ESG’s Renee Scroggins may be over 60, but her voice still has the same mix of joy, mischievousness, and don’t-fuck-with-us sass when she sings “Moody” or “Erase You” that she had when she was a teenager performing with her sisters in the 1970s and early 1980s.
“I had never heard a band that mixed punk and funk and soul like they did,” says Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre. Along with singer and composer Tamar-kali, Hanna curated Lincoln Center’s current American Songbook program celebrating “singer outsiders.” The series so far has included tributes to trailblazers Poly Styrene and the Slits. When they wanted to honor the pioneering 1970s-era rock band Fanny with an inaugural American Songbook Vanguard Award, ESG made perfect sense on the bill.
“What ESG brought to the game is that DIY ethos in terms of creating your own music, learning your instruments, speaking your truth,” Tamar-kali says.
On April 6 at David Geffen Hall, ESG joined the indie rockers Gossip to honor June Millington and Alice de Buhr, the surviving members of Fanny. For ESG’s set, Renee Scroggins and her sister Marie were joined by Renee’s daughter Nicole Nicholas on bass, and her son Nicholas D. Nicholas on percussion (he also wore an alien mask for the band’s classic “UFO”). Drummer Mike Giordano ended each song with a brief but fiery solo to hype the crowd and give everyone in the band a minute to rest and drink some water before kicking off the next banger. Renee sometimes sang with her hand on her hip, dispensing wisdom, and occasionally dancing on stage with her sister.
“When I first heard Renee Scroggins sing ‘I’m gonna erase you like a drawing,’ it was like a Post-it note in my head,” Hanna said as she welcomed ESG to the stage on Sunday. She said she’d refer to that mental Post-it whenever she had to deal with “some asshole guy who hates women or who hates their life: ‘Erase you/Flush you like my toilet.’”
Kathleen Hanna, Renee Scroggins and Tamar-Kali at Lincoln Center.
Gabrielle Ravet for Rolling Stone
While ESG’s legacy can be heard throughout rap, rock, and dance music — “UFO” alone is estimated to have been sampled hundreds of times by artists including Wu-Tang Clan, the Beastie Boys, MF Doom, the Notorious B.I.G. and more — ESG did not earn royalties for their music. In 1992, they released an EP called “Sample Credits Don’t Pay Our Bills.”
During a recent conversation with Rolling Stone, Scroggins talked about advice she gives to artists just starting out in music: “Own your songs, own your masters, and own your publishing. That way you can make a lot of money. If you do not own that, you are pretty screwed. Your song is playing and you’re not getting a dime.”
While she loved performing for the American Songbook show on Sunday, Scroggins says her dream now is “ESG at MSG.”
June Millington and Alice de Buhr of Fanny.
Gabrielle Ravet for Rolling Stone
“I played almost everywhere, but believe it or not, not the Garden,” says Scroggins. “But Lincoln Center? Hey, it’s a step forward. Lincoln Center is classy.”
Hearing her say “ESG at MSG” started the wheels turning for Hanna and Tamar-kali. Inspiration for a future project, perhaps?
“ESG shouldn’t be a closely guarded secret that people are keeping to themselves,” Hanna says. “You shouldn’t be one of the most sampled bands in the world and not have the bank account to prove it. … ESG at MSG, that’s what we’re going for. Wouldn’t that be amazing? Let’s have all of New York come out and celebrate this band that has really been cultural ambassadors for the city all over the world.”
Hanna and Tamar-kali will be performing at the next American Songbook event, Mixtape: Women in Punk on April 11 at 7:30 pm.
