Agent Ribbons: Call them honey

ILLUSTRATION by JOE MCGARRY

Sacramento’s Agent Ribbons started about two and a half years ago—not long after drummer Lauren Hess bought her first drum kit. (“It was real cheap—Nat knew that I had a drum set and she asked me to back her up, so we started practicing,” she says.) Nat is Natalie Gordon, the neon-red-haired singer and guitarist who had never played with another musician before she met Lauren. They might seem like they’re just getting past that first swell of naiveté, but Natalie’s voice is wise beyond her years—all 23 of them. It sounds a little smoother than Nancy Sinatra’s and it’s more passionate if she needs it: “Don’t Touch Me” depicts a woman disgusted with her man’s habit of shouting out other women’s names in bed. They played their first set (which was a week after their first practice) in a San Francisco café: “It went so well!” says Lauren now. “It was one of those giddy moments where we both thought, ‘Yeah, I want do this band with you!’” And from then on they were Agent Ribbons. New recordings like Agent Ribbons and The Star-Crossed Doppelgänger—a two-song release from Long Beach’s own Seven Inch Project—and the (for now) online-only “The World is a Cigarette” hint at a more grandiose and theatrical direction for the band, sort of like Young People covering Tom Waits. “Cigarette” flaunts its bare-bones theatricality with only drums and vocals singing lyrics so clever they could be Cole Porter’s own with more context: “I used to walk the walk ’till I walked around the block/Now I only sing the sing and talk the talk.” They don’t have much history yet, but there’s something about these songs that seem like they might endure.

AGENT RIBBONS WITH CASTLEDOOR {OPEN} | 2226 E FOURTH ST LONG BEACH 90814 | 562.499.6736 | SAT 8PM $6 | ALL AGES | THESTORYOFOPEN.COM

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