Sadie Shaw plays guitar and sings in the San Francisco garage punk band the Husbands. Last month she encountered a circumstance that would have sent a lesser woman into a paroxysm of man-battering. She and her then-boyfriend of nine years (another punk rock “personality”) were casually looking at Friendster together. Sadie received a message from a friend on the East Coast. She and her man read it together. It said—if I may paraphrase—“Your boyfriend was just in town here and he was totally fucking someone else.” Sadie, ever the nonchalant badass, simply dumped the dude. (We can’t tell you who the guy is, by the way, but here’s a hint—his name is Tim Green and he’s in the Fucking Champs.)
Heroically rebounding in the best way possible, Sadie and her two bandmates Nikki and Sarah are about to embark on a full US tour to support their hot and grimy record Introducing the Sounds of the Husbands. Do you like the Gories? How about the Trashwomen? If so, you’ll double-love this record. It is the soundtrack to the movies John Waters would have made if he hadn’t veered off into What-the-fuckville after Serial Mom.
VICE: You guys should do some film soundtracks.
Sadie: I actually make movies of my own. Mostly horror and softcore porn, but the last one was more of a tearjerker. I mean, it was really gory, but it wasn’t funny-gory.
Did you have any actresses who were heroes to you growing up?
Nope. I mostly just had crushes on lots of boys that were actors. Matt Dillon and all the guys from The Outsiders. Oh wait, I really like Elizabeth Taylor. I remember being into her when I was twelve years old.
You live in San Francisco. Isn’t it all rockabilly dudes and swing punks?
No, there’s a lot of scenes here. There are even black metal guys who dress up in corpse paint. There’s a fucking great garage scene here right now. Towns go in and out of being fun, but right now people here are actually dancing, starting pits, and acting like assholes. It’s great!
CORINNE BUTLER
Introducing the Sounds of The Husbands is out now on Swami Records.
