Tacocat is an American punk rock band from

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, founded in 2007 and consisting of Emily Nokes, Bree McKenna, Lelah Maupin, and Eric Randall. They gained popularity in 2014 following the release of their second album '' NVM'', engineered by

Conrad Uno Conrad Uno is an American record producer and founder of the independent record label PopLlama Records. Uno began his career making his own music as a teenager in his makeshift basement studio. At the request of his friends, the Young Fresh Fell ...

. The album received positive reviews in the music press, including from

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, and

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...

, and also reached the

CMJ CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events and online media company, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music Monthly'' and ''CMJ New Music Report''. Th ...

top 10 college radio albums. Tacocat addresses

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

themes in many of their songs using humor and sarcasm. The song "Crimson Wave" is a period-positive beach anthem featuring red imagery and humorous

menstruation Menstruation (also known as a period, among other colloquial terms) is the regular discharge of blood and mucosal tissue from the inner lining of the uterus through the vagina. The menstrual cycle is characterized by the rise and fall of hor ...

metaphors. The music video for the song gained over 10,000 views in a single week on YouTube, and has since gotten over 415,000 views. The band also jokes about other themes such as seasonal affective disorder in Seattle on "Bridge to Hawaii" and waiting for a late bus on "FU #8." The name Tacocat is a

palindrome A palindrome is a word, number, phrase, or other sequence of symbols that reads the same backwards as forwards, such as the words ''madam'' or ''racecar'', the date and time ''11/11/11 11:11,'' and the sentence: "A man, a plan, a canal – Panam ...

History

Drummer Lelah Maupin and guitarist Eric Randall first met in

Longview, Washington Longview is a city in Cowlitz County, Washington, United States. It is the principal city of the Longview, Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Cowlitz County. Longview's population was 37,818 at the time of the 2 ...

while working together at a Safeway grocery store. Randall met bassist Bree McKenna while his band was practicing in the basement of a punk house where she lived. Lelah Maupin met

Emily Nokes Emily Nokes is a writer, artist, music critic and musician. She has been the singer of the feminist pop-punk band Tacocat since 2007. She is also the music editor for Bust Magazine, and the former music editor at The Stranger from 2012 to 2015. ...

in a graphic design class. The four bonded over their mutual affection for 1990s music, the

riot grrrl Riot grrrl is an underground feminist punk movement that began during the early 1990s within the United States in Olympia, Washington and the greater Pacific Northwest and has expanded to at least 26 other countries. Riot grrrl is a subcultur ...

movement, and

Kevin Costner Kevin Michael Costner (born January 18, 1955) is an American actor, producer, film director and musician. He has received various accolades, including two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Screen Actor ...

's ''

Waterworld ''Waterworld'' is a 1995 American post-apocalyptic action film directed by Kevin Reynolds and co-written by Peter Rader and David Twohy. It was based on Rader's original 1986 screenplay and stars Kevin Costner, who also produced it with Charl ...

''. They started making music together, performing at small shows and releasing singles. They released their DIY debut album ''Shame Spiral'' in 2010. That year, they also signed with

Subpop Sub Pop is a record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman. Sub Pop achieved fame in the early 1990s for signing Seattle bands such as Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Mudhoney, central players in the grunge movement. They are often ...

imprint

Hardly Art Hardly Art is an American independent record label based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in early 2007 by Sub Pop Records, Hardly Art is run by three full-time employees and is distributed by the Alternative Distribution Alliance (ADA) and Sub Pop ...

and released their second EP ''Take Me to Your Dealer''. The ''Woman's Day'' EP followed in 2011. The band would exhaustively tour the United States over the next few years, playing basements and house shows. Other notable releases include a Ghost Mice/Tacocat split 7-inch, a

cover compilation album released on Teenage Teardrops Records (featuring cover art by

Jessica Hopper Jessica Hopper (born September 5, 1976) is an American writer. She published ''The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic,'' a compilation of her essays, reported pieces, zines, and reviews, in May 2015. In 2018, she publish ...

