Portions for Foxes: Tilly and the Wall

"Portions for Foxes" is a series of weekly posts, each about one song by a woman or a band led by a woman. See the introduction for more.

When does a gimmick start being just the way this band operates? Or is there really any difference?

Tilly and the Wall was a band with a gimmick: their rhythm section was a tap-dancer, Jamie Pressnall. (They eventually got a drummer, too, but Pressnall was still a major piece of the band's sound, giving a rat-a-tat, staccato rhythm to a lot of their best songs.)

They had a decent career for a decade or more, including this song, which I loved when it came out on their 2008 record O and still love now: Pot Kettle Black.

It is a snarky, mean song, calling out an unnamed person in a very catty way - whoever they're singing about clearly had an acid tongue:

Pot kettle, pot kettle black
Talk that, talk that smack

This is not a song with a deep meaning. You don't need to explicate it. It's Lyin' Ass Bitch - slightly slower, different rhythm, same energy - for a new generation. (And now I feel old, because both of those generations are solidly in the past.)

But it's stompy and it's gnarly and it's a hell of a lot of fun, with that great rat-a-tat rhythm that's like no other band's songs. And that's what great music is all about: songs that are purely themselves, giving you something you don't find anywhere else.