About
BIO:
Sometime on the innocent end of 2001, a tea kettle clattered to the floor of a Brooklyn kitchen and college friends Jeannie Kim, Nicole Whelan and Keach Hagey heard the future of music. They decided to call it Fur Cups For Teeth. A few years later, they fell out of love with computers and asked their friend Derek Pippin to beat the drums instead. The four of them have been knocking things over and the kids out ever since. There aren’t any rules, really. There have never been. Motown, electro, punk rock, hoedowns — the only logic is that there is no logic.
PRESS:
“Exemplary local electropop trio Fur Cups For Teeth celebrates the release of its second record, ‘Fun Luck You Keep.’ Its stylish, ruthlessly catchy new stuff suggests Sleater-Kinney gone girl-group.” – Time Out New York, October, 2007
The face of New York’s Rebel Youth, according to New York Magazine
Interview with Chief Magazine
“Part vacuum-pushing pep squad, part women’s studies posse, Fur Cups for Teeth are foot soldiers in the dance revolution. Last year’s self-released Allergic 2 Fur EP was on the same page, sonically, politically and quality-wise, as Le Tigre’s This Island. From the absurdist manifesto “Boxed Lunch” to the dubby, Simon-sampling “Christmas Presence,” the Brooklyn trio mixes electro and rock with aplomb. For their next trick, Jeannie Kim says they’ve replaced the canned beats with Dead Betties drummer Derek Pippin. The new tracks split the difference in styles, with the pro-Bouvier “Edie Idol” in the electro category and the anti-Bush “Ce Soir” in the rock pile. Now in the mixing stage, the songs have been honed onstage and just need a home on disc. “We hope they will be done by the end of the year,” Kim says, “and hopefully by then someone will want to sign us and help us distribute the album.” Who wouldn’t?”
– Philadelphia City Paper Music Picks, October 20-26, 2005
“What do you get when you combine distorted power chords, speak n’ spells, kazoos and wailing Kathleen Hanna-esque female vocals? You get ‘Fur Cups For Teeth’ and their debut EP ‘Allergic 2 Fur’. This album is a riot grrrl’s less politically crazy kid sister that has undergone much better production than it ever would have in 1994. Don’t get me wrong though, this IS a feminist-conscious Brooklyn-based trio, they played Lady Fest East, but they certainly aren’t wailing “suck my left one” like Bikini Kill did ten years ago.
Jeannie Kim, Nicole Whelan and Keach Hagey are really hot Brooklyn girls that collaborated and recorded this album with Hillary Johnson. The girls are electroclash hip-shakers in a way Bikini Kill never was with swaggering lyrics like “I wouldn’t give a little bit of me for designer jeans and I wouldn’t take what you’ve lost for a $100 haircut” in “$100 Haircut”. You’ll find yourself totally doing the running man and hand clapping to the cheerleading layered over vocals in “Mystery Train”. Watch out Le Tigre, you’ve got some competition.”
—WCUR 91.7FM | West Chester University Radio, November 26, 2004
“A dissonant, caustic, rockin’, and thumpin’ all-girl trio? Right up Go!’s alley. This describes the New York band Fur Cups For Teeth, which headlines tonight at O’Brien’s Pub.”
— The Boston Globe, Go! Thursday, August 12, Jim Sullivan
“Roustabout! A little hairy”
[read the full article and our interview here]
–The Daily Collegian, Weekend section (front page!), Aug. 5th, Laura Baker
“Not-so-quiet riot: Fur Cups bust out of feminist punk”
[read the full article and Nicole’s interview here]
— Centre Daily Times, Weekender, Aug 6-12th
“Meret Oppenheimer’s Luncheon in Fur is splashed across Fur Cups For Teeth’s website, demonstrating that they’re following in Le Tigre’s footsteps by packaging feminist theory in fun, danceable pop music that’s still gritty and kitschy enough for the Dickies-wearing vegans who worshipped Bikini Kill in high school. They play electronic pop using toys from the ‘80s, wear colored tights and vintage pumps, and they’re even from Brooklyn! Who knew that Simon could be an instrument as well as a prize for toy collectors?”
— Pittsburgh City Paper, Weeklink, Aug. 8th – 11th, “Females Take the lead: Millcreek Tavern features bands from Philly, Brooklyn
Fur Cups For Teeth dance this mess around with toy instruments (Speak & Spell, Simon Says, kazoo) and even a vacuum cleaner….”
— Philadelphia Daily News, August 6th, Sara Sherr
“With Le Tigre signed to a major label, who will represent for NYC DIY punk-electro girl love now? Why, Fur Cups for Teeth, of course! Armed with keyboards, drum machines, guitars, and a whole lot of toys, these three Brooklyn girls party like electroclash never died. The first track on their debut EP is a theme song / mission statement that begins with the immortal line, ‘We are longing to rock your liberal arts college.’”
— Kitty Magik #10, Amy Phillips
“How is it that Le Tigre opened a School of Womanly Rock and I wasn’t sent a catalog of classes? I was initially skeptical of FCFT with their looped guitar riffs, cheap Casio beats and rally-girl vocals.” As I kept listening, an SAT-like analogy came to mind: FCFT:Le Tigre::Bishop:Modest Mouse, which is to say that the lesser-known bands have done such a good job ripping off their respective influences that you’re willing to forgive their copycat tendencies. Stand-out tracks include the grooving, ‘Going to Bars,’ which verges on electro-snob, but the woo-woooooo of a slide whistle removes any and all pretensions. And you’ve gotta give it up for the revved-up vacuum cleaner slicing through ‘Happy For, Proud Of.’ ‘Mystery Train’ is undoubtedly the money-shot song on this eight-track CD. The soulful chorus, ‘Darling, darling, your love is like a mystery trai-ai-ain/ Wherever it goes, it goes and it ain’t never comin’ back-ack-ack-ack,’ intertwines seamlessly with a bust-out-your-pom-poms cheer. If you ain’t careful, the Train will pummel through your brain. (AA)
— Starred review, Punk Planet #62
“Take the trappings of electro and add toy instruments such as Simon and a Speak & Spell and you’d probably see us racing for the door. But credit Fur Cups For Teeth’s sense of humor about what they—and others—are doing with such tools, and you begin to understand why the trio’s self-released EP, Allergic 2 Fur, is such a charmer. They harmonize pretty well, too, in classical girl-group fashion.”
— Time Out New York
“FCFT are three girls having a great time. It’s a simple concept that leads to fun, dancy music. They first formed in 2001 based around the sounds of a Speak n Spell, Simon Says, Kazoo, an accordion, washboard, and a vacuum cleaner. As messed up as that sounds, it makes for one interesting and highly innovative sound. Bringing in some punk electro-pop influences the girls have managed to make their songs move kids along the dance floor. FCFT remind me of a cross between Le Tigre, Bikini Kill, and Ladytron.”
– CrashinIn.com
“Like the coddled daughters of Madonna and Tristan Tzara, electro-punk trio Fur Cups For Teeth hits the stage with an arsenal of tiny instruments…”
— New York Press
“The album’s gem is ‘Mystery Train’ (not the old Elvis Presley classic) in which FCFT pay tribute to the New Orleans sound of the ’60s….”
— Good Times Long Island
“Into everyone’s life a little Fur Cups For Teeth ought to fall. Jiving and juking, screaming and trashing, laughing and sneering like a post-apocalyptic Supremes meets Le Tigre, the three girls of FCFT are easily the most original and uh, ballsy, performers in the City today.”
— jenyk.com