Scissor Girls: История американской рок-группы

American rock band

The Scissor Girls were an American, Chicago based band formed by Azita Youssefi, Sue Anne Zollinger, and Heather Melowic in 1991. The idea to form the group was conceived during the late 1980s by Azita Youssefi and Heather Melowic while they were living in the Washington, D. C. area. After both Youssefi and Sue Anne Zollinger moved to Chicago to attend the Art Institute of Chicago, they were joined in 1989 by Melowic, and the original lineup of the band was set: Azita Youssefi on bass and vocals, Sue Anne Zollinger on guitar, and Heather Melowic on drums. The group recorded and released a demo cassette, a 7” single, as well as two full length albums with their original lineup before Zollinger chose to leave. In 1994, Zollinger's roommate, guitarist Kelly Kuvo, became her permanent replacement. After Kuvo's induction into the band, the group released the 7" singles "New Tactical Outline Sec. 1" and "New Tactical Outline Sec. 2." in February 1995, and the 10" EP "S T A T I C L A N D" in March 1996 before disbanding, leaving a third full length album unfinished in the studio. In 1997, following the band's breakup, a singles compilation was released by Atavistic Records.

In 1989, Azita Youssefi left Washington, D. C. suburbia to attend the Art Institute of Chicago, intending to pursue a study in painting and drawing. While still in her first year of school, Youssefi had begun to grow tired of producing only visual art, and a blossoming relationship with Elliot Dicks, who worked at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago store, prompted Youssefi to begin experimenting with sound and music. After convincing a teenage friend from the D. C. scene, Heather Melowic, to join her in Chicago, Youssefi, along with Melowic, managed to persuade fellow teenage friend from the D. C. scene, guitarist, Silver Springs, Maryland native, and also a student at SAIC, Sue Anne Zollinger to fill out their three piece. The Scissor Girls formed in the summer of 1991 with Azita on bass, Zollinger on guitar, and Melowic on drums. At the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Azita and Sue Anne became friends with Kelly Kuvo, formerly of Denver, Colorado, hence the KUVO nom de plume. Azita was cast playing herself in Kuvo's SAIC final thesis Film and TV project, a Chicago Cable Access television production, Miss Artificial Spring. Kuvo lived and worked in the Wicker Park district of Chicago. While working at Copy Max, Kuvo offered to make The Scissor Girls fliers, demo tape inserts, and posters as a trade for a copy of their first demo cassette. Both Azita and Sue Anne signed it for her. The first gig by The Scissor Girls was a local performance that took place on Halloween night 1992. Also in 1992, the band began to record their first 7 inch, Phy, Diablo!, issuing the release on Chicago indie label Monkeytech. The album sleeve of each release included a real dried cricket smashed and taped to the cover. At around the same time, the Scissor Girls contributed to the Mira Records released split 7 inch single "Time Expired", accompanied by tracks from Slant 6, Drinking Woman, and Rasto.

In 1994 the Scissor Girls began recording their first 10” LP, “From: The Scissor Girls To: The Imaginary Layer On Skeletons,” this time for Quinnah Records. The Scissor Girls first LP was delayed numerous times due to Quinnah’s tight budget at the time. When Quinnah finally did send the group’s master tapes to be pressed, the group discovered that the record pressing plant to which the masters had been sent had burned down, further delaying the album, but not affecting the master tapes, which were unharmed. The album was finally released in late 1994 as an expanded 12” LP, 500 copies of which were released on marbled gray vinyl, and all of which included a fold out map hand drawn by Youssefi. The CD version of “From: The Scissor Girls To: The Imaginary Layer on Skeletons” was released by The Making of Americans label, run by the New York City queercore duo, God is My Co Pilot. It was during the recording of this first EP that the band finally managed to secure a release for their second album We People Space with Phantoms, which the band had recorded with original guitarist Sue Anne Zollinger, but which had sat unreleased on the shelf since it was recorded in October 1994. The job of issuing the album ultimately fell to Atavistic Records, which released the LP on April 16, 1996. Following the release of their second album, the Scissor Girls were offered a contract by Atavistic with the stipulation that the band would release two further records for the label. For some reason, guitarist Kelly Kuvo's name was not on the offer, but both Youssefi and Melowic agreed to be signed to Atavistic.