The Flytraps deliver raw, high-octane punk rooted in sneering old-school attitude and relentless speed, while blending garage rock’s melodic and lyrical approach with hard rock’s thick, distorted punch; a mostly female outfit completed by one male member, the group is led by Kristen Cooper’s gritty vocal and bass attack alongside Beth Boyd’s biting guitar riffs. Emerging first on the West Coast garage circuit, they spotlighted those garage elements on their 2013 debut cassette She Freak, yet the 2020 full-length Wild Card arrived after several personnel shifts and carried noticeably greater sonic weight.
Formed in Orange County during 2010, the band tracked She Freak for Slop Bop with an all-female roster of Beth Boyd and Marz Riesterer (aka Marz Beeuwsaert) on guitars, Kristen Cooper on bass, and Laura Kelsey behind the drums. Steady live activity followed, but new recordings waited until 2017, when Outro Records issued a three-song 7-inch containing “All Talk,” “He’s Been Around,” and “Doin’ It Right,” and Volcom Entertainment added “Female of the Species” to its Digital Singles Club. By then Marz Riesterer and Laura Kelsey had exited; Chloe Z. Young joined on guitar and Fabian Ruiz became the group’s first male member on drums. Burger Records entered the picture in 2018, releasing the four-song 12-inch Sunset Strip R.I.P. Outro returned in 2019 with a single pairing original “Kitten with a Whip” and a Rose Tattoo cover of “Nice Boys,” while Burger compiled single sides and unreleased cuts on the cassette-only Bitches in Boots later that year. In March 2020 the label and band collaborated again on the first proper album, Wild Card.
