Here are some GVSB articles. It isn't all that has ever been written about the band, but here's hoping it's enough to satiate your hunger for them. Most of this stuff was stolen, either from print (thanks to all who have transcribed) or from the Web. If any copyright laws are being violated, let me know and I'll take any article down. If you have any others (articles, that is), send em over.
General Articles | You Can't Fight What You Can't See reviews | Freak*on*ica reviews | Touch & Go articles
- Eli interview: Beat Magazine did an interview with Eli for their July cover story. (07/08/02)
- Scott interview: Kindamuzik.net did an interview in May with Scott while in Amsterdamn. (06/14/02)
- Johnny interview: From ctnow.com, he talks about music today, Akashic, and the new album. (05/16/02)
- MTV's report on the new album and GVSB's dealings with Geffen (05/16/02)
- NWK No. 4 review: KindaMuzik.net review of New Wet Kojak's EP No. 4 (10/14/01)
- Alexis interview: Modern Drummer interviewed Alexis about his drumming on the Series 7 soundtrack. (09/03/01)
- Hedwig & The Angry Inch: A review of the show from The Onion's AV Club. (08/10/01)
- A Series 7 review from the appropriately titled online magazine The Kinda Muzik You Like. (07/16/01)
- Johnny interview: Really good interview where he talks about Akashic, GVSB, Series 7, and politics. (07/07/01)
- Series 7 Review: A good musictoday.com review for the Series 7 soundtrack. (06/15/01)
- Akashic Books: Check out this interview from Insound with Johnny. It's mainly about Akashic, but he touches on GVSB as well. (10/22/2000)
- ZLT: Our online interview with the band.
- Kinda Muzik You Like: "'I wouldn't change a thing about any of our albums.'"
- Macworld: "So he's usually got his PowerBook G3 with him-–his traveling mini-studio."
- Launch: "'We are the 'It Boys'?' quips Fleisig."
- K-Rock: "ALEXIS: Ringo and i had a falling out."
- MTV Online: "Girls Against Boys were able to get in on some of the cinematic fun after being cast in the movie as a house band at a New Year's party."
- Exclaim: "Freak*on*ica is also more technologically and
melodically enhanced than previous offerings."
- weedbus: "Alexis: Geffen? I don’t know what you are talking about, man. That never happened. I’m outta here!"
- Valley Advocate: "For McCloud, whose dusky, serpentine vocals wrap around a song like an old pair of shades, lyrics are a thing that come in two or three-word spurts."
- American University: "But don't get me wrong, although the concert was not what I expected, I still loved seeing GVSB play and enjoyed the set."
- Consumable: "From the very first note, GVSB made it plain that they were there not just to warm up the stage for Garbage but to get the crowd's blood hot and pumping."
- MTV Online: "Temple: I think that they're claiming [rock's] dead because on the mainstream level, there's not a lot of interesting stuff happening."
- Pukkelpop: "So you can't blame us we are a bit tired of
this nevertheless excellent and energetic band."
- Melody Maker/Kerrang: "Scott: But at a lot of these big rock shows, everything's a lot more staid than you imagine it's going to be."
- muzic.com: "There's no room to move up there on that tiny steamy stage, but GVSB rock the joint anyway, Eli Janney risking mikestand self-decapitation as he bobs and weaves over his keyboard like a boxer."
- Creative Loafing: "Despite the confident glare coming from the members of Girls Against Boys in recent promotional photos, the quartet are not always as self-assured as they seem."
- Mirror: "But get into McCloud's lyrics on Freak*on*ica and you'll find they're as much about money and music as love and lust."
- Hour: "Their fifth and latest effort since their formation in 1989, Freak*on*ica, brings the pre-apocalyptic hardcore to new levels."
- Insite: "Despite the band's surprising forthrightness and integrity, the deal was cause for much whoopin' and hollerin', especially in D.C.'s staunchly independent music community."
- Toronto Sun: "GVSB decided to sink their newfound Geffen dollars into FREAK*ON*ICA and make 'a departure without distancing ourselves from the past.'"
- Drop-D: "Freak*on*ica is chock full of catchphrases for a Sega generation weaned on advertising slogans."
- muzic.com: "GVSB's major label debut on Geffen, FREAK*ON*ICA sports an gnarly 'tude, but even it pales in comparison to what the band delivers live."
- Calgary/Toronto Sun: "Granted, they are one of the better-looking bands around today, but their latest release, Freak*on*ica, proves they are also one of the most talented."
- Addicted to Noise: "GVSB played with confidence and determination, led by singer/guitarist Scott McCloud, who was dressed all in black."
- Kerrang: "Scott McCloud is front & centre, wringing all manner of ill noises out of his guitar & screaming to be heard over the wall his band has created."
- Pitchfork: "Scott: ...We wear women's clothing on the inside."
- NothingHead: "They gave up huge on the MTV'd 'Super-Fire' single from 'House of....' which elicited some of the first sincere energy from the statues that were pretending to be an audience."
- Magnet: "Freak*on*ica would be a transitional record, both artistically and commercially, with a six-figure budget affording the band the luxury of exploring every creative whim."
- GQ: "Their oozy, bluesy, funk-flecked noise is the sound of cooperation at its gleeful creepiest."
- Houston Press: "Aborted attempts at aping Grammy protesters aside, it's not like GVSB hasn't worked the system to its distinct advantage."
- New York Times: "Girls Against Boys, who performed
on Tuesday night at the Bowery Ballroom, don't have a lot of melodies, but their songs get by on
the brawn and friction of unstoppable riffs and strategic noise."
- Washington Post: "Fleisig: 'Mixing disco and punk is so wrong, it couldn't be righter.'"
- Alternative Press: "Two worlds collided one Sunday morning, as Disney organized the Hercules parade off Times Square."
