Sharing is Caring : A Reference Of Female-Fronted Punk Rock

Do yourself a favor. If you are interested in female fronted punk from the '70s and '80s, there isn't a better way to educate yourself than this three part series of compilation downloads via Kangnave! BRILLIANT! It includes a very young Bjork (Tappi Tikarrass), better known groups like the Mo-Dettes, Au Pairs, and Liliput but they also offer deeper cuts from groups all over the world.

It is nearly impossible to collect all these records no less afford them all so this is a must download for those who want a superior digital collection of music by female artists.

Bring on the Dancing Horses with Josefin Öhrn + The Liberation

Do you set your watch to the hypnotic tics of Suicide and wish to call home the spooky aural landscape Fever Ray calls home? If this is the case, I think Swedish group Josefin Öhrn + The Liberation  2015 release Horse Dance may be some required listening for you.

A Rose that Blooms Forever

There isn't one music project by Rose Melberg I haven't wanted to take on a picnic and pledge my undying love to. She is the master melody. Her sweet voice often paired with a fuzzy guitar has been labeled everything from a Riot Grrrl to twee to cuddle-core to sweater-Pop. We can all agree that whatever you want to call it, her myriad of musical identities have been consistently memorable including her newest band called Knife Pleats. If her Discogs page is accurate, she is on over 100 different releases so needless to say there is a TON of releases to explore.

Here are just a handful of them.

Nun More Black

Nun is a female fronted Australian electrobeat /industrial group who write songs with nods to Throbbing Gristle, The Normal, Psychic TV, and synth driven Italian horror soundtracks. They have been producing music since 2012 and their discography includes a full length and single to date. If you think rock is dead, analog is sexy, and that black isn't back but rather has never gone away, then I suggest you waste no time checking this band out. 

Girl in the Pit

Five teen girls have recently started an awareness campaign to help eliminate sexual assault at concerts. Their twitter account is called GirlsAgainst .

The call to action is quite simple. First make people aware that it happens. Then offer a few different tactics to cope with it as the situation unfolds. Even better, you can help prevent it from taking place at all. The most important thing in any sexual assault situation is to let the victim know they are not alone so the GirlsAgainst site also serves as a place for music fans to share their experiences. These tweets let a band know that a fan has experienced a horrific trauma during their performance. It make venues aware that their bouncers should not only be on the look out for these situations but remove those committing the offense from a show immediately. For me the most important piece of this puzzle is educating fellow audience members and alerting them to the fact that they have the power to help in this situation. If you see something that looks like sexual assault or abuse, say something. Ask the victim if they need help. Get them away from the person (or sometimes persons) assaulting them. Get security involved. Just whatever you do, don't ignore the crime. THIS IS A CRIME. Sexual assault at a show happens all the time and I am not sure which is more maddening, the fact that it happens at all or that people stand by and let it happen. If you are someone who is being attacked, let everyone know around you what is taking place and ask for help. People's attention are often at the band and not around them so it may take screaming to make those around you aware of what is happening. Do not be embarrassed or ashamed. You have not done anything wrong.

I am speaking from personal experience here. I have been going to shows nearly weekly since 1990. I am very well aware of crowd behavior, how quickly a group of people can ignite into a frenzy as soon as their favorite band plays their first note, and when the adrenaline kicks in, frightening things can happen.

There are multiple situations that can make a very large standing audience threatening in a flash. A very packed venue means a lot of strangers pressing up against each other and shifting positions regularly in order to move closer or farther away from the stage, gets drinks, or go to the bathroom. Some people take advantage of this situation as they pass through the crowd. They grope at breasts, asses, and before you can say something or hit them off of you, they are gone. Unfortunately some people also get off on these close encounters with strangers and they will begin rubbing themselves on you in a disgusting dry hump. It seems impossible that this could be happening in front of so many people but when all eyes are on a band and the venue floor is dark, it goes unnoticed but DOES happen.

I was actually once pinned against the stage of Wetlands in NYC at a metal show by a man I vaguely knew from a local band. He started dry humping me and placing his hands all over me. When I told him to stop touching me a number of times, the situation ended with me throwing numerous punches at him and me leaving the show. There wasn't a security person to tell so rather than enjoy the show somewhere else, I removed myself from a space I no longer felt safe in. When I began telling people about the crime this man committed against me, nobody wanted to get involved. It wasn't their business. Every single man in the metal / hardcore scene that also knew him, didn't have the courage to help me or let him know what he did was not only wrong but that it was a crime. It was a genuine sex offense. I was a victim twice.  Not only was I attacked at a show by this monster but then my peers made me feel like I was making a big deal out of nothing. I was devastated. It still enrages me to this day. Who knows how many other women this man has done this to or is still doing it to.

There are more experiences like this, especially during my years of going to shows around the tri-state area through the '90s. It wasn't just hardcore or metal shows either; it was all shows. Especially after Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video came out, people (mostly men), decided moshing must happen at every show. I am not kidding when I say every show. The Sundays who are about as calming as a rainy cold day in winter, had to stop their show NYC because the crowd had whipped them into a violent frenzy. As a crowd builds energy and the adrenaline kicks in, almost anything is possible. The strength of this kind of group can move mountains and it can be very easy for a person to fall victim to numerous attacks - not all just sexual.

Again, speaking from personal experience I have had every possible combination of things happen to me at a show and only once was I ever helped.  I kept going to shows, standing close to the stage because I felt it was my right as a fan of the band. I refused to be bullied but pushed, punched, picked up and moved, and groped I was. At a Mudhoney show a group of men made fun of me for being in what they considered a girl free zone at a show (IE the pit) and they picked me up like a bowling ball reaching under my dress, and lifting me from my crotch to then throw me into a crowd surfing situation. By the time I came back down I was far away from those creeps buy it had all happened so quickly that I am not sure I could easily pick them out of a line up or be able to find them among 500 plus people on the floor of the venue with security.

