Feminist Friday : A Weekly Round Up for July 1, 2016

Gonerfest, one of my favorite American music festivals ever has announced this year's line up. It includes Fred & Toodey (Dead Moon fans take note), Nots (new album coming this fall), Counter Intuits, Midnight Snaxxx, Spray Paint, Useless Eaters, Reigning Sound (original line up, and the usual influx of ridiculously great bands from Australia / NZ, and lots of other stuff too. Full list is here.

My favorite read of the week is all about how women in independent music shaped indie rock because of their lyrics.

Missed CBGBs and NYC in its prime ('70s)? There is a new photo book called History is Made at Night that will help you relive it through images. This scene hosted many legendary women like Blondie, Lydia Lunch, Blondie, and Patti Smith to name just a few.

Nightwave fights back after critical attacks of her DJ set that have more to with her gender than her actual talent.

Check out this great read on the history of The Bangles.

Is YouTube a friend or foe to music? It is one of the first places people go to stream music (not really) but musicians are always seeing any money from these plays.

We are working ourselves to death ladies. Here is what you need to know about putting in long hours each week.

Apple has developed a new technology that will prevent music fans from being able to film and photograph live music performances.

Backyard report: NPR has written about Miramar who are updating the traditional sounds of Puerto Rica. Our local Girls Rock! founders were also interviewed on WTVR.

I know many of you here are Julie Ruin fans. You can stream their new album here plus the band is touring and probably coming to a city near you.

What's wrong with Top 40? There is a lot if you include how terribly stagnant and rehashed most of the songwriting is BUT there is a less surprising and no less annoying reality, men rule the charts. You might be thinking how could this be when women like Taylor Swift and Beyonce are always in the press but while we are pounded with the gossip of the men they sleep with or what they are wearing, it is distracting people away from the fact that most of music's charting artists are still men.

Jenn Wasner is tired of being a novelty. Women can play guitars and we are often pretty damn great at it. Can we dropped being surprised by this already?

Negative Gemini has a song dedicated to catcaller - Don't Worry Bout the Fuck I'm Doing"

Chris Brown continues to be human garbage and his publicist smarty refuses to accept his name calling.

And to end on a lighter note.

The chain of events went like this. The kick ass compilation Typical Girls includes a cover of the very strange but contagious '50s hit "Dumb Head originally by Ginny Arnell. I broke out the original single from my record collection and have been playing it a bit this week. This led to YouTube search of the song which uncovered this gem. WARNING, this song is an earworm so expect to be singing it for the rest of the day. Sorry/not sorry.

Here is the band Primetime covering the song in their own special, primal way.

This Joe Meek version rules! 

And the original. 

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.