[CULTIST CRUSH] Jenn And Liz, The Pelly Twins

(we stole all these photos from the Internet please don’t be mad)

The first time I met a Pelly twin was at Tommy’s Tavern in NYC, a meat-stinking hole with piss-shit bathrooms and a really cute, plump and gothic bartender. Jenn Pelly, a writer for Pitchfork, (amongst other well-known publications such as Rolling Stone, The New York Times, and SPIN) had come to review my band White Lung’s show. I was not in the mood for Tommy’s. It was hot. I think I was officially introduced to Jenn after our set. She was complimentary and polite. She seemed intelligent and I liked her valley-girl tone. I like it when smart girls have that slightly ditzy hum to their voice. It’s unassuming.

Fast-forward to a few weeks later and Jenn pens an insightful review of our record Sorry on Pitchfork. She deciphered my lyrics, tried to create meaning, and actually listened to the record. She got it. Do you know how nice it is to have someone get what you are doing artistically? People pretend that shit doesn’t matter, but no matter how “too cool for approval” or superego you pretend to be, connection to and appreciation for your work always feels good. It’s nice when people take time to do things because everything in this world is so half-assed nowadays.

Jenn Pelly

Through Twitter, I started communicating with Jenn. Twitter can teach you a lot about a person. (What did we do before Twitter? Did we just shake hands?) Jenn intrigued me, so I did a little digging on her and discovered she had a twin sister, Liz. They are both successful journalists: Jenn in NYC working for an onslaught of go-to, “taste maker” publications and Liz living in Boston penning work for The Boston Phoenix, Bitch, and Paste. Jenn hosts a radio show on Newtown Radio, “pirated, like, kind of”, she tells me when she called me up for an interview last week. It was one of the most interesting interviews I’ve had (they are normally boring drivel). The twins are into girl punk. They talk about it a lot. I also recently found out they are, like, 22 years old. Little genius girls, you could say. The ambition, drive, and talent you see in these twins really freaks me out and yet at the same time inspires me. We need more Pelly twins in the world. We need more people who push their own talents. I love a good success story and if it involves blonde-haired, Bikini-Kill-loving twin sisters, it’s even better.

Liz Pelly

Look, all I’m getting at here is that I am a big fan of DRIVE. I think that acquiring and securing your own confidence is a daunting task that is only accomplished through years of rejection, trial and error, and failure, but also through never giving up, even in the face of criticism. It comes from being smart enough to know that no one is “better” than anyone and that you can manipulate the system. No one is going to help you. No one is going to do the work for you. You have to have drive. And from what I’ve seen, the Pelly sisters definitely have drive.

I’m just happy there are young, talented, hard-working women writers around the world. Now: go get inspired by a Pelly.

You can find the Pellys here: