Jenette Mackie is creator and frontwoman of cello shredding rock duo Polly Panic. Built on the back of distorted and often looped cello, drums, and powerful vocals, Mackie and drummer/backing vocalist Chris Medrano are not to be missed in this era of cellos coming to the front. Polly Panic is one of the longest standing cello Art rock forces out there...
"References abound, P J Harvey’s bleak and angsty soundscapes, Tori Amos dark dreaming, Apocalyptica’s classical-rock attitudes, Tom Waits belligerence, but whilst you catch fleeting sights of those past glories, Polly Panic creates something totally her own, something wonderfully unique, where classical grunge meets baroque ’n’roll!" (Dave Franklin, Dancing About Architecture, on Losing Form)
Jenette is a classically trained cellist who wanted to "learn the rules so you can break them". Calling herself a Grunge Baby, influences range from early PJ Harvey and Tori Amos, to Nirvana and Tom Waits. We will even throw some classical in there, as long as it's in a minor key. Jenette created Polly Panic in 2005, inspired by a Sylvia Plath Short story, Johnny Panic and the Bible of dreams, and her great Dane Polly, who was rescued on the brink of death and came back to life for many more years with love and food....she found her will to live. Polly explores that even now, why and how, to live. There were times that she thought she had quit Polly Panic. In a long battle with Alcoholism, then another with depression, Polly Panic comes back every time as not something she does, but who she is. Outside of Polly Panic, Jenette frequently brings her vocal or cellist stylings to the aid of performance artist, silk dancers, burlesque performers and more...
Losing Form is Polly Panic's 3rd studio album. Recorded around touring in the esteemed cello band, Rasputina, and being pregnant and giving birth to a son, Ashton Mackie-Scheve. Polly Panic is deep in the writing process on a 4th album.
Losing Form is being hailed around the world as the best Polly Panic album yet, with reviews, interviews and playlist in over 30 countries.
This is the first video for Losing Form, title track
“Jenette Mackie of Polly Panic wields the cello like an ax, wails like a rock goddess, and sends us straight up to the ether. She then whispers and hums to bring us back to earth. It’s an intense and unique journey.” --Meeghan Kane, Unsweetened Magazine.
The thought of the Viking heart rampaging and pillaging across Northern Europe comes to mind when the music hits the listener like a storm, a tornado of souls fired up by the intensity of expression, impenetrable, beautiful as one who takes the cello in the call to arms can do (on Losing Form, Liverpool Sound and Vision)
"Driven by a nucleus of cello, drums and vocals, these tunes are woven from tales of lustful obsession ('Side Piece'), co-dependent addiction ('Losing Form'), joy in realizing you don’t need who and what you thought you needed ('Hollows'), and a scorned lover’s lethal revenge (the anthemic rocker 'Annie', an ode to Annie Oakley and to women everywhere who live life and experience love on their own terms)."
-Beehive Candy on Losing Form
“The listener is immediately struck by an assaulting tenderness entangled with dark, odd-metered theater. Think PJ Harvey meets Captain Beefheart.”(Robert Church, Radio FM Syndication, on Fragment)
"The ten tracks feature Jenette's totally compelling rock cello work and dark enticing vocals. This is an album that is all about musical depth and originality. Jenette's vocals are edgy and packed with emotion, while her cello groans and cries, with a heavy and sultry vibe that tears at one's insides like a jilted lover."
'-Floorshime Zipperboots Music Reviews, on Losing Form.
“Polly Panic on the cello. In my entire natural life I have never had the opportunity to describe the sound of a cello as 1970’s psychedelic rock on heroin, but I don’t know how else to explain it. Driving and heavy at points, it twists your heart in knots and then completely sloughs off the responsibility of helping you untangle yourself.” (Ashvegas reviews)
“Polly Panic takes the very idea of a cello, blows it up with a big box of dynamite, picks up the pieces, and reassembles them into something that rocks harder than most guitar (September 19th, 2009, “Sessions from the box”)” on Painkiller
The listener is immediately struck by an assaulting tenderness entangled with dark, odd-metered theatrical compositions with stories to tell, linking itself to blues and early grunge.The music alternates between the impact of a train to a syncopated sputter and crunch with a Southern edge,offsetting the sweet, inviting vocals. There are anthems of mourning and consolation, long-lined melodies instead of chants, an extensive layering of instruments, and lyrics that open themselves from reflection and sorrow to joy in the attack. - (Neufeter Magazine)
"Her new and upcoming album titled ‘Losing Form’ is ten songs written and recorded without holding back and without letting go. Pure sonic bliss.." (Jammerzine music reviews)
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This is beautiful, breathtaking, killer punk rock n roll. Thank you Polly Panic for something new and so great.