The Courettes

Raw and energetic garage rock outfit the Courettes have built an avid audience across multiple continents, drawing loyal listeners throughout Europe, Britain, and the Netherlands. Their lineup blends contrasting origins, with Brazilian guitarist and frontwoman Flavia Couri joined by Danish drummer Martin Couri. Bound by rock & roll's shared tongue, the pair delivers stripped-down garage punk fueled by raw drive and melody that incorporates classic punk, 1960s pop, girl-group textures, surf instrumentation, and high-velocity psychedelia. Their 2015 debut Here Are the Courettes arrived with elemental force and immediacy, while 2018's We Are the Courettes found the pair tighter and more expansive without losing their capacity to rattle venues. Back in Mono from 2021 captured harder-edged rock & roll inside the duo's own vintage studio, and The Soul of the Fabulous Courettes in 2024 channeled classic girl-group and Wall of Sound aesthetics alongside core garage elements.

Residing in Denmark, the Courettes center on lead singer and guitarist Flavia Couri, who arrived from Brazil, and drummer Martin Couri, a native of that country and Flavia's spouse. The pair first crossed paths in Brazil during 2013 when Martin's touring band shared a bill with hers across South America. Their musical chemistry proved immediate, leading Flavia to relocate to Denmark in 2015, where the two launched the group. Entering the studio to track material, they initially considered expanding the lineup yet found the guitar-and-drums format so compelling that they committed to remaining a duo. Signing with Germany's Sounds of Subterrania, they swiftly recorded their first album, the 20-minute 2015 release Here Are the Courettes, initially pressed on 10-inch vinyl.

The duo journeyed to England in 2016 to cut the single "Boom! Dynamite!" backed with "T-C-H-A-U" at Toe Rag Studios, the fully analog space favored by Billy Childish, the Kaisers, and the White Stripes. Alive from Tambourine Studios appeared in 2017 as a live-in-studio session captured in Sweden, followed in 2018 by the full-length We Are the Courettes spanning twelve tracks. Steady performances at clubs and festivals across Europe, Britain, and nearer home helped build momentum, and that same year they issued the single "Voodoo Doll," which featured a cameo from Brazilian horror figure José Mojica Marins (known as Coffin Joe) and employed the boutique Vinyl Video process to embed a playable music video on the reverse side via a specialized decoder. The British Damaged Goods imprint, home to noted influence Billy Childish, welcomed the Courettes aboard in 2020 and reissued Here Are the Courettes and We Are the Courettes on vinyl while also releasing the CD Here We Are the Courettes that combined both albums. Their third album, Back in Mono, arrived via Damaged Goods in October 2021, produced by Søren Christensen at Starr Sound, the band's own facility constructed from vintage gear spanning the 1950s through the 1970s. In 2023 the Courettes undertook their inaugural North American tour, prompting Damaged Goods to issue Boom! Dynamite, a vinyl-only collection drawing from Here Are the Courettes, We Are the Courettes, and Back in Mono plus scarce cuts and non-album single sides.

Two further albums surfaced in 2024. Hold On, We're Comin' presented an atypical project in which the duo layered their vocals and instrumentation atop existing recordings by the Grassroots, the Flamin' Groovies, Johnny Thunders, the Association, and additional acts, adopting a Wall of Sound approach recalling Phil Spector's landmark productions; the set also included standalone Courettes renditions of the Cramps' "Bikini Girls with Machine Guns" and Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off." Fresh original material arrived on The Soul of the Fabulous Courettes, which introduced refined vintage-style production and expanded arrangements while retaining buzzy guitars and Flavia Couri's vocals at the forefront. Søren Christensen and C.T. Levine co-produced the LP, with Brill Building veteran Richard Gottehrer handling mixes on two tracks and La La Brooks of the Crystals supplying backing vocals on "California" and "Run Run Runaway."