The four-woman garage rockers and whale (or sea cave) enthusiasts in The Blowholes have been keeping a particularly low profile for a band set to release their self-titled debut album.

If this article sparks your interest, you’ll have to know where to look to find them (so keep reading).

Devoid of a MySpace or Facebook or any electronic site used to raise band awareness, The Blowholes have taken a laissez-faire approach to their own exposure.

“We like the idea of people just stumbling across us and enjoying it. Every time we play it seems to happen organically,” said Alana Mercer, guitarist/vocalist of The Blowholes and of former femme fatale formation The Quiffs.

The Blowholes’s main strategy is postering downtown for their upcoming shows, but according to Melody Titus, who shares guitar and vocal responsibilities with Mercer, “the city fucking sucks because no matter where you poster they get fucking taken down.”

The other two members of the band are Erica Jacobson (drums/vocals) and Leanne Grieves on bass.

One never knows what they’re going to get with The Blowholes – and not just because their online presence is modest.

When the band performed at The Royal Albert Arms on New Year’s Eve this year with You Say Party, Mercer took the stage dressed as a Viking princess, complete with a tightly-curled, fro-like hairdo, and then served the audience cupcakes.

Yup, cupcakes.

“Watching people dance and try to eat cupcakes – it was just so cute!” Mercer said.

The Blowholes are unpredictable in their style of music, too. That is to say, there’s something for everyone.

Songs driven by Titus’s vocals are more soft and cuddly, while those fronted by Mercer are much more aggressive and grungy.

“Some of our songs are like la la la la la,” Titus said softly. “Then people ask why we’re screaming at them.”

“We like that things fluctuate with our moods and how we’re interacting that day,” Mercer added.

It’s a cliché to say that a band relies on music over hype, but never has the cliché been as well applied as it is to The Blowholes.

Despite their lack of online presence, their debut album will be a remarkable 18 tracks long – double what you might expect from an LP nowadays.

“We thought about doing a double (album) for our release because we thought it would be cheeky,” Mercer said.

But the band decided not to release a double because the extra packaging is costly, and all 18 tracks fit on one CD.

“We already have another album’s worth of songs now,” Mercer noted.

- Avoid the spray at The Blowholes debut CD release, Friday, March 25 at The Royal Albert Arms
- Doors at 9 p.m.
- Admission at the door is $10 or $18 with a CD
- Cupcakes not guaranteed
- Listen to the album at http://theblowholes.transistor66.com

Published in Volume 65, Number 24 of The Uniter (March 24, 2011)