Their song was all over radios on the East Coast last summer, a huge hit with requests pouring in. And even though that was almost a year ago, its message is just as true today as it was then.
The song was "Cameltoe," and the group was Fannypack, five New Yorkers with a less-than-serious attitude toward rap and hip hop. The slightly revamped quintet—with one new member making her first public appearance—is bringing its fun, lively slice of Brooklyn to the Icehouse Lounge on Saturday, along with The Fitness and DJ Korby Roxstar, the man behind the recent Algiers party.
"Big Black" Matt Goias of Fannypack makes his home in New York and here in Las Vegas. He's quick to clear up the two conflicting stories in circulation about the group's origin. As to one version in which he and co-producer Fancy find Jessibel Suthiwong, Cat Martell and Belinda Lovell in a shopping mall, singing to the rhythm created by a belt salesman, Goias laughs. "Yeah, that's a lie."
The true story is just as colorful, in its own Big Apple kind of way. He and Fancy, whose real name Goias says to put down as Kangaroo Grady, already knew Martell. The three would mess around in the studio, "making beats, and we weren't even really necessarily thinking of doing a group or anything," remembers Goias. All that changed the day Goias heard Suthiwong yelling at a friend in her Brooklyn accent.
"I was like, 'Oh my God, we have to record this girl!'" Goias says, explaining that the 17-year-old reminded him of every girl he grew up with.
It wasn't long before Martell met Suthiwong, and even less time before Suthiwong brought in Lovell, her friend from gym class. Goias and Fancy started writing more structured songs and Fannypack was born.
"I've always kind of been involved in the downtown, hipster side of life," says Goias. "But, I'm still the super-Brooklyn, Guido-guy, too, in some ways. My whole thing was that if me and Fancy were to make a record, we would make a record that people would definitely like, and I would definitely know how to get the, air-quotes, cool kids to like it. Our whole joke was, 'Oh my God, we're going to make all the cool kids say, "Fannypack." But we wanted to make a good record, too. I love Jessibel because she is so not that kind of hipster New York thing. People will ask her about Peaches and electro-clash and she'll just be genuinely be like, 'What the f--k are you talking about?' And I love that."
Two tracks off the group's debut release, So Stylistic, became flavor-of-the-month hits, and both reflect the girls' youth and experiences.
"Hey Mami" is a rap collection of the sort of lame-ass pickup lines Guidos are likely to shout out at teenage girls as they walk by, while the aforementioned "Cameltoe" ... well, Goias has a different explanation for that than you might think.
"You're just looking at the surface of it. "Cameltoe" is about the situation in the Middle East," Goias says. "Now, the Middle East is basically the vagina. And our foreign policy, and Bush's corrupt, unelected, hostile regime, they are the panties squeezing up into the vagina that is the Middle East."
It's that mix of humor and authenticity which makes Fannypack so gosh-darned addictive. It's a mix that's even reflected in the luggage the group uses when on the road.
"I have a Louis Vuitton duffel, a Nike duffel, and a Triple Five Soul shoulder bag. And we basically all have the same luggage," says Goias. "I think that's a good metaphor for Fannypack. It's Louis Vuitton but it's also Nike. We're a little bit couture and a little bit ultra-ghetto."