Artist Spotlight: Enter Your Grunge Era With Blondshell

With the release of her deluxe debut, L.A-based musician Blondshell emerges as a grunge icon for the new generation.

Artist Spotlights introduces you to artists that may not be on your radar yet, but should be. There’s no time like the present to find new (and old) talent to support.

Written by Sophia Guild

Photo courtesy of Dominique Falcone

Sabrina Teitelbaum is no stranger to bad relationships. The singer-songwriter from the City of Angels, better known as Blondshell, contemplates toxic men, early adulthood, and female desire in her self-titled debut, released in April of 2023, with a deluxe version dropping three months later. Filled with poignant lyricism, sharp reflectiveness, and striking guitar, the album has since been described as “the rock debut of 2023” by the LA Times.

“I wrote these songs about trying to figure out who I am and what I want,” Teitelbaum wrote in an Instagram post. “They can feel dark, particularly because I didn’t write a happy ending, but in a way there was one; writing and sharing this music has been healing for me.”

For the deluxe version, however, Teitelbaum reveals a gentler side of the music. Within its five additional bonus tracks , the deluxe edition included the grunge ballad “Street Rat” and “It Wasn’t Love,” an ode to a queer relationship. The album also housed a stripped-back version of “Tarmac” called “Tarmac 2,” the previously released standalone single “Cartoon Earthquake,” and an intimate home-demo version of her breakout hit, “Kiss City.”

Released as Blondshell’s second single, “Kiss City” gained over 3 million streams on Spotify and praise from Rolling Stone and The New York Times. With its confessional lyrics and gentle buildup, the unflinching rawness of “Kiss City” affirms the desire for a healthy relationship: “Palm in palm / It turns me on / When you tell me you're not going away.” The song crescendos into crashing chords as Teitelbaum forcefully shouts, “I think my kink is when you tell me that you think I’m pretty.” This duality is an alluring aspect of Blondshell’s sound — something she’s mastered again on the album opener, “Veronica Mars”. The song honors the 2004 show of the same name, referencing one of its characters with the lyric “Logan’s a dick / I’m learning that’s hot.” The song begs to be heard live, spiking in intensity with a yell from Teitelbaum followed by a thundering guitar solo.

This all-encompassing sound is heard again on the scorcher “Salad”. Opening with a twinkling, childlike piano and a rousing drumline, the song invokes the tone of a true crime episode as it describes fantasizing revenge after a menacing abuser gets off the hook with a light punishment. “Look what you did / You’ll make a killer of a Jewish girl,” she sings. A highlight of the album, it validates those overcome by emotion when justice falls short for a loved one. Both “Veronica Mars” and “Salad” demand listeners’ attention, giving them the opportunity to express any pent-up anger or emotions by reveling in the roaring sounds and resolute honesty that takes listeners through Teitelbaum’s most inner workings.

Despite her grunge-rock leanings, Teitelbaum first released music under the moniker BAUM, a soul-pop effort that she formed after leaving the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music after two years. For Blondshell, however, Teitelbaum drew on inspiration from ‘90s acts such as Hole, Fiona Apple and PJ Harvey. “They were young women figuring out who they are. And they were angry. They sang about it in a way that still has a sense of humor, despite how dark things are,” Teitelbaum told InsideHook. “I think it’s scarier to really show who you are in your music instead of trying to be somebody else.”

Playing a slot at the 2022 Austin City Limits Music Festival, Blondshell “showed shades of Patti Smith and mid-Nineties alt-poets to early attendees,” according to the Austin Chronicle. A few months later, Blondshell won the Grulke Prize for Developing U.S. Act at South By Southwest — now residing alongside past winners such as Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals, Leon Bridges, Future Islands and Haim.

With her poignant yet powerful tracks, Blondshell is sure to resonate with an audience who’s “always on the internet” or who simply “watched way too much HBO growing up.” Elevated by powerful, blaring guitar riffs and piercing songwriting, Blondshell’s debut is a gem that you could imagine stumbling upon while digging through a record store in the ‘90s — and immediately finding a new favorite.