Bikini Carwash at the Delancey

Lizzie Steelheart

Originally from Wilmette Illinois, Lizzie Steelheart Taubeneck came to New York for a college education. She became a hair stylist, a film actor (2011's We Are the Hartmans) and sang in many local bands, including the Fakes, Whiskey and Whores, Karen Curious & the New Professionals, and Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir. She now fronts Bikini Carwash, a rock/punk/pop quartet based out of Brooklyn, New York. The band consists of Steelheart on vocals, guitarist Alex Theoret, bassist Andy Shaw and drummer Carrie Kamikaze. Bikini Carwash released a self-titled EP on January 31, 2014.

At the Delancey tonight, Bikini Carwash often recalled girl-group pop melodies of the 1960s, except the music was rawer and coarser. It was all retro, except that the vocalist was in the early 1960s and the musicians were in the late 70s, with fast chord changes, grinding bass and crashing cymbals. Different shades of pop and punk history collided and in the end, clicked well together.

Bikini Carwash will perform at Otto's Shrunken Head on July 9.