Consistently Counter-Cultural

This Mexican garage punk and indie rock group defies all stereotypes of Latin American music. As is surely intended, Le Butcherettes do not fit neatly into any one category. They are a Mexican band with a French name and lyrics that are often English. Musically, Le Butcherettes are upbeat and edgy. Not afraid to address unhappy matters, their songs feature titles such as “Reason to Die Young” and “They Fuck You Over.”

Most of the tracks on A Raw Youth are extremely uptempo, often featuring psychedelic tones, quick, light drumming and the lead vocalist, Teri Gender Bender, contributing passionate, yet distinctly feminine, high-pitched lyrics. For example, the group immerses listeners in this sound with “My Mallely,” in which Teri showcases the higher spectrum of her vocal range, although she also goes lower in some other tracks, and her performance is backed by poppy, synthetic instrumentation.

“Witchless C Spot” is set a bit apart from the rest of the album, for its tempo progresses at a slower rate than that of most tracks on A Raw Youth. It has a methodical, thudding baseline, accompanying hard rock guitar style and vocals that could almost come from a heavy metal album. The instrumental components create a lurid effect, combined with lyrics such as, “My lover’s eyes are grey like sand, little teeth bite harder when you’re feeding dead hands,” and again, “I’m only here as your ghost.”

Over the next few tracks, Le Butcherettes revert to the more intense speed that seems, if anything, to characterize their music, but interestingly their closing song, “My Half,” once more implements a slower pace akin to that of “Witchless C Spot.” “My Half” provides an eerie conclusion to A Raw Youth, complete with moaning background vocals. Eventually, the songs just stops; it apparently begins to fade out, but ends before completely doing so, bringing the album to an abrupt cessation. This is just one small instantiation of the experimental character of Le Butcherettes.

In summary, A Raw Youth presents a definable style of music, but the uniformity is broken by the occasional atypical track, and even the more characteristic songs are revolutionary as part of a counter-cultural musical genre.