At many of the hardcore shows the attitude by some men was that women shouldn't be in the front area near the stage at all. As a pit began to build, no matter how careful you were to remain on the outer edges of it, there were some people who took great joy in targeting women by pushing them into the pit. Yes, ritual and accepted violence is already taking place in this area but then some people use this opportunity to cop a feel before shoving you as hard as they could in another direction. Again, things happen so quickly, the crowds shift and churn endlessly, so it can be very difficult to deal with an attacker or find security to try your best to try to pick out a person or persons who blend into a uniform look of that music scene. It feels hopeless so you either get used it or you end up standing in the back and avoiding these confrontations all together.

The sad reality is this happened to me so many times that I have lost count. There are thousands of victims just like me who have felt or still feel powerless about it. I believe it is possible to have bands, fellow music fans, and music venue's security working together to stop sexual assault from happening at concerts. We know this crime isn't acceptable under any circumstance so why would the music community want to turn a blind eye to this? Women buy music. Women attend concerts. Women buy merch. Women share and like your music related content. If you won't listen to our voices asking for help, perhaps losing us as a fan, an unpaid marketing tool, and paying customer will be what the music industry finally reacts to.

Read more about women fighting against sexual assault at shows here. 

Flashback Thursday : Mecca Normal

There is something so impressive about a powerful two piece band, especially when it doesn't follow the traditional rules of what we think a band equals. In this case we have a remarkable guitar player named David Lester and vocalist Jean Smith. Together they make Mecca Normal, a band who have managed to prove that no other instrument is needed. The communication between fretted instrument and voice is more than enough.  This Vancouver duo has been producing music from 1984 that evokes thought and expels energy. In this stripped down form the power of each instrument, guitar and voice, are poignant. Lyrics are highlighted by the nature of this beast and are delivered through dramatic flashes. Captured in raw form, this kind of intensity isn't for everyone but being pushed to just outside my comfort zone on occasion gives music the kind of exciting dangerous element that rock and roll was invented for. Life is a balance of ugly chaos and moments of beauty, Mecca Normal manages to deliver both and if Patti Smith had a secret sister, I think Jean Smith might be her.

Big is Beautiful!

Beth Ditto of the band The Gossip is releasing a line of plus-sized clothing coming this Feb. To kick things off she is selling a limited edition t-shirt that is a collaboration with long time friend of her's Jean Paul Gaultier (see the shirt below).

New Album Alert : Deradoorian

Los Angeles musician Angel Deradoorian has an impressive pedigree. She was the bass player and vocalist in Dirty Projectors. She has lent her talents to Slasher Flicks, an Avey Tare side band. She has offered vocals to the likes of Flying Lotus, the Roots, and Matmos to name a few. Her new solo album The Expanding Flower Planet on Anticon does not stray far from the creative company she has kept in the past. It is a hypnotic tapestry threaded by her complex vocal layers. Her voice charters a hypnotic Middle Eastern magic carpet ride that brings a listener to the exotic places that albums like Medulla by Bjork and Can's Tago Mago have explored in years past.

Throwback Thursday : Bush Tetras

Active on and off since the late '70s, this NYC post punk band never got quite the same kind of attention as bands like Blondie, The Ramones, or The Talking Heads did. Here is their first single and one of the best known Bush Tetras songs, "Too Many Creeps" from 1980.

Side note, whenever I DJ this song, at least one person thinks it is Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth singing - without fail.

A First Date With . . . Failure

I am still trying to wrap my head around this feature interview series by Noisy (Music by Vice) that have been dubbed "A First Date With" that turns a musician interview into something that could be more accurately aligned with a music journalist creeper. It blurs the line between a professional writer and an awkward blind date. A writer takes out a musician on what they call a first date and then a really uncomfortable line of questions are followed by equally as uncomfortable answers.

I am sure this twist on artist interviews is intended to be edgy and fun but the whole series actually just makes me sad. What nonsense musicians have to go through to get press no less be faced with a line of questioning that doesn't have much to do with the art they are creating. Each final Noisy piece in this series reads more like an embarrassing teenage diary page from the interviewer and makes me question how seriously anyone should take Noisy. I am certain there are naked, live chats happening between  strangers on line at this very moment that are more artful and interesting than any of these interviews.

This approach to music journalism cloaks an artists interview with unnecessary sexualization and moves the writer into the spotlight with the musician. I don't want to know about a writer's dating fantasies or read a conversation version of a Tinder swipe. I am exhausted by this ME ME ME mentality and how so much this style of writing detracts from an artist and the work they have put so much of themselves into. This interview technique doesn't come across as smart or funny, it comes across like an unwanted lap dance between a musician and a fan.

Reality shows are torture to me because it takes low culture to obviously scripted, new lows. Congrats Vice, you somehow made dumber even dumber.

Backyard Report : Lucy Dacus

Richmond, Virginia is the place I call home and we have what seems to be an endless wealth of musical talent here. I was introduced to Lucy Dacus through a mutual friend from the local band Manatree who also happens to play in her band. Lucy has a debut record entitled No Burden coming out via EggHunt in late February. "I Don't Want To Be Funny Anymore" has always been the strongest song live so I couldn't imagine a better song to represent what is to come from her.

Dacus has the kind of timeless voice that is smokey and bittersweet. To be honest I am still not sure how a woman as young as she is, can sound so wise beyond her years. I recently wrote about the band Our Girl from Brighton and if I was making a mix, I would put these two bands right next to each other.

