Author | Michelle King
In 2005, Ex Hex was the name of the third solo album by Mary Timony. This week, with the release of their debut full-length album, Ex Hex will now be more commonly known as the DC punk band fronted by Timony (formerly of Wild Flag, Autoclave, and Helium) and rounded out by musically like-minded women Laura Harris and Betsy Wright.
The album, appropriately titled Rips, came out Tuesday on Merge Records, and is getting an insane amount of praise, all very well due. The record is full of huge hooks and easily digested lyrics, and the powerful, noisy sound is refreshingly far away from the aggressive tendencies we expect from punk rock, or even Timony’s previous riot girrrl projects.
Another band touched on in our Hopscotch Festival recap, the trio have a fantastic stage presence and a chemistry that can be heard in the music as well as seen in the live show. It’s at the same time light-hearted and heavy-handed, raucous and relaxed. NPR described it best in their first listen feature “It’s the sound of a band having fun, and you don’t have to listen all that closely to hear it.”