- Kerrang: "Scott: I just saw God today, on TV - on 'Teletubbies'. God is a baby with its head on fire."
- Kerrang: "Six albums into their career and right at the beginning of their first European tour with major label backing GVSB are either on the brink of something big or the beginning of the end."
- Addicted to Noise: "The singer/guitarist of the New York quartet said the title of GVSB's sixth album, Freak*on*ica, which landed in stores Tuesday, is not meant as a pot shot at electronica music."
- MTV Online: "Shirley Manson jumped in, noting, 'There's Girls Against Boys. They made a great... I mean, the guitars sound incredible on that record.'"
- Rolling Stone: "Their hybrid of electronica, industrial noise and raunchy rock is more than a little supernatural, and their dark grooves and intense samples are chaotic enough to conjure visitors from another realm."
- Allstar: "'On all of our records, we've tried to come up with an atmospheric melange of bizarre sounds,' Fleisig continues. 'The only difference was now we had all these weird dance sounds to play around with as well.'"
- Melody Maker: "They're best known for their sleazy lyrics and 'sexiest men in rock' tag, but GIRLS AGAINST BOYS have a secret - they hate that image."
- Raygun: "It's easy to understand how a band might feel reluctant to replace a handshake with a 50-page business contract, but in the long run GVSB knew it was the right move."
- Melody Maker: "Scott: It's kinda wordplay, you know: 'Electronica' - 'Freakonica'. It had the right mixture of attitude and absurdity that we just kinda go for."
- Billboard: "As the twist on 'electronica' in its title helps indicate, Freak*on*ica comes across like its makers are up on the now sound but attuned to a more organic muse"
- MTV Online: "If you've heard "12 Bar Blues," the solo album from Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland, you may have noticed a similarity between Weiland's track 'Cool Kiss' and a 1996 song from Girls Against Boys, called 'Click Click.'"
- Allstar: "Spokesman: 'There's just no getting away from it. The sex will always be there.'"
- The Nation: "I first appreciated Spin's editorial independence
last year when my commercially "unproven" band was given a full page in the review of the year's forty most "vital" artists." (letter to the editor by Johnny)
- Alternative Press: "Eli: 'Our greatest fear with signing to a major label was that it would interfere with our creative process. I'm happy to say that it hasn't.'"
- Addicted to Noise: "'We like spinning records and we like having parties,' said Temple about his and band co-bassist Eli Janney's gig at the weekly "House of GVSB" at the city's 400 Bar."
- Allstar: "Janney says, 'There are a lot more samples and electronic sounds on this record'"
- Addicted to Noise: "Despite building their signature sound on the back of Temple and singer/bassist Eli Janney's double-bass attack, Temple said, with the exception of one song, the group is abandoning that working method this time around."
- MTV Online: "While all the talk of image can be a little distracting to GVSB, the group is well aware that it's a big part of life in the music business."
- Freeloader: "Johnny: Yeah. One of the reasons why we are not going to succeed on a commercial level on a major label, is that we are not a melodic band."
- CDnow: Now, thankfully, we can welcome back tough, visceral, and grown-up sounds via You Can't Fight What You Can't See (06/14/02)
- Pitchfork: "It's a total party CD, toting 12
dance grooves that immediately become lovable."
- Record and Tape Traders: "It's a total party CD, toting 12
dance grooves that immediately become lovable."
- Drop-D: "Slinky. That's the word for the world of GVSB."
- Pillowfight: "Freak*On*Ica is the mythical nightmare album that every indie band fan stresses over."
- Q: "Rejecting the laid-back vibe of 1996's House of GVSB, Girls Against Boys return to an earlier, altogether darker and more urgent sound."
- Addicted to Noise: "GVSB deliver a pure aural nitrate rush, a hit of the good shit."
- Washington Post: "Yet the new "Freak*on*ica" (DGC) represents the band's own urban-renewal project."
- USA Today: "The New York-based quartet crams more crunch and
electronica into this major-label debut"
- Sidewalk.com: "Rather than simply adding electronics after the fact, the D.C. four-piece infuses its distortion-heavy guitar rock with an organic, swaggering dance sensibility."
- The Onion: "Freak*on*ica may stir up some excitement at
the clubs, but those who have been waiting for it will find it a big, big disappointment."
- The Den: "It seems, though, that the Boys have forsaken melody for their new found love of technology."
- Village Voice: "Freak has more whoosh and loop to its studio effects, more shape to its chords."
- SLAMM: "On Freak*on*ica, hard-driving guitar, rumbling bass and thundering drums lay the foundation for a dark, ultra-heavy sound."
- MTV Online: "It's a seductive place to be, but, as fun as it is, it's hard to imagine Freak*on*ica standing up to the test of time."
- Wall of Sound: "Impressively postindustrial, Freak*on*ica winds up being more admirable than exhilarating, more sudden than enduring."
- Entertainment Weekly: "If the brooding 'Roxy' isn't the alt-rock hit of the summer, there's no justice."
- Allstar: "But taken as a complete whole, there's so much here to get the heart pumping, the spine tingling and... oh, heck, all the other parts you'd expect as well."
- Kerrang: "Taken as a whole, this would be the perfect soundtrack to Harrison Ford's trip into the seedy rain-washed streets of post-millenium LA in 'Blade Runner' - or better still, to some futuristic porno flick."
- Dallas Observer: "The sterile production doesn't help matters; the emphasis on metallic guitars and McCloud's vocals starts to make Freak*On*Ica sound like one lame alt-rock song after another"
- Melody Maker: "Be aware of the fact that Girls Against Boys pick frequently from a lucky dip of references and you can't fail to fall in love with this record."
Click here for GVSB articles from their Touch and Go days