The 50 Most Powerful Female Executives in the Music Industry

Billboard Magazine recently released their Women in Music issue. With it they compiled the 50 most powerful female executives in the music industry. If you are wondering how such a list is put together, here is what they say 

Methodology: Executives were chosen based on business impact, audience, market share and chart and/or tour ­performance of their artists or clients in the past year, tracked by Nielsen Music and Billboard Boxscore.

You can read the story here. 

The only catch is that with the ever changing landscape in music where barcode scans from sales and captured digital stream data mean less and less (how Nielsen Music tracks an artists sales), there is an entirely different group of women making things happen in music outside of the top 40 / Pop culture world. The independent music community is larger than ever so while this is still an inspiring list of ladies, keep in mind it only tells a portion of the whole story. 

Flashback Friday : Suely e Os Kantikus

Vocalist Suely Chagas is extra interesting to me because she recorded in a band called the Teenagers with Rita Lee before Rita went on to join one of the most famous Brazilian bands, Os Mutantes!

To me this song from 1968 sounds like proto-Deerhoof; so off the wall and great! I discovered the song from a great compilation called Obsession on Bully Records that features outstanding psych rock from all over the planet.  I will post a second song from this comp below as well.

2015 Favorite : Hurry Up

This debut self-titled release by Hurry Up combines all my favorite things. They are a trio, no frills, from the Northwest, carry two members of The Thermals and one from Bangs, and mix two favorite styles of angst; Pitchfork/Jehu/Hot Snakes when the male vocals take over and Riot Grrrl when the female vocals are leading the way. PUNK LIVES!

Mistaking Music Chemistry for Dating Chemistry

Recently Gretchen Kelly wrote a piece called The Thing All Women Do That You Don't Know About. It perfectly describes a female conditioning that begins when we are very young and are faced uncomfortable male attention time and time again. It often starts quietly. A man shows or states their interest in us sexually and when we respond with a polite no, we are hit with a volley back of verbal insults. threats, and sometimes an angry physical response. Any or all of this can be terrifying.

In my mid 20s I was walking to work in the morning and passed a construction crew. One man started yelling at me as I approached the work sight. I ignored him but rather than just stop shouting at me, he screamed even more vulgar things. I finally stopped and told him to stop shouting at me. I was furious, insulted, and it ended with me yelling an obscenity back at him while giving him the finger. This flipped his switch. I went from being an object of desire to a bitch. He proceeded to follow me a block screaming insults about my stinking private parts, circling me, and ended his tirade with a shove and the statement that " I was trying to do you a favor you ****, even ugly girls need to feel pretty!"

After enough of these kinds of exchanges I was conditioned to deal with people like this as passively as possible. I became skilled at disarming bombs. I did not want to draw attention to the situation. I didn't make eye contact. I quickly crossed streets away from them. I began wearing headphones to block their comments out completely until one day a man grabbed them off my head to tell me I had a nice ass while groping it. Most city women know what it is like to have a man on a crowded train pinned next to you rub his erection on you and / or play with himself through his pockets. Insanely these run-ins become a normal day in a big city. Women learn to silently go about our business after each of these awful events. Rather than face confrontation we learn how to get to a safer situation and brush off these men. I am not saying this is always the correct way to handle these moments but when you are trying to get to school or work or home, sometimes all you want to do is arrive in one piece and get through your day without a scene.

I have lived in cities my entire adult life and when you walk everywhere these exchanges happen more often than not. In fact, so often that all the yelling and occasional groping stops being something I told friends, family, or co-workers about. These were my depressing secrets and I am no less relieved to learn that I am not alone in carrying this burden.

None of this however prepared me for the flip switch with men I knew well. This situation becomes a thousand times more complicated when it is a "friend" or acquaintance who puts you in this position. There is also a circle of mutual friends around the two of you to add extra layers of drama. Your home or shared spaces become tainted by the nightmare of harassment. What should be a cut and dry "no thank you" situation can grow destructive tentacles and end friendships, divide a group of friends, or in my case, kill a band.

Life experiences had prepared me for random sexist attitudes towards the things I did however I was not prepared for that kind of call to come from inside my house. Playing music with others is a sacred, family bond to me. I understand it isn't like this for everyone but as someone who does not have much family, I take my band family very seriously and extend to them a great deal of respect and kindness. They become my brothers and sisters. Not once but several times different band members crossed the line with me. They misunderstood our band chemistry for a sexual chemistry and when I replied with a thoughtful but firm "NO", each time I punished for my choice. Either I was pushed out of the band for being a problem member for some random made up thing that didn't exist before I said no or I was cut out from their life completely. In all cases the band ended and our friendships dissolved. Each time I felt like was part of a hit and run crime scene.

These situations were never discussed with the rest of the band and I rarely talked about it with friends. I mistakenly carried guilt (as so often victims do) for somehow leading them on when this was never the case. It was easier to be blackballed than face the stress of trying to explain to everyone around us what really happened. I feared harsh judgement from people who may not believe me or fully grasp the situation. I understand these men felt embarrassed for misreading our band chemistry and had bruised egos but I regret that I was the one who always felt like it was a dirty secret I should be ashamed of. Only one of these men has apologized to me over the years and in turn has been welcomed back into my life. Neither my creative relationship or friendship has been recovered with the others. These have become permanent scars I have had to live with.

It takes courage to openly discuss hurt feelings when a come-on is not reciprocated. As a younger person, I was not that brave. I did not want to stir the pot and in turn chose the no less kinder route of being pushed out and cut off. I always moved on, continued to make music, but have felt haunted by these past run ins even after all these years. I would very much like to spare others from this experience and offer others encouragement to speak up and out.

