Chastity Belt began as something of a joke when guitarist/singer Julia Shapiro, guitarist Lydia Lund, bassist Annie Truscott and drummer Gretchen Grimm were still undergrads at Walla Walla, Wash.’s Whitman College. After the band relocated to Seattle postgraduation, its first album, 2013’s No Regerts, continued in the in-it-for-yuks vein, with songs inserting a healthy dose of self-deprecating humor into the group’s unschooled, spindly guitar rock. But then a funny thing happened on the way to the punchline: Shapiro found something more than merely “funny” to say, and began writing more sophisticated songs that demanded a closer degree of attention. Which, in turn, pushed the band’s latest LP, Time To Go Home (Hardly Art), toward altogether more fertile creative turf. Chastity Belt will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new feature on them.
Truscott: Canadian pop sensation Carly Rae is really killing it right now. In college, we all used to sing along to “Call Me Maybe” but her most recent album, Emotion, is next level. I think I’ve listened to it almost every day for the past couple of months, which is kind of extreme, but it’s just that good. Not only is it great to dance and run to, but it also makes excellent background music for band hangs. Her lyrics are so real and relatable, and the music has a variety that is rare to find on most pop records. Way to go, Carly Rae.
