Chastity Belt

Chastity Belt draws from the riot grrrl scene’s political stance as well as the layered, introspective guitar textures associated with early-’90s groups such as Sleater-Kinney and Autoclave. Their 2013 debut No Regerts blended playful humor and feminist commentary with ease, yet principal songwriter Julia Shapiro shifted toward more introspective and autobiographical subjects on 2017’s I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone and 2019’s Chastity Belt, where the music grew increasingly subtle and refined. After a five-year break due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic, 2024’s Live Laugh Love reintroduced a measure of the band’s earlier wit while centering the songs on their unhurried guitar interplay.

The group formed in Walla Walla, Washington, in 2010, with lead vocalist/guitarist Julia Shapiro, bassist Annie Truscott, drummer Gretchen Grimm, and guitarist Lydia Lund. They quickly wove irreverent comedy into an outwardly earnest musical image. Along with their sharp lyrical content, the members titled their earliest locally circulated demo recordings Fuck Chastity Belt and later posed for press photos showing Shapiro in a chastity belt constructed from raw steak. The same playful spirit surfaced with the release of their official debut, No Regerts, in 2013, which featured a deliberate misspelling of “No Regrets” evoking a botched ironic tattoo.

Extensive touring followed No Regerts, after which the band issued its sophomore album Time to Go Home in early 2015 on the Hardly Art Records label. Chastity Belt headed to Portland, Oregon, to work with producer Matthew Simms during summer 2016; the sessions yielded the darker, more personal third album I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone, issued by Hardly Art in June 2017. Health issues prompted Shapiro to pause touring after that release, leading the band into a short hiatus while she recorded the solo album Perfect Version, released by Hardly Art in June 2019.

In September of the following year Chastity Belt delivered its self-titled fourth album, which further polished the mature approach established on I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone and Perfect Version.

The COVID-19 pandemic halted Chastity Belt’s 2020 touring schedule, leaving Julia Shapiro living in a punk rock house with friends after travel restrictions stranded her. The situation unexpectedly fostered new material centered on community and friendship. Recording took place between January 2020 and November 2022, and the resulting tracks formed the band’s 2024 album Live Laugh Love, its first release on Suicide Squeeze Records.