I now better understand now how band member wires can get crossed. When you play in a very active touring band together, you spend a lot of time in cramped quarters with one another. Hell, you might even have to share a bed in a hotel room when all you can afford is one room with two twin beds. You live and breathe these people daily. You share. You talk. You occasionally touch. There is a genuine connection and communication that happens between band members and for some people that exciting click can get confused for something more. Band dedication merges with personal dedication. I think it is important to stress that this is not strictly a male to female disconnect as it can go both ways. Misunderstandings and big feelings happen but it is how each of you handle it that is key.

No two relationships are the same and this is absolutely true for the dynamic between band members. Each situation and person is different and my philosophy on how to handle this has become my personal philosophy as well. The people I have let into my world are treated with love, compassion, respect, and an open mind. I am not perfect and I do not expect others to be either. I do however expect to be treated well in return. I believe you can say just about anything to a friend if it is stated in a thoughtful and kind manner (hence our band name Positive No).

If there are feelings of any kind that fall outside of playing music together that need to be discussed, I recommend doing so with a clear head. I do not suggest getting drunk and gushing emotions that may not be worded as carefully as you might sober. This is important stuff to talk about openly and honestly. You don't want anything to cloud judgement and further muddy communication. Hormones are distracting enough as it is.

There is no right way for this situation to play out. If you are both consenting adults who want to try to date while in a band together, good luck with that! It can work but you need to remain mindful of the rest of the band who has to play music and tour with a couple. Trust me, as a person approaching year seven of dating a band member (we were dates first, band members second), it is not easy task and could / should be an article in itself.

If you have fallen for a band member and can't hide your feelings any longer, be thoughtful about your next step. Before making a blind pass, think before you act. I know this is easier said than done, especially in a culture of late nights and party-like atmospheres. Be prepared for the worst and hope for the best. If approached correctly, a band member who is not interested in dating will take it all in stride and the band will carry on as normal. The harder part might be dusting yourself off and letting your ego take a hit.

Lastly if there is a band member who approaches you in a way that feels wrong, uncomfortable, or inappropriate, speak up immediately. The first responsibility is for you to take care of you and let this other person know they have crossed a line with you. A real friend and band member will back off and honor your feelings. No band is worth feeling unsafe or disrespected for. If your fellow band members aren't responsive in a way that makes you feel comfortable, you probably don't want to be in a band with them either. A person who lashes out at your choice to say no is not worthy of your time as a creative partner or friend.

I may have regrets about how I handled these hurdles in my past but there should be zero shame in a no. You should never have to be punished for not having a mutual feeling of interest towards someone. Your artistic world doesn't have to end when these band family members betray your trust. The lesson to be learned here is knowing you are better off without a person like that in your life. Creating art should be your safe place. Anyone who challenges or threatens that is a splinter that needs to be pulled, not lived with.

Canadian Electro-Chaos : Duchess Says

Imagine if Melt Banana remade Goblin's Suspiria or if the Yeah Yeah Yeahs provoked a nest of cyber bees. Duchess Says from Montreal takes electro / prog rock tools and uses them to create spastic chaos that does not rely on melody to drive their songs. They take a 2-D keyboard band experience and turn it into a 3-D force of nature that darts towards you at the speed of light.

In fact vocalist Annie Claude Deschênes might even tangle with you on stage so when I say this band comes at you, I mean it literally and figuratively. 

Meet the exact opposite of boring. 

 

Fighting the Good Fight

Did you know that fewer than 5% of record producers and sound engineers are women? How about that when you review a huge festival line up, the number of women headliners of the bill make up for maybe one tenth of the line up? The numbers are discouraging when it comes to women verse men in the music industry however more and more women are working hard to change that number.

Antye Greie-Ripatti inspired by a 2015 interview with Björk who openly described women's role in music as "unacknowledged" and "uncredited" from personal experience, launched a Tumblr page called female:pressure  that gives visibility to female producers, DJ's, media artists, and electronic music performers at work. The idea is that the more of us there are documenting our work and celebrating the work of our female peers is to remind people that women making music is normal and happening daily all over the world.

For more statistics of women in the music industry, go here. If you are making music behind the scenes and feel comfortable sharing images of it, you should post them on your social media pages and or pass them along to sites like female:pressure to share with their readers. As I write this I am reminded that I need to do this more too as I often record at home and never think to document this part of my writing process. I intend to practice what I preach.

I am far from technical when it comes to getting down my ideas for a new song. I have a PC and use a program called Mixcraft 5 to record my vocal rough drafts for Positive No and have also used this program to write whole songs electronically for my solo project Ringfinger.

New Album Alert : Our Girl

Looking forward to Our Girl's Cannibal Hymns out December 11th. They hail from the seaside resort of Brighton, England and began as more of a solo effort of member Soph Nathan but have expanded into a trio that deliver smokey, reverbed slow burners that reminds me of the days when Madder Rose, Lush, and Bettie Serveert ruled the earth. The good news that these days have seemingly cycled back around and more of this brooding, dynamic Pop bathed in shoegazery is back.

Apple Music and iTunes is Dead to Me

As if it wasn't frustrating enough that with every iTunes software update, those of us who use iTunes to manage our large digital music catalog are faced with endless glitches and headaches, the head of Apple Music Jimmy Iovine went on CBS This Morning to say "I've always known that women find it very difficult at times - some women - to find music."

Unbelievably his sexist comments continued. "I just thought of a problem. Girls are sitting around... talking about boys right? Or complaining about boys. Or they're heartbroken or whatever. They need music for that, and it's hard to find music."

 Are you fucking kidding me?

