Side Ways

PUNK AS FUCK: (L-R) Sky, Elaine and <a href=

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PUNK AS FUCK: (L-R) Sky, Elaine and Stinky.The Side Effects play Womynsfest at the Rotunda on Saturday.

The many causes of The Side Effects.

by Patrick Rapa

I e-mailed the members of West Philly punk trio The Side Effects, whose politics creep into every second of their four-song demo Don't Touch Her Where Her Bathing Suit Covers, and asked them to lay it all out for me. What are they pro? What are they anti? Singer/guitarist/ukulele player Elaine Diflavis fired back with a manifesto: "I'm pro-choice, pro-feminism, pro-gay marriage but anti-marriage as a whole. I'm pro-civil rights. I'm anti-the Patriot Act " and so on, covering everything from Fox News and frats to humanity, acceptance and understanding. Bassist/backup vocalist Desiree "Sky" Haney summed it up neatly: "We are pro-equal rights. We are anti-asshole." Even for a demo, Don't Touch is a bit rough around the edges (chalk it up to studio nightmares), but the way this band mixes the aggressive with the melodic screams of potential. Sometimes it just plain screams. The Side Effects are part of this weekend's two-day Womynsfest showcase of music, art and politics.

City Paper: Do your activist leanings manifest themselves outside your music?

Elaine Diflavis: My "activist leanings" manifest themselves in my being. Yeah, sure, I've marched at plenty of protests, I marched at the women's march in D.C., I've signed plenty of petitions, I wear sassy buttons. But it's one thing to hold signs and scream rhyming chants and it's another to take your personal politics and live by them, which is how I try and live. There's a lot more to activism than protesting.

Desiree "Sky" Haney: My activist leanings don't really make it into our music in the first place. The couple of songs we play that I wrote are the less aggressive ones. I am the Zen member of the band — I rely on yoga and meditation to calm me before shows. I think that lots of fights aren't worth fighting, but I do think that Elaine has some excellent points and amazing lyrics and I'm glad to be a part of this feminist "movement."

CP: Are your politics and your music inextricably linked?

ED: I write songs about the things I think about, and as an educated member of society, I read about and think about the sad state of our nation. Also, I think that music is a unique vehicle for reaching society. Personally, music was an important part of molding who I am, especially when I was younger, and if I can reach one young, impressionable girl, whose only role models supplied by pop culture are women like Christina Aguilera and Paris Hilton, from putting down Cosmo and picking up Ms., then I feel like I've done my job.

Beth "Stinky" Cullen: You can't push your politics on anyone, but there is an audience that wants to listen and share their ideals, and The Side Effects are a means of delivering those ideals that we as a band have in common. Whether people are going to agree with them entirely? Probably not.

CP: Will you ever write a song about just wanting to dance?

ED: I doubt it. But maybe, if it's about dancing at a certain president's funeral.

CP: Ever afraid your aggressive punk stuff will scare people away and they'll miss out on your more melodic stuff?

DSH: I think the contrast of the two is what draws people in. If they are scared they are probably just old.

ED: I don't think punk music should just have this one notorious sound. I don't mind the [punk] label because I like that we push the boundaries of what one thinks punk music should sound like.

CP: Defend the ukulele as a punk instrument.

BSC: I have yet to see someone other than Elaine with a pink mohawk play a ukulele with confidence.

ED: Punk music isn't all about bar chords and screaming. … Punk is an attitude and a philosophy, so damn straight, my ukulele is punk as fuck.

The Side Effects play on day one of Womynsfest, with Bonnie MacAllister, Mia Johnson, Athena Reich and more, Sat., March 5, 8 p.m. The free festival continues Sun., March 6, 3:45 p.m., with Kendall Roark, Nicola Visaggio, Valerie Oswald and more, at the Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St. Complete lineup at www.vitamindproductions.com.