The American Girls – Biography

Gus Baum trumpet, keyboards
Higgins vocals, guitars
Aaron Masonek bass, vocals
Scott Georgis guitars
Dan Stieg Jr. drums

Portland, Oregon pop wonders THE AMERICAN GIRLS don’t actually have any girls in their lineup at all, a fact that recently caused much confusion when the band played a roughneck logging-bar in Montana.

“All these loggers are drunk, yelling for the girls to come on,” remembers lead singer Higgins. “They expected to see these hot, stripper-type girls, and they got us instead – and we weren’t even topless. I thought, ‘we’re going to get killed. They’re going to take out their axes and split us into kindling.’ But we won them overeventually.”

The sound that’s winning the world over, a few Northwestern loggers at a time, is a giddy mixture of pure pop and trumpet-infused rock that’s neatly encapsulated on the band’s buoyant release, Like the Movies, Only Slower.

Gaining popularity while releasing three indie albums, THE AMERICAN GIRLS have been receiving a formidable amount of local radio airplay (KNRK in Portland and college stations) and playing with such bands as Cake, Matthew Sweet, Cherry Poppin’ Daddies and The Dandy Warhols.

Their major label debut evokes a compelling crispness while sounding like nothing else you’ve ever heard. THE AMERICAN GIRLS insist that they’re just “a pop band with a trumpet,” although there is clearly much more in the mix for Like the Movies, Only Slower.

THE AMERICAN GIRLS are genuine and fearless, hopelessly romantic and infinitely catchy. Lyrically, the band breathes new life into everyday tales of confusion and crushes, lust and loss: The crashing loneliness of the harmony-heavy “In Static.” The tongue-tied wonder of “Heavy and Struck,” with its inescapably catchy chorus (“It’s always nothing/That comes to mind”). The poppiness of “To The Floor.” The infatuation that may not be quite what it seems in “Dumb Crush” (“Persistently you badger and break/Everything you want you know you just take”). Deft and gifted songwriters, they have a knack for capturing the absurdities and the heartbreak of everyday life.

Beginning as a concept band one drunken night in 1994 at the Circus Circus casino in Las Vegas, the band has gone through incredible growth. Several moody bass players, bad drummers and musical incarnations later, the lineup finally solidified when Higgins moved to Eugene and met Gus when both were attending the University of Oregon. Gus, a classically trained musician and former member of the marching band, had never played in a pop band before.

“I went to his dorm room one night at 1:30 in the morning and stood outside his window,” remembers Higgins. “I just went, ‘Do you want to play pop-rock music with us?’ And he said okay. It’s a real romantic story, actually. If you didn’t know I was straight, you’d think I loved him.”

Not everyone was as quick to catch on, with even other band members being initially skeptical. “Our old drummer said, ‘There’s no such thing as a trumpet player that plays on every song in a rock band,’” Higgins recollects. “I said, ‘there is now.’”

The band practiced in their dorm’s acoustic-friendly and often sweltering laundry room, energized by the endless new sound opportunities offered by Gus. “It made everything sound so fresh,” says Higgins.

That Winter break, the band made their first recording at a friend’s Los Angeles shack/home studio. THE AMERICAN GIRLS would then spend years on the club circuit. There were countless seedy gigs, ridiculous Battle of the Band contests, and indie label flirtations, all of which only served to burnish the band’s growing reputation in the Pacific Northwest.

THE AMERICAN GIRLS now view the trumpet almost as another band member. It underpins rock tracks, gently props up ballads and serves as the catalyst for the band’s assured, melodic sound. “We can write great pop songs, but it adds so much more that there’s this unique instrument playing,” Higgins explains. “Having a catchy horn like that defines us.” “Even kids in marching bands need heroes,” says Gus. “I want to prove you can be a rock star even if your axe has a spit valve.”

Like The Movies, Only Slower is planned for release on Trauma Records early in the new millennium. In the meantime, THE AMERICAN GIRLS are planning to launch a nationwide tour in hopes of converting the unconverted.

“From the beautiful jazzy ballads to the upbeat, groovy rock tunes” reports Oregon’s The Statesman Journal, “THE AMERICAN GIRLS is a band which is hard to not fall in love with.”