I can't imagine a better time for music fans of any and all genders to find music. There are literally thousands of ways to discover music and it terrifies that the head of Apple Music isn't clued in to this. It goes without saying it is also mortifying that he singled out "girls" as being especially helpless at finding music and even though he has since apologized for for his mansplaining, I am done with Apple and iTunes until this man is fired. It should also be noted that none of the women sitting around the table with this jackass stood up to him for his sexist idiocy. I am equally disappointed with them as well. We don't have to accept or tolerate this kind of thinking about the portion of music fans who are women. SPOILER ALERT : THERE ARE A LOT OF US ! ! !

Apple was already alienating those of us who own large amounts of digital music as they focus on cloud based services and radio style forced discovery playlists generated for us so to me, this is the final nail in their coffin. I am done with Apple. As a music fanatic who also happens to be a women, I not only deserve better, I expect better from the companies who pride themselves as music innovators.

Throwback Thursday : The Flirts

A few days ago I mentioned The Flirts while writing about Dirty Ghosts. I have had The Flirts most well know single "Jukebox (Don't Put Another Dime)" in my head ever since.

The Flirts however were not a band in the traditional sense, they were a creation of music mogul Bobby "O" Orlando who wrote the music, played the instruments, produced the the tracks, and then looked for one redhead, one blonde, and one brunette to sing the songs and tour. Needless to say there was a long string of different women who fulfilled this role who were hired guns from a background in modeling, dancing, and acting who more often that not lip synced live. The Flirts may have been a rotating cast of characters and a facade of a girl band but for a decade, there were a string of hits recorded under that name and "Jukebox" remains an '80s classic. 1982 to be exact. 

 

Backyard Report : Dazeases

Richmond, Virginia has an ever growing, diverse, and captivating music scene. It is almost impossible to keep up with it right now so I am grateful to Strange Matter for booking local artist Dazeases on the Shopping / Priests bill. She offers a powerful one woman show that takes electronic music to some dark and personal places with a flare for the dramatic. The secret goth in me that loves to dance couldn't be any more excited about her.

Her Facebook page is here.

2015 Favorite : Dirty Ghosts

This San Francisco group released a single earlier this year called "Cataract" that just might end up as my favorite song of the year. Their new wave Pop hooks are undeniably catchy. Growing up in the '80s my passion for alternative music started with artists like Nik Kershaw, Thomas Dolby, Devo, Howard Jones, and The Flirts so I find the music of Dirty Ghosts to be a modern variation of these earlier groups. Their songs are melodic yet they carry an undercurrent of melancholy and angst. Their new album Let It Pretend came out in October on Last Gang Records but consider yourselves warned. Many of these songs have earworm like tendencies so be prepared to have them stuck in your head for days at a time.

An Evening with Atta-GIRL!

Hello Richmond, Virginia area friends!

To celebrate the birth of Atta-GIRL (and the birthday of a friend), DJ Ladybrain, Solid Scorp, and myself are taking over the Portrait House stereo tomorrow night. We will be playing music made by or fronted by women from the past half century. 

Come on out and hear an evening of impeccable music curated by some very friendly, kick ass ladies. 10pm to midnight!

Below are some of the things I will be playing.

Throwback Thursday : Della Reese

Sorry Mr. Sinatra but this version is one billion times better than yours. With my birthday fast approaching, this song always come to mind this time of year.

I give you Della Reese covering "It was a Very Good Year" live from the Playboy Club in 1966.

Welcome Back Missy

Hell to the YEAH! Missy Elliott's new record WTF is out tomorrow.

Is Music a Masculine Domain?

Elizabeth Newton has written a hell of an interesting piece for The New Inquiry on how women have been excluded in music with a heavy focus on Jazz and recording collecting.

One of my favorite female DJs / collectors is Sheila Burgel and she is quoted in this article. In fact I have so much respect and awe for what she does that I have asked her to spin records along with myself and Sister Golden Haze for my birthday. You are invited to join us. I hope to interview her while she is in town visiting and will post it here in the weeks to come.

Discwoman : Girls to the Tables

A few days ago I decided my turntables were in need of new slipmats. I didn't know what I was looking for other than I wanted them to be colorful and not feature a logo of a band or gear brand name. Our record players are located in our dining room so these slipmats are something we (my boyfriend and I) need to live with daily. What I wasn't expecting in my Google search was a sea of images that mostly screamed horny, stoner dude. Meaning if it wasn't a picture of a pot leaf in some form on the slipmat, there were breasts and more breasts. 

My takeaway from that experience was that the expected customer for these items are not women, they are predominantly men. If you spend much time attending DJ nights you will know that this is a fair assumption. Where the number of women playing in bands seems to be on the rise, the number of female DJs and club promoters is not. We are a very small number and the sexism I have faced while playing in band is nearly two fold as a DJ. The expectation is that I don't know anything about my gear, how a PA works, and most insultingly to me, that I don't know anything about music. There is also a frustratingly high level of sexual harassment and abuse from people in the crowd. Some men find no issue with randomly touching a female DJ's body, getting handsy with our turntables or mixers (IE let me show you how it's done or if you can do it, it must be easy and I will try it right now without your permission), flipping through our records without asking as if they are browsing at a store, or shouting at us comments relating to our bodies and what they would like to do to them. This is our work space and it, as well as our bodies, are being violated by strangers who occasionally look at female DJs like we are strippers soliciting lap dance.

Needless to say, whenever I discover fellow female DJs or women who operate in this male dominated music world at all, I take note. 

NPR recently wrote an article about the the NYC based Discwoman, a trio of women who operate a DJ booking agency focused on showcasing female-identified DJs. Discwoman however aren't just curating events where women are the talent and running the show, they are also actively encouraging women to become involved in their world. It doesn't have to mean making or playing electronic music, they are helping teach others how to book events, run sound, and all the other various aspects that go into making a DJ night happen. It is inspiring to know that they are leading by example. The more of us there are doing these things, the less fetishized and alien women in this scene will be treated. There is comfort, safety, and power in growing our number. We all know learning a particular skill isn't the first hurdle, it is finding the courage to try at all. If we create a womb of nurturing support, there is so much talent to be born from this.  

