played the women's music circuit. We would go see them at women's music festivals, and theatres and spaces rented out by women's music production companies. These events were very commonplace and well attended, but they were, for the most part, quite underground. Generally, no real mention of them was made in the mainstream press. As a young dyke, it seemed to me that the punk women's world and the lesbian feminist world were rather separate, and I dreamed of bringing them together. There was just no reason the radical lesbians wouldn't want to hear some kick-ass electric guitar feedback. And there was no reason why my punk sisters wouldn't want to hear lyrics as radical as those professing lesbian desire. So I attempted to bring peanut butter and chocolate together.So, in the summer of 1985, Laurie Freelove, Kathy Korniloff and I formed Two Nice Girls. Yes, there were other bands in other places putting this peanut butter and chocolate together. Two Nice Girls just happened to catch a good wave and ride it for a while.We actually rode a relatively folky wave, all my punk aspirations aside. We just really loved melody and harmony and wanted to sound pretty while saying radical things. I don't think that just telling the truth about your life should be viewed as radical, but unfortunately it often is. Why shouldn't we be out as lesbians? What did we have to lose? We weren't really in the music business to get rich. We wanted to create anthems for people to come out to. We wanted to put on shows where hot, single babes could hook up. We wanted to provide an unmistakably queer soundtrack for them to fall in love to. We wanted to show men what lesbians were up to. We wanted to paint a picture of a world that was bigger and brighter than the one we were living in. We wanted to say that the emperor had no clothes. We wanted to give everyone a glimpse of our record collections. We wanted to make everyone have a good time with the lesbians, which was perhaps something you'd never experienced before. Those were our dreams of being mainstream. We just wanted to be in the middle of the mix, and not in the margins.Gretchen PhillipsAnd I guess it took some bravery to be out lesbian musicians at that time, because many of those lesbian performers that you think of when you think of the folky, lezzie music of the 1980s and 1990s were in fact not out when we shared the stages with them. They had their lesbian fans who knew the scoop, but they weren't singing songs about being queer at that point. They came out later in their careers. Two Nice Girls were out all along. We had a stated agenda to: Make Lesbianism As Attractive As Possible and we weren't going to succeed with that goal if we were closeted.Two Nice Girls got a ton of very touching fan mail upon the release of our first album. We received what were often very long letters from all over the world, describing people's queer lives in various small towns. They told us that our record gave them courage, and the hope that things would change someday and they wouldn't have to be so afraid to just be themselves. That meant everything to us. That was the reason we were doing all this. It's what we were in it for. Well, that, and the girls, of course. We wanted to hopefully make it a little easier for someone struggling with their sexuality to know that they're not all alone and that there were a few dykes in Texas who had their own take on the experience.Why did we do so well? I ask myself that all the time. I honestly don't know. People just responded to us. We loved making music and we loved putting on shows. We loved meeting people and providing an evening's entertainment. We dreamt of our world domination, our cable TV network, GET (Gay Entertainment Television), our how-to books, our star-studded tours and the many albums we were going to record. In the end we put out two full-length albums and an EP of covers. We toured the US and some of Canada. We played in London for four shows. We did as much as we could and still have fun. When it stopped being fun we stopped doing it. We fell short of some of our dreams and, I suppose, accomplished some things that we'll never even know about. We really had an altruistic mission to make this world a less homophobic place by providing a lesbian point of view that lots of people, gay and straight, could relate to. There was a time, a very different time in the not too distant past when our president never once uttered the word "AIDS", and just the idea of a show called "Will and Grace" or "The L Word" seemed like it could radically alter things.I do believe that art affects politics. And I believe in the subversion of song. Look no further than Under My Thumb. How many times have I caught myself humming that very catchy little number in spite of the fact that I don't agree with it politically? Doesn't matter, it got inside me. In Two Nice Girls we just wanted to get you humming some catchy queer song whether you agreed with us or not. We just wanted to get inside you.The facts:Two Nice Girls was formed in the summer of 1985. The initial incarnation consisted of Laurie Freelove, Kathy Korniloff and Gretchen Phillips. We all played guitar and bass and whatever else we wanted, and wrote and arranged the songs.In 1987, The Austin Chronicle held a Sweet Jane contest at Liberty Lunch in Austin. Bands were asked to perform that one number. Our version, which mashed up Lou Reed's Sweet Jane with Joan Armatrading's Love and Affection, came in second place, (first place people's favorite).Two Nice GirlsTwo Nice Girls garnered a nice following in Texas and was asked to participate in the first South By Southwest Music Festival in 1988. We didn't want to because it didn't pay, but they talked us into it. Jim Fouratt from New York City saw us at that showcase and became our manager. He played our live version of Sweet Jane (With Affection) for Geoff Travis of Rough Trade Records. On the strength of that one song, Geoff signed us and my dream of being on Rough Trade (home of Weekend, Scrawl, Young Marble Giants, Lucinda Williams, among many cherished others) came true.We began recording our first album entitled 2 Nice Girls in the summer of 1988 at Willie Nelson's Pedernales Studio with Lisa Byrd as our producer. Things were going along well until the IRS padlocked the studio because Willie owed back taxes. That was a nightmare. Every studio in town was booked. We had to piece together studio time at the University of Texas, where Lisa worked. Fortunately we were able to squeeze into the Austin City Limits studio and mix the album in the break between Christmas and New Years. - twonicegirlsmusic.comSeth Spicker Maxwell, a.k.a. Malice, moved to Austin from Indiana in 1985 and spent time at Bee-Bop Printing. A couple years later he was booking bands into "The Loft" above the Cannibal Club and creating his own posters. Resplendent with hairy letters and steroid-crazed eyeballs, his posters were a common sight on "the drag" until he moved to San Francisco in 1989. - jagmo.com.This is an original single sheetpaper poster advertisement (A.K.A. street art, handbill, flyer or print) for a concert performance gig by professional musicians at a music venue. Guaranteed original and authentic, manufactured prior to, and in conjunction with the promotion of the event. A Sound Deal does not sell poster re-prints, scans or duplications of any kind, so please don't ask. Combine Items to Save $$$!!!©ASoundDealPowered by SixBit's eCommerce Solution