Kelly Canary was the throat shredding vocalist for one of the toughest bands to emerge, if only slightly, from the Seattle Grunge scene, Dickless. With just a single and a few comp tracks to their name, Dickless’ discography is woefully scant and I’ve been waiting years for a proper retrospective, and/or some live footage, to no avail. Fortunately, youtube user Mike Ziegler, has been uploading a veritable fuck ton of rare performances (do yourself a favor and check his page, but set aside some time), and hidden among them is this set from Canary’s post-Dickless band, Teen Angels. Possessing the frightening ferocity of a cornered feral beast, Canary growls and screams in a manner that must have been hell on her vocal chords, but is absolute manna for someone attracted to musical primal rage.
For those interested in enjoying a full night of mid-90’s Punk spew as it existed, there are sets from the same show featuring Red Aunts and Clawhammer.
Teen Angels disbanded after just a couple of years, and Canary is now a lawyer, working as a public defender, and for a time providing legal advice for the Innocence Project. There’s even a C-Span video in which she appears with Damien Echols, incarcerated as a member of the West Memphis 3 and author of Life After Death, discussing both Echols case and wrongful conviction in general.
I would like to thank Kelly Canary for both her music and her work in public defense, but would also like to add that I’ll be waiting for any return to the stage, unlikely though it may be, some twenty years later.
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