I won’t condescend. I won’t explain to you what ugly means. You know what ugly means. The sale rack at Marshall’s, usually. The concrete apartment complex built in 1992 and never updated. The cake your seven-year-old niece decorated for you. Okay, that one might’ve been a little mean, but the point still stands. Ugly, ugly, ugly. You don’t need it explained.
Ugly-Pop, then.
You know what Ugly-Pop means, right? This would be the time for me to swoop in and finally start to condescend. To prove my vast and superior musical knowledge to you. To explain, with the help of copious adverbs, that Ugly-Pop is the genre, the lifestyle, the ethos, created by Kelli Mayo and Peyton Bighorse of Skating Polly. Ugly-Pop is the idea of heavy melody mixed with violent imperfections. But I get the feeling I don’t need to explain all this either- do I? Chances are if you know anything at all about Skating Polly you know about Ugly-Pop. It’s been their brand (and I don’t mean that nasty) for a decade and change now.
It was ground breaking at the time, pre-teen Kelli and Peyton fuzzing out squealing bass guitars and crashing drums semi-rhythmically; but where does that leave us today? These now seasoned musicians, with access to professional studios and world class producers (now might be the time to mention Brad Wood), are still claiming the term. What makes Chaos County Line, Skating Polly’s new double album and first release in five years, ugly? What makes it Ugly-Pop?
In our interview with Kelli she commented on the long lifespan and changing meaning of Ugly-Pop, saying “ugly has evolved in what it means to me. Ugly is a guitar flub we decided to keep in the track or sometimes the content of the song is about a really ugly feeling.” She continued, “to me, it's always been about not editing out humanity. That’s how you keep ugly and Ugly-Pop.”
If it’s humanity we’re looking for, humanity that’s keeping Ugly-Pop, and by extension the creative force that is Skating Polly, alive, then we’re quite a ways out from a funeral.
Chaos County Line was released June 23rd on El Camino Media by sibling trio Skating Polly- and it may be their most human album yet. While Skating Polly has never shied away from difficult emotions or hard truths, Chaos County Line delves into painful memories and lets the band paint an honest picture- even if it’s not so flattering. We can all see ourselves in the self-deprecating quips in ‘I’m Sorry For Always Apologizing’ and the bubbling anger of ‘Send a Priest’. After three well executed singles you may wonder what’s left on the album. The answer? A whole lot.
The opening track veers us into well charted territory with quiet-loud grunge dirge ‘Baby’. While they’re not exactly reinventing the wheel, added flourishes like twanging guitar and vocal hitches keep the song interesting; buzzing riffs only serve to intensify the gentle vocals. ‘Baby’ moves from wholesome hillbilly lullaby to puke stained punk party in a deafening second. Kelli’s second run through on lyrics is reminiscent of, and I don’t say this lightly, Kurt Cobain’s In Utero vocals. Previously reviewed single ‘Hickey King’ continues to kick all sorts of ass with vocal texture from both Kelli and Peyton that scours the track raw. Quippy lyrics are the order of the day and they're being served hot. The drums on ‘Girls Night’ thud and echo like a ritualistic battle-cry that brings to mind previous Skating Polly song ‘Hail Mary’. One of the most lyrically dense of the 18 offered tracks, ‘Girls Night’ starts off as a much better ‘I Kissed A Girl’ and moves into a pained reflection on the perception of queer people as predators, even if it’s just a crush in 6th grade. ‘Rabbit Food’ is too busy a track to latch onto anything, but revels in its own mess delightfully. ‘Hush Now’ feels like a quite pleasant fever dream in which The Killers discovered Riot Grrrl in their formative years. Crunch, a wall of gritty guitar noise and exaggerated vocals greet you on ‘Sing Along’ and ‘Send A Priest’. ‘Send A Priest’ is a particularly unhinged track; the guitars will leave you wide-eyed and the vocals, which sound as though they were recorded from inside a rock tumbler, will leave you breathless. ‘Man Out There’ featuring David Yow of The Jesus Lizard starts off with a riff that sounds rather similar to Beck’s 'Mutherfucker' but moves into wholly original fuzzed out horror rock in short order.
‘Masquerade’ and ‘Double Decker’ are indie darling pop tracks that would make Calvin Johnson proud. While some decry the sweeter side of Skating Polly the band has been doing pop for as long as they’ve been doing punk; a vitriolic ‘stick to your roots’ simply doesn’t apply here. One of the biggest changes since the last album is Kelli and Peyton’s vocals. Kelli underwent vocal surgery at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and spent considerable time recovering and relearning how to sing. With the help of speech therapists and vocal coaches she regained use of her voice as well as some new tricks. Kelli said, “it was really cool, and I learned a lot of warm up exercises. I taught Peyton a lot of them.” The track most evident of their growth as vocalists is ‘All The Choices’. Gentle verses and a soaring chorus give Bighorse room to flex her considerable talent. ‘Charlie’s Brother’ may feel boring at times but never hollow; it always keeps its human edge. Piano ballad and reflection on coping mechanisms, ‘Tiger At The Drugstore’, showcases what makes Skating Polly special. Originally a song written by Peyton, the lyrics were reworked using Kelli’s personal journal entries, yet it remains true to Peyton’s concept. Tracks ‘Someone Like A Friend’ and ’Sorry For Always Apologizing’ strip away any pretense and let the members of Skating Polly bare their emotions directly. Kelli recalled the album being emotional to record and stated she once “broke down crying” in the vocal booth. She went on to say she’s made peace with strangers having access to such intimate parts of her life and that “if people don't like the way I felt or the song I made based on the way I felt then that's okay.” Album closer ‘Party House’ is the perfect come down from the goliath double album with its echoing atmosphere and chatty vocals; you can’t help but feel like you’re sitting next to the band on a worn out sofa in weak morning light as last night’s party goes to bed.
Very rarely is a double album justified, no matter the wait between releases. While Chaos County Line certainly has tracks that aren’t as good as others, nothing there is necessarily cuttable. The album swings wildly from the creepy lullaby quality of ‘Booster Seat’ to the R&B feel of ‘Someone Like A Friend’ to the shrieking guitars of ‘Send A Priest'. It may feel like whiplash but it’s all in the name- chaos. Every track builds up the candy-sweet, fuzz-pedal-distorted world Skating Polly reign over.
In an industry ripe with plants, AI and 20 second sound bites, Skating Polly have crafted a record brimming with authenticity and humanity. I’d tell you to give it a listen but you’ve already listened to it, I assume. You’ve listened to Chaos County Line. You came here, to this review, to confirm your opinions , or have them contradicted, or even excoriated. But if you take one thing away from this, please let it be a second listen. A second listen all the way through. This time, though, do me a favour. Note all the ugly parts. All the Ugly-Pop. Dig out the humanity, even the uncomfortable parts, and crank the volume to eleven.
