Since the early 1990s, Thee Headcoatees have continuously produced beguiling, garage rock homages teeming with all the British-branded sauciness you would expect from an offshoot of enigmatic songwriter Billy Childish. Many critics have justifiably seen Thee Headcoatees as yet another exercise in Svengalism for the prolific-to-a-fault Childish, who wrote and produced the majority of their releases. While this may be true, what has been frequently overlooked is that the subtle presence of retro-queenie Holly Golightly was essential to the success of Thee Headcoatees' flirtatious, low-fi cacophony. Thee Headcoatees appear to be on indefinite hiatus, but the solo work of Golightly only seems to be showing more enduring promise with each outing.

Beginning with 1995's Good Things, Golightly began to hone an unexpected revamp of '60s girl-group croonings, recasting the "leader of the pack" as a countrified bluesman who would soon regret messing with her. Swirling her smoky, disheveled vocals around wicked, Stones-soaked guitar lines gave Golightly musical leverage that the Supremes could only dream of. The startling tone of her current work is a result of forgoing Motown-style sweetness in favor of the more hardened, trailer-park-bad-girl qualities of the Ronettes or the Shangri-Las. Such an emphasis helps her pull off a cover of Bill Withers' "Use Me" with dirty-minded aplomb, and gives her the added versatility of showing off her girlie sweetness without coming across as malleable.

Much of Golightly's material revolves around the ill-gotten gains of life, but there is always something deliciously buoyant in her lyrical struggles. Perhaps the reissue of her second record, The Main Attraction (previously available in Europe alone), will further illuminate the origins of her successful paradox, though I wouldn't count on her turning over her secrets any time soon--Golightly seems far too busy taking care of herself.