I want to start out by saying that this is the best femme grime band I’ve ever seen live, the best femme grime band I’ve ever heard, and without question the greatest femme grime band of all time.
Original photo by @malxsoup on IG
Ok, they are also currently the only femme grime of all time, but there really ought to be more- these guys rock.
In all seriousness though, “No Antics” is a five-piece, self-titled “femme grime” band local to St. Louis, Missouri. Featuring two guitars, a bass, drums, and a keyboard, they have a distinct, entrancing style, with punk rhythms and a unique vocal tone that fits perfectly within the sonic landscape they create. The keyboard adds great flavor to their tracks too, mellowing out songs at some parts and letting the heavier, grimier sections really stand out in others.
When I first listened to their music, there was something strikingly familiar about their sound. Not in the sense of unoriginality, or, “Oh, this is just x band but worse”, but more like the scene in Ratatouille where the guy eats the food. It’s a comforting, thrilling, stimulating familiarity that reminds you why you love music and leaves you craving more. If I was a music critic, it would be enough to make me quit and become a full-time groupie. I’m not a music critic though, I’m a music enjoyer, and I look forward to enjoying “No Antics” for many moons to come!
Their releases are super professional and polished, and their ability to translate this to a live performance is something I really can’t put into words. This is one of those bands you need to see live. I will warn you though, if you do go to one of their shows expecting no antics, you might be caught off guard. Well, you’ll definitely get “No Antics”, but there will undoubtedly be many antics involved. Really though, support local music, and check out this band.
- Molly (vocals/guitar), DD (guitar), Tyler (bass), Nick (drums), and Jacob (keyboard) -
- Interview conducted October 18, 2024 -
Band Background
So how did this start- you guys playing together?
Jacob: Well, originally a couple of us were in another band and then that band broke up, and then we were like, “Well, what else are we doing?” And then Molly moved here and she had collaborated with Nick previously, but Nick lives… abroad.
Nick: Abroad as in five hours away.
Molly: In Nashville- Tennessee.
Jacob: But if you ask the transmission in his Nissan, it's much farther and it’s uphill both ways somehow.
Nick: RIP the Nissan Murano.
Jacob: So it kind of started with some leftover material that they had started, but we didn't know Nick yet. We were doing our thing, putting out material on our own for a couple of years, and then recently- since May- Nick's been on board on drums. So, the project is a lot the same, but, you know, we're kind of- we're doing mostly singles now. We did an LP last summer, a full length album.
DD: Yeah. It all kind of just somehow landed together. It almost seems like it should never have happened, but when Molly moved back into town, I knew right away that I wanted to do something with her.
Tyler: Yeah, because she moved into town as soon as his old band broke up.
Molly: Yeah, there was synchronicity in the timing of it all, and we (DD) started texting and sending each other demos and song ideas we had and we were like, “We’ve got to meet up”.
Tyler: I wasn't even trying to join a band, but [DD] was like, “I got this homie, Molly, trying to do some shit”. And I heard what they were working on and I was like, “Oh, fuck. I should at least give this a shot”.
Molly: Yeah. I remember walking in with the four of you and [Jacob] had like, maybe six drinks in a McDonald's thing. And I was like, “Oh, this man bought us all food”.
Tyler: A lot of Diet Cokes.
Jacob: Everyone always thinks that.
Molly: And I was sitting there, like, waiting. I was like, “Oh, he bought so much, is this for everyone?”
Jacob: And she then watched me drink them all.
Molly: But no. Yeah. No, no, no, I quickly realized. Quickly, quickly realized that that was all for him and [then] he shit on the keys hard.
Nick: “No Antics” is DC core. Straight up, we are Diet Coke core.
Molly: Yeah, I don't drink soda, but everyone else is living off of it, so.
I'm kind of curious about your guys' name, because I feel like there are a decent amount of antics that go on.
Molly: Yeah. No, that is all we do.
Tyler: When we were coming up with band names, she had a list of names and one of them was just “Antics”. And we looked up the definition of antics, and I was like, what about “No Antics”?
Molly: Yeah, cause like we're obviously not that. We partake in quite a few antics.
Jacob: Foolishness. Tomfoolery. Shenanigans.
Tyler: Some horseplaying, if you will.