Here is a video I found that further expands on this subject. Maybe you will find it as illuminating and encouraging as I did. 

Sidenote: For clarity sake, I am not a DJ that creates electronic music in a live setting. I have made a solo record that merged electronic music and indie rock (Ringfinger) but as a DJ, I play other people's records. I pride myself on my large and varied record collection. I do not use a laptop, I cultivate a DJ set using vinyl records from my personal collection. 

Bad Girls for Life!

Polyphonic Size

Almost exclusively produced by Jean-Jacques Burnel from The Stranglers, check out this synth wave band from Belgium that has been making music on and off since 1971. The line up has changed many times over the decades but they almost always had at least one woman in the band.

Arist to Watch : Eliot Sumner

A brain injury affects each person in an incredibly unique manner. In 2013 Eliot Sumner fell and her accident resulted in a permanent loss of a smell and a need to take strong, personality altering anti-seizure medicine. The timing of this is interesting because it coincides with a huge shift in her music career as well. She release her first record at age 17 as an electro-pop singer under the moniker I Blame Coco. Be it the nature of getting older or a genuine mood change after her fall, 8 years after the start of her career, she no longer identified with this kind of music. She wanted to do something else and thus Eliot Sumner was born.

The electronic overtones are still in place with her new direction however in listening to her newest singles, her songwriting (she plays multiple instruments) is darker and no longer candy coated. While it is impossible to not hear her father's voice in hers (no biggie, just a guy name STING), her bass playing is also strikingly similar and connects the bloodline even more deeply from parent to child. Newer influences are said to be anywhere from drone music, Kraftwerk, and prog rock.

I can't imagine the pressure of trying to cut your own path with two famous parents (her mum is actress and producer Trudie Styler) while growing up basically in front of a camera (she has modeled) and as a recording artist. She is still young, discovering her voice, and this is truthfully still the early days of her career. I am rooting for her and am really liking the songs she has released this year leading up to a full length in early 2016.

Throwback Thursday : Savage Rose

Check out this powerhouse of a Danish prog rock group Savage Rose with lead singer Annisette. Her vocal style carries the rock and roll energy of Janis Joplin and Grace Slick and like her peers, their dynamic range also includes elements of Jazz, Soul, and Gospel. Annisette's acrobatic and massive vocal range (part siren, part whisper) is often described as proto-Kate Bush which makes this exciting and complex musical group all the more ahead of their time.

2015 Favorite : Menace Beach

Leeds, England band Menace Beach formed in 2012 when Liza Violet and friend Ryan Needham joined creative forces. The band line up has changed a few times over the years but at their core is this duo of a songwriting team whose debut album Ratworld has remained in my top 10 list of favorites for 2015. They also just released a new EP entitled Super Transporterreum that picks up where the full length left off. Their intertwined male/ female vocals deliver an endless chain of hooks on top of blazing, fuzzy guitar driven Pop. My two favorite things are present, harmony and NOISE! There are hints of Dino Jr,, Weezer and Veruca Salt grungy power pop sensibilities which makes for a really tough decision. Do you sing along or head bang? Screw it, I can to do both at the same time.

Julia Wolfe : Pulitzer Prize Winner

It takes a special kind of story teller to write a body of music that reflects and honors the dangerous work and plight of Pennsylvania coal miners via an amplified sextet and large chorus. 57 year old composer Julia Wolfe has done just that and won a Pulitzer for it. 

Wolfe spent more than a year researching this subject, explored mines, visited museums, spoke with scholars, interviewing miners as well as their families, and then shaped their oral histories into 5 distinct movements. Commissioned by the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, this haunting hour long body of music is shockingly modern as it is cutting edge. Her piece entitled Anthracite Fields is a layered collaboration of musicians, costumes, choreography, candlelight, as well as film and photography. It is atmospheric yet carries the nightmarish weight of suffocating darkness. She also manages to take the listener from the formation of coal all the way to our modern day energy uses in the most thoughtful and intriguing ways possible. This is the soundtrack to what fuels our nation and those who have suffered to deliver it to us. 

This music is now available to purchase as either a CD or in digital form.

Read a NPR interview with here.

Band to Watch : Doe

How could you not love a band that has this bio? "We’re Doe. We’re from London. We like feminism, horror films and brown beer." 

And who is the band influenced by? Sleater-Kinney, Helium, Plumtree, Superchunk, Autoclave, (early) Weezer, Pixies, Breeders, Pavement, Bikini Kill

I'm sold. 

(and yes, I like cats too.) 

Stream all sorts of their records here.

Band to Watch : Mercury Girls

At last! A band that uses Girls in their name and has not just one female member but TWO!

More importantly they are also GREAT.

I give you Philadephia noisy jangle poppers Mercury Girls. I don't have a release date for it yet but apparently their debut single will be coming out through one of my favorite record labels, Slumberland. The band also features members of : Literature, Little Big League, and Pet Milk. 

I love this band / song too! 

Bow Wow Wow & the Cassingle

Did you know that the world's very first cassingle AKA cassette single was Bow Wow Wow's "C30, C60, C90, Go!" in 1980? 

This UK group also features Annabella Lwin who joined the band when she was just 14 years old. 

