His & Her Vanities, The Pamphleteers

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His & Her Vanities

Saturday, Oct. 29, Mickey’s Tavern, 10 pm

A “save the date” notice for Madison rock fans appeared quietly via a post on the previously dormant His & Her Vanities Facebook page: The Madison quartet will reunite to play their first show in more than five years. Also on the bill is Pamphleteers, an excellent Chicago band that includes Rebecca Crawford (the Dials) and Jonathan Ben-Isvy (the Returnables). With Venus in Furs.

Chicago trio Pamphleteers premiere the title track from their forthcoming full length debut The Ghost That Follows via Music & Riots Magazine.

Impose Magazine recently shared the anthemic single, "Shivering" HERE.

Pamphleteers have been unleashing their shimmering post-punk assault since 2012. After debuting with a split EP, the band is set to release its first album on September 23rd, 2016. The Ghost That Follows overflows with fantastic hooks and urgency reminiscent of X-Ray Spex, Bikini Kill, Young Marble Giants and The Gun Club. 

As a group, Pamphleteers are steeped in history and friendship. Having played in such bands as The Dials (No Fun Records/Latest Flame), Telenovela, and The Returnables (Jettison Music/Dirtnap), bassist/vocalist Rebecca Crawford, drummer Geoff Atkinson, and guitarist Jonathan Ben-Isvy have played side by side, if not together, for more than a decade, and their friendship goes back years beyond. When event conspired to find Crawford and Ben-Isvy simultaneously bandless for the first time in their years of friendship, they naturally looked to each other to fulfill their musical compulsion. 

In a very real sense, Pamphleteers are a direct outgrowth of the 2005 intentional car crash that took the lives of Chicago musicians John Glick, Doug Meis, and Michael Dahlquist (Silkworm). Glick was the husband of Pamphleteers bassist/singer Rebecca Crawford, and Meis was her bandmate in The Dials. Glick was the closest friend and bandmate in The Returnables to Pamphleteers guitarist Jonathan Ben-Isvy. Dahlquist and Meis were friends to all of the Pamphleteers. 

Obviously, the aftermath led to tremendous pain and sadness, but also the immediate or eventual loss of their bands. Pamphleteers has been an opportunity for Becky and Jonathan to make music and find joy in playing again, and the album's songs are a reflection of the challenge to move forward after such tragic loss.