The Dirty Skirts deliver angular, guitar driven indie rock to dance floor beats, with soaring melodies, woozy synths and an explosive performance - STAGE MAGAZINE.
This four piece from Cape Town released their debut EP independently in 2005, which stormed various South African charts with singles 'Feeling the Pressure' and 'Set me Alight' both reaching number 1 on regional stations. Established in late 2004, the band has now performed on every main stage of South Africa’s festival circuit and consists of Jeremy De Tolly on lead vocals, guitar and synth; David Moffatt on guitar; Maurice Paliaga on Bass and Mark De Menezes on drums. Their debut full length album, On a Stellar Bender, was released in May 2007.
The Dirty Skirts was conceived during a drunken conversation between Jeremy and David in early 2004. They initially started with Jeremy on voice and rhythm guitar, and David on lead guitar, with a laptop filling in the rest (drums, keyboards and bass). A number of months were dedicated to song writing and a few exploratory gigs in sparkling white suits.
They played their first gig as The Dirty Skirts in October 2004, soon after they headlined a show to a full Mercury Live in Cape Town. They’d dubbed the gig 'As an Act of Love the Bunnies Drew Blood that Night', and worked with stencil artists to smother the venue with pictures of bunnies with blood on their teeth. At the same time, they recorded a demo of the song, 'Little Tsunami' with a student at college. This tune made it onto 5FM and other radio stations, with DJ Barney Simon imploring record label execs to wake up and sign the band. The song also won Blunt Magazine's Doc Martens Demo Competition. However, 'Little Tsunami' was prematurely dropped off from radio play lists as a month later the Asian Tsunami disaster struck.
The ethos of the band was to be unafraid, 'put it out there'; make mistakes in front of the world, instead of endless crafting behind closed doors. So, by mid 2005 they’d released their 6 track EP at the rather glitzy Vegas Room in Cape Town. The single from the EP, 'Feeling the Pressure', saw extensive radio play across the country. Highlights included play listing on 5FM (National Radio Station) and reaching No 1 on TuksFM in Pretoria. Also from the EP, the song 'Set Me Alight' stayed at no 1 on MWEB’s MP3 downloads charts for weeks, was play listed on East Coast Radio, TUKS FM and numerous other campus radio stations.
They also played on The Most Amazing Show’s 'Culture Klap' at the Grahamstown Festival in July 2005, and Oppikopi in August, their first major festival. Late 2005 saw the media begin to pick up on them, and some bigger gigs, like Cell C Sounds of the City at the Cape Town Convention Centre, where they were by far and away the newest act on that stage. Other acts included Freshlyground, Arno Carstens and Louis Carver. They’d begun to get used to playing the bigger arenas. It also saw the band shift from being a three piece, to the addition of a drummer. Mark de Menezes joined the band, and the sound shifted to a more alive, visceral indie rock. The year closed with a tour up country and a final performance at the Obs Festival in Cape Town.
2006 was exceptionally busy for the band. They played many of the major festivals throughout the country (Oppikopi, Splashy Fen, Rocking the Daisies, Robertson Rocks etc), toured to Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Bloemfontein and more. Their latest coup was to be voted as the headlining act at the MTV Alert gig in Johannesburg on the 16th September, playing alongside Zola, The Springbok Nude Girls, The Parlotones and many more. On the same day, they played a 45 minute set live at 5FM, an honour reserved for very few South African bands.
At the same time, the band has been at the centre of a significant amount of media attention. Every major magazine in the country will have featured them in some shape or form during 2006: GQ, FHM, SL Mag, You, Insig, One Small Seed, Blunt, Stage Mag, Cosmopolitan, etc.
Finally heeding calls to release a full length album, the band closeted away in the SABC studios in Cape town, where they laid the groundwork for On A Stellar Bender. The journey to this point included the obvious late nights and endless parties that one expects of a rock band, but also the deeper insights gleaned from submerging themselves utterly into the pursuit of their dream. The outcome is an album with an astonishingly wide range of emotions in the songs… from a mad and wild party spirit through to a more quiet, conscious and soulful spirit. Hence the name ‘On a Stellar Bender.’ The musical landscape sparkles with riffs, hooks and musical diversions. This is an album that encourages its listeners to abandon any inhibitions and celebrate living in the moment, but it won’t abandon them when the inevitable post-bender contemplative remorse sets in.
With the album released in Cape Town on the 1st of March 2007, the band embarked on an album launch tour with an international leg including London and New York City en route to perform at the South by South West festival in Austin Texas.
The band remain totally independent and currently have no manager or record label.
Amongst other, The Dirty Skirts have:
- Reached #1 on 5FM’s Hi 5 Chart, with Home Wrecker for two consecutive weeks.
- Played MyCoke Fest 2007Hoobastank, Evanesence amongst others – 16 000 PAX
- Performed at SXSW in Austin Texas 2007
- Performed in New York City, at Snitch, 2007
- Performed in London with Plum Music, 2007
- TUKS FM 2006 New Years Eve Party, Pretoria – 10 000 PAX
- Headline slot at Robertson Rocks Festival in Robertson – 1000 PAX
- Headline slot at Rocking the Daisies Festival in Cape Town – 1000 PAX
- Nominated to perform at MTV Alert Concert – 4000 PAX
- Performed at Oppikoppi Festival 2006 – 8000 PAX
- Performed at Cape Town Fashion Week 2006 – 3000 PAX
- Performed live at Splashy Fen Festival 2006 – 9000 PAX
- Featured as upcoming talent in Levis Young Guns
- Featured Cape Town artists at the Cell C Sound of the City 2005 along with Arno Carstens, Ready D, Freshlyground, and Louise Carver – 3000 PAX
- Performed live at Cape Town’s Obs Festival – 4000 PAX
- Headlined capacity shows at the Horror Café, Foundry Fly Lounge, Mercury Live, Roxy’s, The Independent Armchair Theatre, Joburg Bar, Club +, The Roosevelt, Opium and Mercury Lounge in Cape Town
- Played as a featured artist with The Most Amazing Show’s Culture Klap at the Grahamstown Festival 2005
- Played at the Oppikopi Festival in August 2005. 8000 PAX
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