Ribbon Skirt – Bite Down | Album Review
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Mint Records Inc.
In 1980, Vince Clark and Andy Fletcher formed a band called Composition of Sound. Their music wasn’t really gaining traction, and they became a bit embarrassed about their name. It was stuffy, slightly dull, and didn’t fully connote their sound. They attended a synthpop concert, a burgeoning genre in the UK in the years after cheap synthesizers hit the market, and were inspired to make a sharp change in style. With that shift, they decided it would be a good time to ditch the name, and they landed on borrowing the title of a French fashion magazine – Depeche Mode. We’ll never know if Composition of Sound’s change in style would have taken off without the name change, but shortly after becoming Depeche Mode, their ascent to stardom began to take shape.
Though their previous moniker, Love Language, was nowhere near “Composition of Sound” levels of generic-sounding pretension, Montreal rock band Ribbon Skirt, led by vocalist/guitarist Tashiina Buswa and guitarist Billy Riley, are following a similar path with a new name and a darker, more dynamic sound. “We needed a little bit of a refresh,” the band describes one of their last shows as Love Language in the Summer of 2024. “Billy came up with [Ribbon Skirt], which is kinda funny.” Tashiina’s Anishinaabe heritage inspired the new name - one that conjures her native identity and the tapestry of influences that inform the band’s new direction on their debut album, Bite Down. Ribbon skirts, worn by women of several native American tribes, could be seen as a means of continuity between the ceremonial and the everyday. Similarly, the band uses this new project to bridge their native identity with a contemporary rock aesthetic.
Photo by Ani Harroch
The band is working overtime as they usher in the Ribbon Skirt era. I had a special opportunity to speak with Tashiina and Billy at the tail end of this year’s SXSW, where they played nine shows in four days. “It’s crazy how insane it can make you feel,” Tashiina says as she describes the feeling of playing a show for a crowd of two people on the same weekend that they played in front of hundreds. After spending a couple of months with Bite Down and admiring the work that the band is putting in, I feel confident that they’ve played their last show in front of a single-digit crowd. With a fresh name, some new collaborators, and several years of experience under their belts, Ribbon Skirt have put together a collection of tracks that will be very difficult to ignore.
The album’s opening track, “Deadhorse,” sets a moody tone with a 45-second introduction of drums and effect-laden guitar, unfolding and laying the song's foundation before the vocals come in. Lyrically, “Deadhorse” establishes a few of the album’s core themes: occupying space, feeling invisible, and getting stuck in unwanted cycles. Mentions of “standing beneath the cross” and “rolling away the stone” evoke biblical imagery that highlights Tashiina’s presence as an Anishinaabe woman in our current context, both in her compulsion to call upon a higher power and call out the deficiencies of modern Western culture. “Cellophane,” Bite Down’s lead single, follows with a similarly moody, post-punk ambiance and an extra sticky hook. Her clever combo of desperate plea and biting critique continues with an evocative cry of “save me, white Jesus,” comically calling out the same imperialistic veneer intended to obscure native identity.
When I spoke with the band about their organic songwriting partnership and process, they outlined an intuitive workflow. Most of the time, they get into their jam space until Billy lands on a guitar part he likes, and then Tashiina writes a vocal melody. “We hit the nail on the head over and over again until something happens… the songs are pretty barebones, and then we build them out in the studio. It’s a pretty long process,” they say with a smile that acknowledges the challenges but also communicates pride in what they’ve created. Ribbon Skirt’s process doesn’t sound easy, but the results are diverse, polished, and highly dynamic.
After a strong start, the following two tracks, “Off Rez” and “Wrong Planet,” make up my favorite one-two punch on the entire record. “[“Off Rez”] had so many different lives,” says Tashi. “It still didn’t really end up where we wanted it to… I think at some point, you just have to let go of it.” Hearing that about one of my favorite songs on the record was hard to fathom. “Off Rez” represents a more defiant shift in tone and features some of my favorite lines on the record as Tashiina playfully mocks who other people think she should be. The line “they want 2000s Buffy Marie” references the famed singer-songwriter who was recently stripped of several cultural recognitions after a 2023 report revealed that she had fabricated the Indigenous ancestry on which much of her musical identity relied.
When I asked them directly about reconciling native heritage with Western musical culture, Tashiina said, “We’re a rock band…I think it’s important to take up space in places that you wouldn’t normally find indigenous people.” Ribbon Skirt don’t seem interested in engaging with tokenization; they’re letting the music speak for itself. “Wrong Planet” is in contention for my track of the year, as Tashiina’s performance here takes the best parts of 2010s post-punk sprechgesang and Courtney Love’s low register screaming. The vocalization about two-thirds into the song that leads into an explosion of pure catharsis is the most memorable moment on the record - one that I cannot wait to experience live when they (hopefully) come to Atlanta on the tour they alluded to this Fall.
Side B of the record is just as strong as the first, with a handful of daring sonic experiments that find the band exploring the farther reaches of their sound. “Cut” is a second-half gem with a fresh instrumental palette - acoustic guitar, subtle strings, and a buoyant piano section. “Look What You Did” comes close to spunky indie pop à la Wet Leg or English Teacher. “41” has a healthy dose of autotune, and “Earth Eater” wraps things up with a seismic closer that the band wisely chose as the final single leading up to Bite Down’s release. It’s all wrapped up in a tight 36-minute package that keeps things fresh and exciting the entire time without giving anyone genre whiplash - it all makes sense within the new identity that the band is cultivating.
Over the course of these nine tracks, Ribbon Skirt set out a few different possible paths forward in the post-Love-Language era – all of which excite me for the future of the band. In an indie landscape that feels oversaturated with nervy post-punk and playlist-friendly shoegaze, Ribbon Skirt have made something that feels relevant without being overdone. Whether it was the renewed energy brought by the name change or simply the culmination of years of hard work and experience, Tashiina and Billy have crafted their best project yet, and I fully expect to see Bite Down covered as one of the most exciting debut albums of 2025.
Parker White is a tech salesperson moonlighting as a music writer. When not attending local shows in Atlanta or digging for new tunes, he’s hosting movie nights, hiking/running, or hanging out with his beloved cat, Reba McEntire. You can find him on Twitter and Instagram @parkerdoubleyoo, and you can read other stuff he’s written over on his Substack.
