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Stepfords Live | The Stepfords
No Label | 1998

Review by Jen Jewel Brown



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Sounds like … the best little barroom in hell.

The sexy outlaw music of The Stepfords, a tamale-hot unsigned New York/Sydney band who scored the recent national Tony Joe White tour supports, is currently only available through MySpace. That’s something to raise a glass to, while it lasts.

Online phenomenon MySpace is a shark cage against the jaws of the few remaining multinational record companies, those amorphous mega-monsters prowling the economic rationalist deep as they consume each other mindlessly, year after year.

At least at http://www.myspace.com/thestepfords there are friends, free samples of three indie releases and the ability to contact the band direct to mail order this LP Stepfords Live, first album Gas, Food & You or the new four-track EP View From the Floor (2007) via the band’s own label Sway Records.

The Stepfords are the wicked, wicked ways of New York singer Monica McMahon, backed by Sydney-siders Jim Bowman (ex-Ed Kuepper) and Jon Schofield (ex Paul Kelly & the Messengers) on guitars, Clyde Bramley (Hoodoo Gurus) on bass and Iain Shedden (ex Saints) on drums. With this line-up you get a nice touch of garage dirtying up a set of very classy band-written originals.

With the moody “I Can See Hell from Here”, the kick-arse “Cocktail Dress” plus “Black Tears”, “Devil’s Lullaby” and seven other melodic yet gritty tracks, Stepfords Live was recorded at Sydney’s legendary Hopetoun Hotel in 1997, swiftly becoming a collector’s item. The band took a long break while other projects called and the iconic McMahon headed back to New York. The Stepfords’ first appearance on MySpace in June 2006, combined with some rare but dynamic gigs, brought a resurgence of attention. Schofield heads to the Lower East Side shortly to do some songwriting with McMahon. Watch out for a new album down the track.

8 out of 10