EW takes Antigone Rising out for coffee

EW takes Antigone Rising out for coffee -- The ''From the Ground Up'' band chat about their new album, touring, and vampires

Call it the Palaver over the Java: EW decided to take tough-but-sweet chicks Antigone Rising — whose major-label debut, From the Ground Up, is being sold exclusively at Starbucks — out for coffee. The band (singer Cassidy, guitarist sisters Kristen and Cathy Henderson, bassist Jen Zielenbach, and drummer Dena Tauriello) claimed to be hardcore mud addicts, so a who-can-down-the-most-cups challenge was issued. Alas, when they arrived at Joe’s, a Manhattan coffee bar, they professed to having already drunk tons of brew and, well. . .suffice it to say that EW drank ’em under the table. At least the talk was hot and steamy.

EW I saw you live and was surprised how rawk it was compared to the album.

CASSIDY The album is unplugged. We were asked to do something more mellow for Starbucks. If you come to the show, you’ll see a rock show.

KRISTEN We’ve always made it our mission to make the marketing of our band as difficult as possible. So we put out an acoustic record and do a really hard-rocking live show. And we chose a hard name. Most people don’t know who Antigone is, anyway.

CATHY We wanted a literary name.

KRISTEN Cathy and I formed the band in college, and I had just read Antigone [Sophocles’ play about the defiant daughter of Oedipus] in a Greek-tragedy course. I got a D on my paper, by the way.

EW Do you encounter a lot of sexism as a female band?

KRISTEN We can steal the thunder from a guy band just because we’re girls, so it works to our advantage.

CASSIDY There’s a lot of sexuality on our stage, lemme tell ya.

KRISTEN There was this drunk, lecherous guy bothering me at one of our shows. He tried climbing on stage to grab me, and the angle was right for me to kick him dead in the chest.

CATHY Kristen doubles as our security.

KRISTEN I don’t believe in kicking people, but really drunk, rude people sometimes need to be kicked.

CASSIDY People cross the line. They want to put their arms around you — or worse.

KRISTEN Now when drunks come up to me, I offer to take them to a [AA] meeting.

CASSIDY It works, like garlic on a vampire.

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