Bitch and Animal

Bitch and Animal's CD, Eternally Hard, is an acquired taste. You definitely have to be in the right frame of open mind to dig the funky rhythms and clever lyrics. The words, helpfully printed on the sleeve, are dense and poignant, and the NYC duo is decidedly pro-sex and feminist without being politically correct. It's hard to really categorise Bitch and Animal; they bend genre and gender into fun new shapes like those long balloons that always look like genitals. The opening title track initially sounds like a reply song to every misogynist rapper, and it may very well be, but when you listen closer it's a hell of a lot sexier and smarter than that. Same with "Boy Girl Wonder," which tells the tale of love gone wrong with a large dose of punk humour. Ani Difranco both appears on this record and basically discovered the two. Hopefully, she will stretch her coattails to further help this band out of obscurity. Otherwise, I'm afraid they won't escape the narrow cloistered boundaries of the feminist indie underground. Bitch and Animal are both strong writers and creative musicians who, if they allow themselves, can mature beyond clever odes to dildos.