Hive Five: Our daily listicle of musical musings.
San Francisco’s Grass Widow have carved a niche for themselves among the Bay Area’s DIY revivalist scene with their off-kilter, noisy cuts so it follows that the band’s attitude about their personal styles is equally progressive. “I’m glad we’ve never had the conversation, ‘What do we want to look like on stage as women?’,” guitarist Raven Mahon says. The trio, consisting of Mahon, Hannah Lew, and Lily Maring, instead subscribe to the belief that their individual fashion statements represent their different personalities — which especially rings true in their dissonant songs. “Our band’s philosophy is that there’s three of us and we’re always expressing that multiplicity as three different women,” Lew says. As the band gears up for the road this summer, they shared five tour essentials that they’re packing their bags with.
1. Beanies
Hannah Lew: Our style as a band has always consisted of an unlimited vocabulary for what femininity can be. For some women, their idea of dressing up is just to be a sexier version of themselves and I think that’s such a limited way that women can represent themselves. I remember when we made the video for “Fried Egg” we were like, ‘We want to show our sense of humor. We want to show our styles’. So we decided to wear beanies because we always wear them. When we’re on tour I always bring three things of the most important things I’ll wear so it’s kind of a staple for all of us, especially me and Lily. You probably see us in a beenie all of the time.
2. Sunglasses
Hannah: For the record, my pet peeve is when people wear sunglasses indoors or at night. Sunglasses are pretty functional for me. The reason that I bring three pairs of sunglasses on tour is because I like to have lighter lenses and one pair with much darker lenses for different times.The weather in San Francisco kind of demands that I always have them if I’m going to be out all day.
3. A Pea Coat
Lily Maring: I live in Oakland come to the city all of the time so I can leave the house in a summer dress with sunglasses on and return home with three sweaters and a beanie and a scarf on. It’s like that on tour too. That’s why my big jacket is my staple: I wear it as a jacket and use it as a blanket or pillow too. On tour, you need clothes with several kinds of uses because there’s several different types of weather patterns. We’ve been on tour where we’re like, ‘Oh shit. We’re going to drive through a tornado. What do you bring for that?’
4. Lavender Oil
Raven Mahon: I’m such a hippie! I definitely have tour staples like a big t-shirt and a pair of Adidas sweatpants from the ‘90s that I wear a lot. I thought that was already being represented in the items that Lily and Hannah chose so I was thinking about the items that make me comfortable when I chose mine. So, I decided to pick this little bottle of oil that I always bring. I got it from a friend in Providence, RI who’s an herbalist and made it. It’s a comforting essential oil and it’s something that I always have on my pillow so it reminds me of home.
5. A stupid t-shirt
Hannah: We found this t-shirt at a thrift store in Providence, Rhode Island and I remember I saw it and thought it was really dumb. It’s not really my style because I don’t really have too many ironic t-shirts but I bought it on a whim and remember wearing it every day for a while. I don’t know what other artists do but if everyone isn’t wearing pajamas on tour now then they should start. This shirt is really big and comfortable and the doggy has one googly eye missing from his face.
