In March alone, Los Angeles-based rock trio Cherry Glazerr has hit venues in five major United States cities. Come Saturday night, the band will depart from its big-city circuit with a performance at The Blockhouse downtown.
Sharing the stage with Cherry Glazerr will be Chicago punk band Lala Lala and New York-based trio Ian Sweet. The three merged touring schedules March 20 to make joint stopovers in Orlando, Florida, and Phoenix — and six other cities in between — and plan to part ways in April.
Fronted by Clementine Creevy on vocals and guitar, Chery Glazerr was born in 2013. Initially it was just Creevy –– discovered via Soundcloud by Burger Records — but soon drums and synths were added to the mix, courtesy of Sean Redman and Hannah Uribe respectively.
The band has since gained a reputation for supporting Planned Parenthood and related organizations. .
“Clem, who fronts the LA band, decided to include a $1 donation on every ticket sold which will be donated to Planned Parenthood,” said IU senior Ben Wittkugel of the tour.
This unity of music and giving is one reason Wittkugel said he is excited to see Cherry Glazerr.
“It’s exciting to put on a show where the artist stands for important social issues and uses their art as a way to make a difference,” he said.
Within a year, Cherry Glazerr was invited to perform at Austin’s South by Southwest festival. Two weeks ago the band returned to SXSW, but with new members in the group: Tabor Allen on drums and Sasami Ashworth on keyboard.
The member swap came in 2016, leaving the band adequate time to re-calibrate its sound and produce its latest 2017 album, “Apocalipstick.”
The album, hailed by Pitchfork Magazine as “full of shredding jams, furious howls, and self-aware swagger,” also paved the way for several music video releases.
Among the trio’s most popular videos on YouTube is “Told You I’d Be With The Guys,” which celebrates female camaraderie, according to a Los Angeles Times interview with Creezy.
“It’s such a small-scale thing, and it’s self-defeating,” Creezy told the LA Times, referencing sexism. “The end is close when you’re a woman. You can see it. With men, you have the whole world.”
While “Told You I’d Be With The Guys” has received praise, other music videos have not been unanimously well received.
First, there’s gore. “Nurse Ratchet,” also a track on “Apocalipstick,” features a crazed Creevy stabbing bandmate Sasami Ashworth to death. Then, in “Nuclear Bomb,” Creevy is depicted having sex with her guitar and feeding it pizza.
Despite potentially off-putting visual imagery –– often described by critics as bizarre and provocative –– Cherry Glazerr has enjoyed a whirlwind of exposure in the last year.
Last month, the band made stops in London, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Canada to present tracks from "Apocalipstick".
“It has garnered high praise from a myriad of publications,” booking agent Linda Valenziano said in an email
