“Hand me your heart
I need to break something...” – ‘Kiss Off’

It’s common in some circles to assess every all-girl guitar band in relation to The Runaways. It would be entirely possible in this case too but crucially The Applicators absolve all superfluous comparisons in a tough-ass Texan attitude that The Runaways could only have had in Kim Fowleys’ dirtiest, most diseased dreams, coming on hard like a Girlschool who paid attention and crafted some great tunes. From the arse-end of Austin carrying a new 12 gauge primed with pop punk of the utmost propriety, it’s more possible to imagine them crossing state-lines kicking dumb-ass guys who just view a girl band as eye candy so far into touch they end up head first in a spittoon in Tijuana, while gleefully teasing them with cute-eyed but hard-hearted floor-hitting songs like wasted, wanton winks. Along the way they also happily slam the toilet cubicle door shut on any initial preconceptions about similarities to the dreaded Donnas and instead revel in the glorious pop nous that The Go-Go’s enjoyed, squandered but at least it’s passed along somewhere, toughened up under the desert sun and dry, Tequila torched air and over-hauled and hepped up for whatever year people reckon it is.
__________________________________________________

- Stu Gibson