Nick: Molly and I were in a band together called Flimsy, and in that band we came up with a bunch of names and “Antics” was one of the names. And so when they took “No Antics”, I personally was like, “I'm gonna be in this band. I know for a fact- at some point- I'm gonna be in this fucking band”.
Molly: It just made sense.
The vibes were great tonight- you guys have so much chemistry together.
Molly: But yeah, [Nick] is commuting from Nashville right now.
That's crazy.
Nick: It’s a lot, but for this group it means literally nothing. And when I say it means nothing, like- I drove up here, my transmission went out, and I somehow figured out a way to get to St. Louis and then to practice on time yesterday.
Molly: Yeah, he called me at work, like, “Hey, my transmission is out. I'm, like, over an hour away, but I'm gonna be at practice”.
Jacob: He breaks his car every time. Every time. This car hates this man.
Nick: So when I say it means nothing, I mean literally nothing will stop me from getting to this place and playing with this band.
Tyler: Words can't describe how much we appreciate Nick.
DD: Yeah. Nick has held it together, like, hard.
Molly: Yeah. And we got some new songs that are old Flimsy songs.
Nick: We're actually going [to] the studio tomorrow! We're gonna do seven songs tomorrow.
Molly: Yeah, we got quite a few, and we have a couple that are already recorded that we're putting out in the meantime. But this will be the first time that it's...
Nick: Actual new songs. New new songs.
Molly: Yeah, with Nick. I mean, they were new before, but, these are all [songs] we've worked [on] together.
I was listening to your guys’ album, like, all week preparing for this and it's very well done, like everything is very high quality.
Nick: Well, that’s all Molly.
DD: Yeah, it was all produced, mastered, and recorded by Molly, so.
Jacob: She always asks me, though.
Molly: Yeah, I say, “Hey, can you make this better?”
Jacob: She always says, “Hey, is there anything you would change about this?” and that's when I really feel like we get below the surface.
Molly: Yeah, that's where it reaches that next level point, when I'm like, “What would you do differently?”
Jacob: Yeah, and it's usually very little.
Molly: But there’s [always] that one thing. It makes a difference!
Jacob: It's always something. Because, you know, it [might] sound real good when I'm in the shower, but when I get out of the shower…
Molly: It needs something
Jacob: Or less of something often is the case.
I get that.
The Brand
So, what is femme grime?
Tyler: Well, Jacob came up with it.
Molly: He did. This originated in the first gig- if you could call it that- that we played. It was a record shop that did live performances and had like a YouTube channel and Jacob was talking about our genre-
Jacob: I think I called it “Modern Femme Grime”.
Molly: He made it up on the spot, and we were all just kind of like, “Yeah, that works. That is it and we're going to make that up and we're going to take it”.
Nick: Femme grime is what Courtney Love aspires to be.
Molly: Yeah, that's what she wanted Hole to be.
Jacob: But she couldn’t do it, because she sucked all those men's souls.
Nick: We are a 90s revival band that you would not believe did not come out of the 70s- and that is femme grime.
Molly: Yeah, femme grime is definitely just heavily 90s, early 2000s- Yeah Yeah Yeahs, like, Karen O is one of my biggest inspirations.
What are some of your guys’ other inspirations or influences- musical or non-musical? Just like, what inspires you or influences your work?
Molly: A lot of 90s, but also like not 90s. Hole, Bikini Kill, the Breeders, the Pixies, Le Tigre. Like, early female punk.
Nick: Old Beastie Boys type shit.
Molly: Beastie Boys is like our main inspiration.
Nick: Like, “License to Ill” Beastie Boys.
DD: On a real note, it all stems from Molly. It really does. One of my influences personally is FreeThinker, which- they're all going to laugh about this- but this was Molly's band when we were in high school together.
I had a friend whose older brother was also in the band and I saw them playing in the cafeteria one day and that alone was a huge influence on me even picking up a guitar. And a huge influence on me trying to get a group going with Molly, because I knew that she was an amazing songwriter and I knew that I was really into the kind of style that she was into. So, that ended up kind of being “No Antics” in a way.
Molly: I think “Grocery” was the first one we ran.
Tyler: Yeah, that was the first song we ever worked on.
Nick: Which was also a Flimsy song originally!
Tyler: Me, DD, and the old drummer worked on “Talking”. That was [also] one of the first original projects.
Molly: Yeah, it was like: “Grocery”, “Talking”, and “Patriarch”, I think were the first three.