), and the much coveted DIY tour tapes such as ''Frenching and Food Stamps'' and ''OMG''. In a 2012 installment of Your Favorite Band, a series of fictitious satirical articles for ''VICE'', Bree McKenna claimed to be the illegitimate child of

Bob Saget Robert Lane Saget (May 17, 1956 – January 9, 2022) was an American stand-up comedian, actor, and television host. Saget played Danny Tanner on the ABC sitcom ''Full House'' (1987-1995), and reprised the role for its Netflix sequel '' Fuller ...

. The band was involved in a controversy involving pop singer

Katy Perry Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known professionally as Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. Known for her influence on modern pop music and her Camp (style), campy style, she has been ...

when her Super Bowl 2015 half-time show featured backup dancers in shark costumes that looked similar to Tacocat's in the "Crimson Wave" video.

2014 NVM Tour

Tacocat went on a national tour in March 2014 in support of their album ''NVM'', playing many shows in the Pacific Northwest and across the United States, including in Los Angeles, Tucson, New Orleans, Atlanta, Baltimore, Columbus, Las Vegas, New York City, Miami, Boston, and Little Rock. They also toured Europe in fall 2014 with visits to many major cities including Barcelona, Berlin, London and Vienna.

''Lost Time''

Tacocat's third album '' Lost Time'' came out on Hardly Art Records on April 1, 2016. Their premiere, pro-service worker single, "I Hate the Weekend," was announced in January 2016. On February 15, 2016, Pitchfork streamed "Talk," the second single from the album, and reported that they will record the theme song to the 2016 ''Powerpuff Girls'' reboot. Singer Emily Nokes was influenced by the science fiction series ''

The X-Files ''The X-Files'' is an American science fiction on television, science fiction drama (film and television), drama television series created by Chris Carter (screenwriter), Chris Carter. The series revolves around Federal Bureau of Investigation ...

'' during the writing of ''Lost Time.'' The name of the album is a reference to the

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

episode of ''The X-Files'', which touched on the lost time phenomenon. Tacocat were included in the Coachella 2017 line-up.

''This Mess Is a Place''

The band released their fourth full-length album, ''This Mess is a Place'' on May 3, 2019, on

Sub Pop Records Sub is a common abbreviation of words beginning with the prefix "sub-". Sub or SUB may also refer to Places * Juanda International Airport, Surabaya, Indonesia, IATA code SUB Computing and technology * , an HTML tag for subscript * SUB designate ...

Members

File:Emily Noakes of Taco Cat at Ace of Cups 03.jpg, Emily Nokes File:TacocaT - Pop Conference 2015 - 18 (17055449689).jpg, Bree McKenna File:TacocaT - Pop Conference 2015 - 11 (17239898782).jpg, Lelah Maupin File:TacocaT - Pop Conference 2015 - 04 (17053967830).jpg, Eric Randall

Discography

Albums

* ''Shame Spiral'' (Don't Stop Believin' Records, 2008) * '' NVM'' (Hardly Art, 2014) * '' Lost Time'' (Hardly Art, 2016) * ''

This Mess Is a Place ''This Mess is a Place'' is the fourth studio album by American band Tacocat. It was released on May 3, 2019 under Sub Pop Records. Tacocat announced a European tour to promote the album, starting in August 2019. Critical reception ''This Mess ...

'' (Sub Pop, 2019)

EPs

* ''Ghost Mice/Tacocat'' Split (Plan-It-X Records, 2009) * ''This is Happening Without Your Permission'' Split (Teenage Teardrops, 2009) * ''Woman's Day'' (Minor Bird Records, 2011) * ''Take Me to Your Dealer'' (Hardly Art, 2012)

Tapes

* ''Frenching and Foodstamps'' (self-release, 2009) * ''OMG'' (self-release, 2010)

Singles

* "Bridge to Hawaii" (Hardly Art, 2013) * "Crimson Wave" (Hardly Art, 2014) * "Talk" (Hardly Art, 2016) * "Grains of Salt" (Sub Pop, 2019)

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Musical groups from Seattle Pop punk groups from Washington (state) Punk rock groups from Washington (state) Riot grrrl bands Feminist musicians Hardly Art artists 2007 establishments in Washington (state)