ILL EASE is the brainchild of Brooklynite Elizabeth Sharp, who is very much in with the NYC art set and apparently once drummed with an 80's US underground hardcore outfit, though I must confess after much brain wracking even this jaded, seasoned hack can't crack that particular mystery. Mails to the usual address please.
Still, whatever the answer to that one, Sharp's new project is well worth your time and money. Having hooked up with ex-SUGAR bassist David Barbe as producer and hi-tailing it to REMsville (otherwise known as Athens, Georgia), she's wrung the best out of a strange little pop song, with a nagging, descending chord sequence, grinding, bitten-off guitar, neat little "ba ba ba" harmony bits and graced it with a deadpan, but delicious vocal kinda like early Kristin Hersh, but with less obviously kooky kinks in it. She even manages to make a line like "totally erratic, totally spastic," sound weirdly erotic. Oh dear: cold shower time.
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B-side "Junkie Go Home," meanwhile, sends the weirdness off the scale. Brief, lo-fi and entirely potty, it features guest Mike Perkins blamming away on a crunchy riff reminiscent of Spizz Oil's early EPs and appears to be about chatting up a junkie. It ends almost as soon as it begins, sadly, but then you know the old adage about making sure you leave the people wanting more.
Having never previously heard Ill Ease, I can't say I've any idea if this is in any way representative of Elizabeth Sharp's output, though I know she did release an EP with the immortal title "Greatest Tits" last year. For that alone, she gets me on her side.
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