Throw Back Thursday : Pylon

It doesn't get much better than this '80s Athens, Georgia band fronted by Vanessa Briscoe Hay. Their music is like brittle sticks snapping under rhythmic punches. There are guitar melodies but even the vocals accent beats as if they too are a percussion instrument. There is nothing extracurricular about their songs, every note and beat is measured and executed with a dancing precision. Imagine a small and powerful motorboat skidding through choppy, rough waters. This is what their pioneering sound reminds me of.

Their unique version of post punk was inspired by (and peers to) bands like the B-52s, Gang of Four, Television, and Talking Heads but in a decades time would become an influence to the next generations of bands like: R.E.M., Sleater Kinney, Deerhunter, LCD Soundsystem, Wedding Present, Life Without Buildings, Fire Party, and Love of Diagrams to name just a small handful of the artists.

2015 Favorite : Eerie Summer

Do you like to cuddle? Do you like lo-fi, dreamy, bedroom pop? Do love female fronted C86 twee bands (think of the early days of Camera Obscura or The Concretes)? If you answer yes to any of these questions, I present to you a charming boy/girl duo called Eerie Summer.

I don't know how a band that features one member from Russia and the other from Finland came to be, but I am sure glad they did. Sometimes a little mystery is nice.

Throwback Thursday : Ruud Brink & Astrud Gilberto

I know it is a Wednesday but I am posting a #TBT today regardless.

Here is a little bossa nova for you from 1962. Part samba, part Jazz, this Brazilian genre of music is perfect for a cool fall morning.

New Album Alert : Night Viper

This Swedish Metal band Night Viper has it all. Bad ass ladies, classic Sabbath rocker hair, glorious moustaches, and a band photo that includes a black cat.

Imagine the belty power of Beth Ditto (The Gossip) fronting Judas Priest. Yes please!




You can stream "The Hammer" from the upcoming record here.

Christine Sun Kim : Sound Artist

What does sound mean to 34 year old Korean-American woman who can't hear them? Let her art show you.

“For me, sound had always been an idea—an intangible space that separated me from others—so I was curious about how art could transcend sound and vice versa.”

This interview (see below) has single handedly changed the way I think about music and sound. Like she discusses in this interview, my initial takeaway was that while I know sound can be projected in a wide spectrum of ways and volumes, this is still a limited understanding. There is a huge difference between sound and listening. I love her detailed exploration of this territory. Sound waves can also be felt and seen which is part of why seeing music (sounds) performed live is so stimulating to the senses. It isn't just something you are listening to, you are also feeling it, interacting with it, and seeing it move matter which takes the form of a band and their instruments. It is almost like putting a song under a microscope and seeing its core particles come to life by skittering about. The art Christine creates is much like this to me. Instead of her being in a band in a traditional sense, she uses a variety of objects (and sometimes people) to bring sound to life.

There is also a much needed dose of positivity here. We all fear failure and shy away from risk taking because of it. If you have aspirations to see an idea of yours come to life, there is only one way to do it and that is it actually DO IT. Nobody will do it for you. Nobody will execute the idea the way you would and if it doesn't work out, you always learn from that experience and keep growing as a person. Win / win.

This is another great interview and look / listen at her work. I found this particular quote about sound and people who can hear incredibly moving: "I saw sound as their possession. Now I'm reclaiming sound as my property."

And to further explore the rules of sound in society...

I am convinced that after watching all of the videos of her various work and interviews, I am a better listener now.

Elvie Thomas & Geeshie Wiley

There are few more haunting American mysteries in Blues than that of Elvie Thomas and Geeshie Wiley. These African American women recorded just a small handful of music in 1930 and '31 (78 rpm format) and other than that, very little was ever known about them . . .  until John Sullivan wrote this tremendous interactive New York Time's article last year.

The story is really a coin with two faces. It is one part staggering detective novel and one part fascinating biography and historical account. There are VERY few record collector's of this format of music and genre that would also have any sort of helpful leads in piecing together their collective story. Even more importantly there is a race against the clock to scavenger hunt for people who are family members or knew these women because we are fast approaching a century later. There is almost no one left alive to tell this story from first hand experience.

As it turns out, there are also very few detailed records kept for two poor, black women who may have also been lovers. 

For a person like myself who wasn't terribly educated on either Blues or Gospel music, this quote from the article made me painfully aware that I had some homework to do.

"There was a place for lesbians in the blues world. Ma Rainey, Alberta Hunter, Gladys Bentley, Ethel Waters, many others — you can’t tell the story of the early blues without the lesbians. And according to the music historian and gospel producer Anthony Heilbut, whose “The Fan Who Knew Too Much” gets into these questions, there was a place for lesbianism in the gospel world as well. I wrote to Heilbut and asked him what he thought about L.V. He knew “Motherless Child Blues” well and said he was confident that any black person listening to it in the late 1920s would have recognized her delivery as “butch.” But would the church have made a place for her? Could you be both?"

This mystery has it all: A child prodigy, female musicians who paved the way for other women and held their own against the best male players of their generation, lesbian history, a scavenger hunt for clues, eerie music, murder, record collectors that border on hoarders, illegal liquor, religion, and an inconspicuous furniture company from Wisconsin.  

 

New(ish) Album Alert : Kagoule - Urth

Not to keep dwelling on music from the other side of the pond but my interest was peaked when a friend from Earache Records had told me they signed a tremendous new band but that it was not the kind of music we had grown to expect from them. Them being a record label that has released music by the likes of Carcass, Entombed, and Morbid Angel. He went on to say that I should have a listen and hear for myself why they had to sign them. I get it, I really do.

Kagoule is not a traditional metal band but they are still very heavy. They ka-chug-a-chug-a-chug with a bounce some of us old geezers might recognize from the '90s indie Mid-West scene with Albini at the helm. It takes a special band to blur genre boundaries of a well established heavy metal label roster and special they are.

