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.