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.