2:00 P.M. The Mars Bar, Manhattan. The bar was dark and stale beer stenched, but his pouty fashion lips and black mascara traced almond eyes were reflecting the intermittent blue-black light of an adjacent TV screen. The audible sounds—the clink of glasses, The Clash from a tacky multi-colored jukebox, and a nearby patron bragging about a coke score—were worlds away from the radial swirls of sexually charged ambient post electronica and indelible voices of Lonni Bahls and his band, Whore's Mascara, when we sat down today to talk about their latest album, Like This But Sexy.
"Each and every track on the album was made with blood, sweat, tears—and ample amounts of lube," Loni says quite seriously, gesturing calmly with an air of Ziggy Stardust, Mick Jagger, and a kind of tired but fabulous old female porn queen. And it makes sense—the new tracks, their best ever, are a collection of refined orbic and ambient floods of irrepressibly high quality music due mainly to their active ingredients: high craft, poignant narratives, and just the right ratio of provocation.
Last Wednesday night, the band invaded New York's Mercury Lounge to perform from their new album, something that created a glint in Lonni's eye when I asked about their often slutty performances in which polyamory and pansexuality abound. "We're trying our best to limit the amount of onstage fondling, tonguing, and nudity, but sometimes it's hard," he says leaning in as if I may truly understand the band's problem here, then laughs, "Pun intended." On sale now, and worth it.—N.B.
