partygirl

If you’ve seen partygirl’s name before, the word “maximalist” is never far behind. Since bandleader Pagona Kytzidis formed the group in 2021, the kinetic six-piece has amassed a cult following for their relentless, inventive music, a band equally likely to enter a soaring chorus as they are an earthshaking breakdown. Listen past the pyrotechnics and you’ll hear the energy of scrappy upstarts with the sharp songwriting to match their brute force strength. In partygirl, everyone stands out at once— producer/guitarist Francesca Pastore’s pop-punk riffs, drummer Jonathan Ashley’s jam band rigor, violinist Claire Lin Jenkins’s orchestral grandeur, Andrew Jordan’s slinking bass, and saxophonist Jenna Love’s jazz roots. At the center of the sound is Kytzidis’s booming alto, equally influenced by Freddie Mercury as it is by Fiona Apple. Kytzidis started partygirl to confront and process an ascent into adulthood littered with gendered conflict, systemic violence, a global pandemic, and political instability. She conducts the band with the Greek word “parrhesia” as a lodestar: Speaking truth to power, whatever the risks. Their debut record, I’m so charming, I forgot who I was, is the culmination of years fine-tuning and road-testing music, but it’s just the beginning for this immensely promising band. Theatrical, eccentric, and vulnerable all at once, it’s a wildly successful first effort from a band overflowing with creativity.