How would you pitch this band to someone who has never heard it?
Jacob: Ok, so there are some selling points that I do really like.
Nick: We’re gay.
Jacob: There's a lot of LGBTQIA friendliness, inclusion, amplification.
Molly: Yeah, they're the only straight ones, and they're the ones that kiss on stage.
Nick: It kind of makes sense though.
Jacob: Yeah, it makes sense because that's how we dismantle it and take the power back.
Nick: Straight up.
Jacob: And then there's also, you know, keyboards. Not just anybody has keyboards- I think we were the only band tonight with keyboards. And then on a lot of the bills we’re the only band to include a female perspective or voice at all. Tonight we're lucky (shoutout Freddy VS), but it's not common. And then if Molly's the only girl on the bill, they make us play first, but that's okay. We're happy to do it.
Molly: Yeah, there is definitely some slight sexism until we start performing, and then the mood changes.
Nick: Yeah, because guess what? You realize that Molly is the best vocalist you've ever heard. And the best guitarist you've ever heard. Again, a lot of these songs start off as demos by Molly and then she brings them to the band and we [just] expand on them.
DD: Produced by Molly, mixed by Molly, mastered by Molly-
Nick: Played by Molly. Oh my god, everything- it might as well be drummed by Molly, because-
Molly: Nooo- ok, hold on, fuck no.
Nick: One of the new songs is drummed by Molly.
Molly: But you will know.
No, like, hearing it on a recording is one thing, but when you hear the vocals live, it’s super impressive.
Nick: And that's what I've been telling [her]- we met each other in 2018 and then we really got to know each other in 2019, when we were both down in Nashville. And it was kind of this thing where, at the time Molly was just coming out of Freethinker and just hopping into school, doing studio engineering- and I had just come out of the same class, doing studio engineering.
Molly: Yeah, he was in the same program.
Nick: Molly was a little adverse to being the front-person, but the band (Flimsy) was just Molly and I and I didn't have the skills at the time to play all of the instruments, so I was just doing drums and Molly was doing [the rest] of the instrumentals and it all sounded amazing. Molly is the most amazing musician you'll ever hear.
Molly: I hate this. I hate this.
Nick: The only reason any of us are here is because Molly brought us together. The only reason that we are all here-
Molly: Is that DD hit me up.
Nick: And DD hit her up, because why, DD?
DD: Because I was like: “This motherfucker goes hard”.
Molly: Yeah. And I knew this motherfucker went hard.
Nick: Because DD saw Molly in high school playing in their cafeteria during lunch. This band comes down to Molly. When you see Molly on stage, know that we are here because of her.
Tyler: 1000 percent.
Closing Thoughts
How do you guys feel about the St. Louis, Missouri music scene?
Jacob: Well, actually, I'm a lifelong native. My great grandfather built the arch- true story, I learned that at his funeral. His name was Sylvester. He smoked Camel unfiltered cigarettes- RIP.
But I’d say… It's hard, because it's hard to build momentum around the bands and stuff, especially since COVID. It takes a long time to get promotional stuff off the ground and whatnot, but places like this (Blueberry Hill Duck Room) are really great. We have a lot of friends who play here and we do a lot of other events and whatnot here, so there's pockets of it that are really great.
DD: St. Louis has a really good scene. Part of it is just kind of, like, making friends with a lot of the other local bands. That makes everything more fun, because rather than just playing with another local St. Louis band, you get to play with your friends! Like shows like tonight, rather than just playing with a local band, we get to play with our friends, like Inner City Witches.
Nick: We’ve played with them a couple of times and they fucking rip. If you wanna hear good post hardcore, come to an Inner City Witches show. If you like Turnstile, you will love a fucking Inner City Witches show.
Do you guys have any closing thoughts?
DD: Inner City Witches: best band to come out of St. Louis in… forever?
Nick: Here are my closing thoughts: DD is an amazing guitar player, Molly is an amazing guitar player and singer, Tyler is an amazing bass player, Jacob is the glue that holds us all together.
And you should come see a fucking show ‘cause we will melt your fucking face, man. Also, shoutout Timberland High School- Wentzville, Missouri. We are the Wentzville high school, don't listen to Holt. Fuck them bitches.
And that’s all for “No Antics'“!
As always, we really appreciate these bands giving us the chance to speak with them, and it was awesome learning more about them and just hanging out.
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