Urth, the debut by this Nottingham, England trio reminds me of so many great non-traditional heavy bands that are also chunky and technical. Bands like Poster Children, Smashing Pumpkins, Hum, PJ Harvey (early years), and Failure are at the top that list. For those who enjoy weighty, highly volatile Pop songs, this is the band for you.

2015 Favorite : Desperate Journalist

It has taken me decades to find a band that gives me that same kind of feeling in my chest that I had the first time I heard The Smiths. Desperate Journalist are a 4 piece band from London that features two women and two men and are named after a legendary Peel Session where The Cure sound off about a member of the press who gave them a less than positive review.

I have watched this video for 'Eulogy" ten times already today and I am excited to discover they are as good live as they are on record.

And here are a few other videos by them to enjoy.

  

New Album Alert : Joanna Newsom - Divers

SQUEEEE! You can stream her whole new album Divers right now via NPR. I liken this to reading a choose your own adventure book that has no definitive plot (no two listener take aways will be the same!) and may require a dictionary to understand all the words she uses to spin her delicately orchestrated webs. It is as if Kate Bush and Björk  (who apparently has been a singing coach of sorts to her) has created a chamber Pop opera and given birth to a star whose voice flits like a sprite through a maze of tall grass and mushroom caps houses. If you hate reading but love a good story, this is the gift you have been waiting for. Her vocabulary and use of language is a thing to behold. I am not sure I am smart enough to grasp and unravel all of the thematic layers found on this new record but I feel like a better person for at least trying. Prepare to be awed and English majors, there are a good 100 thesis papers to be found in her body of work.

Not recommended - playing Scrabble against her. I am 100% certain Newsom would win. Apparently Slate agrees. 

Many Many Women

There is site called Many Many Women that documents the women in the avant-garde / experimental music scene. It is the ultimate go-to resource of those interested in listening to, booking, or educating themselves to the ladies of this genre pool. Spoiler alert, there are a way more than you probably thought! 

Here is a quote from the site about what they do:

"The focus of this index is on women in contemporary/post-classic composition, free improvisation and avant jazz, electronic/electroacoustic music, sound art, sound installations, radio art, etc. A few of these artists may also work within relatively mainstream forms (rock, singer-songwriter, folk, dance music), but they are included here because of their other work that is more experimental. I’ve also included some classical composers who lived and worked in the early part of the 20th century; while their music may be more conventional by current standards, they deserve recognition as pioneers in their own right. "

Back to the Future Tribute : Blake Babies are Back (Sort of)

One of my favorite bands the Blake Babies. They were a trio from Boston that made music from 1986 to 1993 with a brief reunion stint in the late '90s / early 2000s that I somehow totally missed.

A pseudo-interesting side note to the band is that Evan Dando of The Lemonheads fame was an early band member but the remaining three members : Juliana Hatfield, John Strohm, and Freda Love have more than enough talent to make up for his exit. Their songwriting style is complicated, highly melodic Pop. According to this new interview with the band, their long out of print catalog will be reissued next year (YAY!) and drummer Freda has a brand new memoir out called Red Velvet Underground.

If you are like me and didn't catch the Blake Babies live, you can download for free a radio performance from 1989 here in exchange for your email address.

As you might have guessed, the band members have been in various other projects that include : Antenna, Some Girls (not to be confused with the San Diego band with the same name), Velo-Deluxe, Strohm drummed in The Lemonheads for a stint and Julianna played with them as well for a bit too, The Juliana Hatfield Three (I bet you can guess whose band that was), and Minor Alps.

New Album Alert: Petal - Shame

When a member of Rainer Maria recommends a band to check out, I gladly oblige. Petal as it turns out sounds very much like Rainer Maria and that is A-OK by me. Their new album entitled Shame comes out on Run for Cover Records on 10/23 but you can pre-order it now. You can also stream the whole record here, right now.

Yé-Yé Girls and X-Girl

Once upon a time Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth, Free Kitten, Body/Head) and Daisy Von Furth started a clothing line called X-Girl that was a ying of sorts to X-Large's yang (one of the original X-Large owners was Mike D of the Beastie Boys).

Their small store opened in the early '90s on Lafayette Street in New York City's SoHo neighborhood and across the street from X-Large. One of the highlights to the X-Girl brand was that artist Mike Mills created much if not all of X-Girl's iconic graphics and shirt designs. Limited posters of his gorgeous brand work were also available for purchase and I think of anything I regret not purchasing back in the day, it is these pieces of art.

The general look of the X-Girl clothing line was androgynous and simple. The idea was to produce timeless classics that featured clean lines and were form fitting compared to that time period's grungy counterpart. To be as accurate as possible, it was practically the Mac store of '90s fashion. The business was short lived as the shop closed at the end of the '90s and then the line was sold to Japanese company that still produced it to this day.

I would be lying if I said X-Girl clothes fit anyone above a size 10 but that is a different story all together. This believe it or not brings us to the subject of French Pop musiccalled yé-yé sung by girls and young women in the 1960s.

This genre of music was said to be inspired by The Beatles and their hooky line "She loves me YEAH YEAH YEAH". The fashion sense of these yé-yé girls (tasteful Euro-mod) were also said to be an influence on the X-Girl fashion line and often playing on the small TV inside the store was a video compilation of these original yé-yé  music videos. I had several friends that worked there, including my then boyfriend. As they were closing up the shop some nights, I would sit on the bench waiting and watching these campy and totally intoxicating videos. This was my introduction to French Pop and I have collected it obsessively ever since.

It should be noted that this genre of music spread like wildfire all over the world so there a are ton of groovy girl records from the '60s to check out from many other countries too.

Here are the kind of videos that were on the X-Girl VHS collection:

Read more about X-Girl here.