The group are thrilled to be heading to Melbourne to play songs from their debut album, ahead of its release early in the new year.
As well as an appearance at the Hidden Gem Festival, they’ll be joined by Super American Eagle, Grace Mitchell, and Nasal Spray at Old Bar, and their St. Kilda Bowls show will feature a special performance by Two Am I (Tim Rogers & Davey Lane).
The band’s debut, current single is the fast-paced, ramalama rock ‘n’ roll shakedown of ‘Too True For You‘. The guitars jangle and riff with dirty fuzz, like a lost gem from the Buzzcocks or the Ramones – the perfect pairing with Ruby’s uber-melodic, 60s girl-group vocal.
Ruby Rogers-Garcia, founder and front woman of Ruby and the Clumsy Dollies, grew up surrounded by records, musical instruments, and recording equipment, and a healthy respect for the creative process.
Little wonder then that her innate songwriting and singing talent seemed to spring, fully formed, on her remarkable debut album New and Improved, recorded at her and the band’s analogue studio in the Lower East Side of NYC.
She has in fact been preparing for this moment all along, rising from her childhood bed to put ‘Gimme Shelter’ or the MC5 on the stereo, wrapping herself in the dreamy melancholy of Elliott Smith or the electrifying sounds of Link Wray, Big Star, The Sonics, The Dictators, and Lou Reed.
Later, as a 45-spinning New York DJ, Ruby refined her sense of the musical hook, finding in her audiences the most direct neural route to rock and roll ecstasy. The daughter of You Am I’s Tim Rogers, she studied violin for years but (like Bo Diddley before her) swapped the gut strings for sizzling electric guitar and the pursuit of crafting the perfect driving rock and roll pop songs that populate the Clumsy Dollies’ record, New and Improved.
The band began to gel when Ruby joined forces with Aaron Mika (Televisionairies), a drummer whose outward nonchalance behind the kit disguises a deadly solid and inventive gift for setting the perfect groove that pulls us into the Dollies’ world. His driving beats are the perfect complement to Ruby’s raw and squelching guitar grind. Producers Rocio and Matt Verta-Ray supply some supplemental bass, keys, and guitar, with the result being a true rock and roll gem.
Written in both NYC and in the Spanish countryside, the songs on the album were the result of ideas formed instrumentally before Ruby worked on the lyrical content, inspired by the music she’d written.
Once in the studio, there were many songs that Ruby knew exactly the direction they needed to take, however there were times when Matt and Rocio, and her parents, offered invaluable ideas and suggestions during the recording process.
“That would include adding additional instrumental options, trying out a different pace for a song, key etc. Their suggestions for the most part really ended up perfecting some of the songs and made them make sense. Their experience and input was extremely helpful in showing me alternative perspectives during recording and production.”
The album title is one with a streak of irreverence, as Ruby explains. “Being my first album, it felt like a bit of a humorous touch. The record has a bit of everything – sad, romantic, intimate songs, and more wild ones, more ironic and playful. It’s nice not having to take yourself too seriously!”
Across the record, you’ll find a bit of everything – sad, romantic, intimate songs, some more wild, some more ironic, and playful. There are songs about living in NYC (On the Deuce), communicating through unspoken words (Right Through Me), living apart from loved ones (Star), the loose and catchy, jangle, and groove of ‘Shell Shocked‘, the quantum entanglement theory referencing ‘Spooky Action‘, and much more!!
NEW AND IMPROVED
1. Right Through Me
2. Too True For You *
3. Star
4. On The Deue
5. Spooky Action
6. Shell Shocked
7. Darling Cowboy
8. Mad
9. Weight On Me
10. New And Improved
CREDITS
Ruby Rogers-Garcia: Vocals, guitar, bass, organ
Matt Verta-Ray: Guitar, bass, baritone guitar, slide
Rocio Verta-Ray: Organ, synths, percussion
Aaron Mika: Drums
Produced by Rocio and Matt Verta-Ray
