About
A 4 piece garage-punk combo from Nashville, TN, Heavy Cream write and play with the martial simplicity and force of the Ramones and the cocky, bad-girl swagger of the Runaways, all filtered through an imagination informed by lo-fi noise and trash-culture wit. Heavy Cream was formed by vocalist Jessica McFarland and guitarist Mimi Galbierz in December 2009 over the course of a few late night hangs at the Snack Palace. The current line-up includes McFarland, Galbierz, the stellar additions of DC transplant Rachel Hortman on the drums and Dillon Watson of D. Watusi on the bass. Hortman brings pure energy to the group flawlessly executing each song without stopping to take a breath. Watson's pocket playing drives the performance, and has breathed new life into the band.
McFarland first moved to Nashville in 2006 from Paris, TN with the intent to pursue visual art. Shortly after arriving in Nashville she joined forces with Daniel Pujol of PUJOL and Wes Traylor of Natural Child to form MEEMAW in which she played drums. When the era of MEEMAW came to a close McFarland stepped up to write and perform as lead vocalist in her own project, teaming up with local Nashville bad-girl Galbierz to write the distorted pop gems you know and love today. As Heavy Cream honed their stage act, the band became one of the leading acts on the Nashville punk scene, as well as earning a growing out-of-town following through endless touring. The band traveled to San Francisco to record their second album, with Ty Segall and Eric Bauer serving as producers; Super Treatment was released through Infinity Cat in the spring of 2012.
Super Treatment is one of those albums that you just can’t go wrong with. There is not one track that isn’t raw, edgy and deliciously distorted. Super Treatment wears a fuzzy coating and is sonically more experimental than their first more straight forward record Danny, produced by Jake Orrall, but nothing can mask the gorgeous lo-fi creature that is Heavy Cream. The first track “’79” just bubbles with Seth Sutton’s grindy bass and the steady but perfectly tiny drums of Tiffany Minton. There truly is an overall vintage tongue in cheek feel with Heavy Cream, which is lovingly brought out in “T.V. Preachers.” The raw, up-beat energy of each track enhances Jessica’s charmingly surly vocals and maintains a reverence to the sarcastic punk attitude of the late ‘70s/early ‘80s. Not to mention Mimi Galbierz’s glorious, horn-like, guitar buzz in “John Johnny” blew a few synapses in my brain, making Super Treatment a heavy cream treat.