Emily Bell and the Talkbacks
Hindu temples and deities don’t usually come to mind when listening to rock, but a two-month train trip across India inspired Texas-born, Austin-based rocker Emily Bell to bring home the archetype of female empowerment: Kali, goddess of destruction and new beginnings.
Emily Bell and the Talkbacks
Kali was soon to become the subject of one of the most rousing straight-ahead rock-and-roll anthems we've heard in years: "Goddess of Destruction." It became the title track of her five-track EP Kali, released in April 2017.
The song was also deeply personal. In an interview with Texas Brews and Tunes, Bell explained, "She's [Kali] the goddess of the death of the ego and the goddess of change. When I wrote that song I was going through my own process of change, and change can feel destructive . . . Destruction can feel like fire, like death, but you have to burn it down in order for new growth to happen."
Bell and her band, The Talkbacks, echo the ambience of the pure early rock of Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis Presley, the kind of sound that makes you want to squeeze into a T-Bird with eight of your best buds and head to the soda fountain, but their lyrical subject matter has been informed by a roster of uniquely postmodern adventures.
While her speech has no accent, Bell sounds like a Southern waitress, who takes her paycheck down to the tavern on Friday nights and does the best karaoke in town, singing her dreams as if she could make them come true. The band delivers a delicious pop-punk blend that's perfect, and a dash of rockabilly sauce makes the music all the more evocative.
Bell sounds like a Southern waitress, who takes her paycheck down to the tavern on Friday nights and does the best karaoke in town, singing her dreams as if she could make them come true.
The only disappointment is that Bell is a maverick in commercial clothing. She does have a very marketable appearance and her fashion sense is divine, but her creativity and her aesthetic should be attracting cult followings, not catering to the mindless hordes. Speaking of the recordings themselves, a little more minimalism, a little less shellac, a little more acoustic, and a little more grunge might fit her aesthetic better than the super tight engineering of Kali.
Of course nobody wants to hear, after months of exhausting work, "Sorry but you're just too perfect," but the same could have been said for Amy Winehouse, whose early polished but vague musical projects fumbled around with existing paradigms before she came into her true artistic persona.
Let's hope Emily Bell finds hers, too. With Kali she demonstrates the potential.
