Meet Jenna: A Riot for the Senses

Written By:  MA'CHELL DUMA LAVASSAR for The Stranger
Generally my sense memories have direct associations with past events. For instance, whenever I have a good bowl of borscht, I'm automatically transported to my Ukrainian grandma's gold-hued kitchen in 1980. The same could be said for my musical sense memory. When I hear the Waylon/Willie/Jesse/Tompall record Wanted! the Outlaws,
Instantly I'm 5 years old on my dad's lap, half asleep at one of my folks' frequent parties, with the sweet smell of "˜70s-era grass and incense floating past. These vivid and intense moments must exist to ground us in the present and remind us of our past.

I had the strangest, strongest sense memory when I stumbled across amazing Olympia post-riot princess Jenna Riot. Her uber-cool tracks from the upcoming EP, Girl You Look Expensive, sent me into sensory overload. As I heard "Lipstick Lakes" my mouth filled with the taste of dangerously cheap champagne. By the time I got to "Double Feature" my nasal cavities were assaulted by the pungent smell of generic pine cleaner, sex, and stale booze found in the "mostly girls" bathroom at FoXXXes in 2000.

If you attended that now mythic club on the right night, you would have seen the best of Seattle high gutter fashion, watched the depraved and wonderful Jackie Hell film Meat In my Spagetti-Os, heard seminal performances by artists like the Need, the Gossip, and Tracy + the Plastics, danced your ass off to Le Tigre, Pulp, and Peaches, and hooked up with your choice of vice by night's end. The glamorous Ms. Riot's sound is a sexy, smartly tuned hybrid of everything fabulous about the aforementioned music and aesthetics—the same vibe that's been carefully flirted with by bands like the Fitness and Mon Frere. Jenna's electroclash dance riot perfectly captures the DIY, queer-friendly, avant-garde spirit honed by Pho Bang hosts Jackie, Ursula, and DJ Baby J. It's a spirit that just happens (for me, anyway) to smell like generic pine cleaner, sex, and stale, stale booze.


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DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND, HUH-UH, JENNA RIOT
(High Dive) Most happening Seattle ladies between 19 and 30 go through a phase in life I refer to as "All Tomorrow's Parties." Are you on a first-name basis with the kids at Atlas and Red Light? Does your posse contain at least two drag queens and two drug dealers? Were your last three sexual partners musicians? Does the gigantic knockoff bag you're lugging around contain underpants and a toothbrush? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, get your slutty, fabulous ass to the High Dive tonight and meet your new electroclash goddess, Jenna Riot. MA'CHELL DUMA LAVASSAR

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JENNA RIOT
Jenna Riot's favorite things are: tough queer femmes, big hair, fishnets, stilettos, gaudy jewelry, and Crunks Not Dead Records. She is a busy bombshell! Take a vacation to the lipstick lakes and sip on a lip-gloss cocktail in your best bikini to "Girl You Look Expensive" (out on Crunks Not Dead). Her lyrics indulge in views of modern feminism, best friends forever, traditional vs. modern, femme paradises, butch/femme dynamics, raunchy & glam.
"The glamorous Ms. Riot's sound is a sexy, smartly tuned hybrid of everything fabulous: the same vibe that's been carefully flirted with by bands like the Fitness and Mon Frere." --The Stranger
http://www.myspace.com/jennariotmusic

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JENNA RIOT
Jenna Riot's favorite things are: tough queer femmes, big hair, fishnets, stilettos, gaudy jewelry, and Crunks Not Dead Records. She is a busy bombshell! Take a vacation to the lipstick lakes and sip on a lip-gloss cocktail in your best bikini to "Girl You Look Expensive" (out on Crunks Not Dead). Her lyrics indulge in views of modern feminism, best friends forever, traditional vs. modern, femme paradises, butch/femme dynamics, raunchy & glam.
"The glamorous Ms. Riot's sound is a sexy, smartly tuned hybrid of everything fabulous: the same vibe that's been carefully flirted with by bands like the Fitness and Mon Frere." --The Stranger
http://www.myspace.com/jennariotmusic