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Spalding Rockwell, Paper Magazine.
NEW YORK DOLLS NEW YORK CITY PRIVATE SCHOOLS ARE known for churning out S.A.T-tutored, Aspen-vacationing, Park Avenue princesses, but there are exceptions. Take the band Spalding Rockwell. Nicole Lombardi, 26, attended the Professional Children's School before she was shipped to boarding school in Jersev. "My friends and I would have champagne parties, and I would wear my mom's couture" Nikki recalls. Her bandmate Mary Louise "ML" Platt Perlman, also 26, attended Brearley, the exclusive all-girls school on the Upper East Side. "I was the pretty girl who the older kids put makeup on and took out to the clubs," she says. The girls met in high school, but only after they reconnected at a party in 1998 did their friendship turn professional. ML had just dropped out of Johns Hopkins and Nikki was a jaded acting student at Tisch. So the two girls did what any self-respecting misguided soul would do - they wrote songs. After moving from hip-hop to punk to rock 'n' roll, electroclash god Larry Tee took them under his wing in 2002. Their song "White Cotton Panties" was a hit at Tee's electroclash festivals, but Spalding Rockwell knew the scene wasn't really for them. They branched out, collaborating with Armand Van Helden on his chart-topping dance number "Hear My Name" and completing Kate (Defend Records), a full-length album of their own. Explains Nikki: "It's derivative of nothing and derivative of everything at the same time." More important, ML stresses. "It's tight. And it's ours." WRITTEN BY ALEXIS SWERDLOFF
Spalding Rockwell - Kateby Gilbert Blecken​Label: Defend Records. Impressive, versatile Electroclash on debut album from girl duo, Spalding Rockwell (Nicole Lombard, ML Platt), which sounds like "Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders recording songs with Suicide".
Review: Spalding Rockwell is finally one of those rare bands to give you best of both worlds – fantastic music and great looks. Musically, they are the missing link between Joan Jett, Client and Peaches, which means they are sometimes a bit punky, but are usually definitely settled in the electronic area. What will strike you immediately is that Mary Louise Platt and Nicole Lombardi both have very distinctive, sensual-seductive voices – think of Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders recording songs with Suicide and you probably get the picture. They do have a large variety of style as well, but slow, heavy electronic tracks like 'Vicious', 'Nina' or 'Touch It' are probably what they do best. 'Kate' is not a perfect release (the track 'Masha' for example only sounds like a rough demo and definitely needs a bit more production), but the highlights of this album (there are many) are much more exciting than anything else you could hear right now. Spalding Rockwell may even seem to be destined for greater things, but for now don’t miss this excellent debut. ​ #nicolelombardi #spaldingrockwell
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Spalding Rockwell, KATE ALBUM REVIEW:
Just when electroclash had become passé, along came Spalding Rockwell and their debut album, Kate, one of the better, less gimmicky electroclash releases yet. The duo of ML and Nikki can easily be slotted between the likes of Peaches, Adult, and Le Tigre -- sassy electro-punk chicks with gritty beats, catchy songs, and the ability to turn a party out. Yet unlike the myriad other electroclash acts who likewise could be slotted alongside the aforementioned standard-bearers, Spalding Rockwell have more than one hot single going for them. Granted, up until the release of Kate that was indeed the case -- they had their long-lasting "White Cotton Panties" single (and also their vocal contribution to Armand Van Helden's "Hear My Name" single, if that counts) and that was it. Here, though, they have a dozen more or less equally hot tracks with Kate, an album that masterfully straddles the line between electro and punk in each and every song. Plus, the album is mighty succinct, running through its cuts in a brisk and breathless 36 minutes, so the duo's shtick never totally feels like a shtick (if it even is one in the first place). Frankly, it's somewhat surprising that Kate is so consistently well done, because few of these sort of electroclash acts have proved themselves capable of recording strong albums. Even the best of the best electroclash acts -- Peaches and Adult, arguably -- have struggled with the album format. That's certainly not the case with Spalding Rockwell. Kate is a fine album, one that plays not like a collection of singles and filler but rather like a single work of art. If there aren't any particular standout tracks, that's to the album's credit because highlights are aplenty. Kate is one of those rare albums you can play from beginning to end without ever being tempted to reach for the skip button. Were there more Spalding Rockwells out there, the electroclash scene would have more lasting power. There's certainly artistic merit to what Spalding Rockwell have done here on Kate, and it's too bad more similarly styled acts can't produce solid albums like this rather than simply the one-shot hot singles that seem to be the norm. ~ Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide - mtv https://www.allmusic.com/album/kate-mw0000165335
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SPALDING ROCKWELL, Interview Magazine
They are neither a law firm nor a corporation that manufactures heavy machinery, but tthe lissome twosome of Nicole Lombardi and Mary Louise Platt, known collectively as Spalding Rockwell, is simply one of the most grittily glamoorous duos to emerge from New York City scuzz-rock-scene. Following a breif flirtation with electroclash, and a short lived dalliance with the pop music slip n slide under the tutlage of Jennifer Lopez's one-time manager, Benny Medina, Lombardi and Platt, a couple of former private school girls with a penchant for wearing short skirts, have broken out on their own with their debut, Kate (Defend), a genre-mashing electro-rock album, spiked with doses of punk-rock bravura and hip-hop bravado. Then, of course, there is the name. "It was the first thing that didn't sound stupid," says Lombardi. Adds Platt, "It sounds like a rich man's name. So, it's a nod to our past that's sort of ironic when you consider our present." Text: Steven Mooallem, Above (from left): Mary Louise Platt's suit by Dolce & Gabbana. Shoes by Bottega Veneta. Nicole Lombardi's sequined top by GF Ferre. Cosmetics by Pretty Pretty. Hair products by Kerastase. Styling: Karen Levitt. Hari: Albert Vasquez/Bumble and Bumble. Makeup: William Murphy; Pretty Pretty. Thanks to Deitch Projects. Photo by David Yellen - Interview Magazine