Photograph by Kevin A. Roberts
How many potential music careers wind up snuffed after a single, brutal gig? A disastrous performance at a school talent show, or that embarrassing show at the cool local coffeehouse…
Dubb Nubb, the duo otherwise known as twin sisters Hannah and Delia Rainey, have survived the ignominy of such a sad fate, playing shows at their high school, their synagogue, a series of house parties, and then that bastion of local cool, Foam. Finishing one another’s sentences and quickly adding thoughts to each other’s comments, the pair understand that they stand out from their peers at Ladue Horton Watkins High School, where they’re currently seniors.
“It’s hard to get people from our school to come to shows,” says Delia. “A lot of their parents don’t want them going down to
Cherokee Street.”
“We’re having a whole different experience than a lot of kids,” adds Hannah. “We’re going to concerts, and they’re just looking to
get drunk.”
“We can write up to two songs a week,” says Hannah. “It doesn’t take that long for us to write. Because we live together, we’re able to make the time.”
“It’s like, after three hours of homework at 11 o’clock, we’ll say, ‘It’s band rehearsal time,’” says Delia. “And it always works out.”
Comments about homework aside, when critics write about the band, they marvel over the fact that these teenage girls do not pen songs about ribbons or horseback riding. No—the Rainey twins write cheeky tunes like “Taco Vom,” which is about seeing taco throw-up on the sidewalk, perhaps on Cherokee Street, which, between Cranky Yellow, Foam and events like the Secret Sound Society musical festival, has become their prime gigging spot. In the canon of precocious musicians, you can plot them further from Brenda Lee, closer to Alex Chilton.
Last year, during their last high-school summer vacation, they hung with their older sister, Amanda, who co-runs Special Passenger Records, an indie label/collective in Mississippi. Through “Spesh Pass” (also the title of a Dubb Nubb song written in homage to the label), the band released a DIY-spirited EP, New Bones. The disc, packaged in hand-assembled fabric cases, saw release on May 22, at the twins’ 18th birthday party (for which they played a concert in their backyard, wearing foil-paper party hats).
They also formed a temporary “sistercousin garage pop band,” Teen Room—which actually performed in the Rainey basement. It featured Hannah on electric guitar (and trumpet, on one song about a dead dog), Delia on keys, and Amanda and cousin Jessica on drums. They covered Fastball—and Dubb Nubb, too.
The pair say music was always playing around the house, mostly in the form of landmark folk acts like Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan. That grounding was added to as the pair listened to a variety of upbeat local bands of recent vintage, groups like Jumbling Towers, So Many Dynamos, Berlin Whale, and others, all of whom inspired them to take the stage while still in high school. Making friends with local acts like Sleep in Sundays, We’re Wolf, and Fragile Farm cemented their desire to continue playing small gigs on a regular basis, whether at venues like Cranky Yellow and the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center or in word-of-mouth gatherings like house shows. “There’s definitely something more intimate about house shows,” says Hannah. “We wind up meeting a lot of people.”
“There’s a big group of kids in bands now,” adds Delia. “They’re all really supportive and nice. You’ve got acoustic bands and some little electronic bands, too, noise bands.” As important, “We don’t all go to the same
high school.”
The group’s instrumentally spare sound comes primarily from the guitar of Hannah (who studied classical guitar for five years), set alongside Delia’s lyrics and vocals. With unusual phrasings (“I wish I was a boat / down highways I would sail / rolling down the road / a lonely, lovesick trail…”) and occasional bursts of Delia’s ukulele, their sound veers into a much more interesting realm than the guitar-and-voice simplicity made by young musicians at open-mic nights all around town. They’ve definitely got a nuanced sound, and they’re aware enough to explore and expand it, while staying true to their basic approach, as evidenced well by the six divergent sounds of New Bones. Ideally, the two would enjoy adding small, instrumental touches to their music, little touches of harmonica, banjo, or bass drum. But make no mistake: They’re not looking for a band.
Not even a Teen Room reunion?
“We hope to keep it just me and Delia,” says Hannah. “We’d work in other people as we need them.”
Find videos and a blog at dubbnubb.com, with further music samples and video clips at myspace.com/dubbnubb. This month, Special Passenger Records (speshpassrecords.com) releases The Shiny Mountain Split, a 7-inch vinyl album featuring Dubb Nubb on one side and Oxford, Miss., folkie Cory Taylor Cox on the flip side. The record-release show is set for Friday, January 14, at Foam, 3359 S. Jefferson.
