The Shrapnelles

With a name like the Shrapnelles, you might expect a reverb-drenched garage-rock band with a penchant for all things Phil Spector — and you wouldn't be too far off the mark. This all-female outfit from Calgary plays shimmery guitar pop with one foot firmly planted in classic R&B, as evidenced...

By Tom Murphy

April 6, 2011

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With a name like the Shrapnelles, you might expect a reverb-drenched garage-rock band with a penchant for all things Phil Spector — and you wouldn't be too far off the mark. This all-female outfit from Calgary plays shimmery guitar pop with one foot firmly planted in classic R&B, as evidenced by its lively covers of Aretha Franklin, the Supremes, Stevie Wonder and others of that era. Visually, the band would have fit in fine on tour with the Red Aunts. Although its brash sound — part noisily exuberant garage rock and part punk before any real rules set in — is akin to the current wave of lo-fi rock running through certain circles of the musical landscape, the Shrapnelles are genuinely fun rather than trendy.

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Tom Murphy is a writer, visual artist and musician from Aurora, Colorado. He was a prolific music writer for Westword and a documenter of the Denver music scene.

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