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No Man's Band
{A curation of the history of women in rock music leading us up to the place they continue to make for themselves, today.}
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Honorable Mentions
As our exploration of strictly female artists, collectives, bands, and organizations comes to a close, I feel it necessary to mention a few groups that are simply led by incredible women. This was harder to narrow down to those that I see as more unknown, as really a lot of groups are composed of a female lead followed by male instrumentalists. The first that came to mind was Paramore, and many bands that exist within the same genre, but in terms of more out-of-the-box sounds, here are our finalists.
Shannon Shaw of Shannon and the Clams recently released her own solo album after nearly 9 years (so far) of leading ‘the clams’ to stardom.
A reviewer at Still in Rock stated that their "shows are among the best in the world, with an inexhaustible spirit and a musical style with no equivalent. Its influence on the independent scene is one of the greatest, together with Ty Segall and very few others."
This year has been a good one for Shannon and the Clams; aside from Shannon’s solo release of “Shannon in Nashville”, her and the clams brought us, in my opinion, one of their best albums so far, “Onion”.
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With an eccentric sound ahead of their time, (or maybe behind?) I wanted to show that they match themselves with eccentric visuals as well, with their video for “The Boy”, a track off of “Onion”.
Tina Halladay of Sheer Mag carries the team as a powerhouse vocalist. With a sound reminiscent of the ‘70′s, Sheer Mag makes us feel an intense Joan Jett-flavored, yet super groovy, mood.
“In January 2015, Rolling Stone featured the band as one of "10 New Artists You Need To Know", describing them as "a gang of punks with a not-so-secret love of Seventies classic rock."”
A year later, Sheer Mag appeared on the 2016 Coachella lineup and performed on Late Night with Seth Meyers.
Sheer Mag is definitely a group to be on the watch for, and I heavily encourage personal exploration. Along with Shannon and the Clams, these talented humans are the greatest thing I’ve found in 2018 so far.
Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast is one of my favorite voices, surviving in one of my favorite genres, and was introduced to me a few years ago by one of my favorite bands.
Having a love for 1950′s and ‘60′s surf rock and girl groups, Cosentino’s vibes definitely fit the dream-like Sky Ferreira feels, and it’s evident she loosely draws inspiration from the Beach Boys as well.
“She began writing music at age 15, inspired by Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, as well Weezer and Blink-182. Cosentino began uploading her music to MySpace under the name "Bethany Sharayah". She was approached and offered record deals from major labels in her teens, but resisted as they desired to mold her into a "pop princess" type.”
Adhering to our overarching theme of female-empowerment, Cosentino advocates for women’s rights like it’s her job.
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Claire L. Evans, half of YACHT, shared a “mystical experience” with her collaborator, Jona Bechtolt, leading to the creation of the band in 2008.
“Bechtolt chose the name YACHT in reference to Y.A.C.H.T., an alternative school in Portland, Oregon. Bechtolt told Spin, "It stands for Young Americans Challenging High Technology. It refers to an education program that was held in Portland, Oregon. I was enrolled when I was 16, back in 1996.””
YACHT has an extremely different sound to them, and their attitudes and personalities are rather bold as well.
“On May 9, 2016 it was reported a sex tape with Claire Evans and Jona Bechtolt was leaked and the romantically involved couple responded by admitting to making the tape then saying they are taking some control over distribution by selling it for $5 on their website. It was later revealed that the leak of the sex tape was a hoax designed to promote the band.[24] The duo admitted to the hoax and released a video inspired by combining a sex tape with The X-Files.[25] The stunt was criticized by many media outlets.”
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The duo are wildly creative, thriving on individuality and uniqueness, and they aren’t stopping anytime soon.
Clementine Creevy of Cherry Glazerr wraps up this week and demonstrates fierce feminism and badass attitudes towards the music scene.
Creevy began playing guitar at only 11 years old, and eventually went on to make her own lo-fi tracks in 2012. A year later, Cherry Glazerr was born.
After a few stage names, experimental groups, and member-changes in Cherry Glazerr’s instrumental lineup, the hardly 21-year-old musician takes the scene by storm with a headstrong attitude.
““I wanted this. I made a choice to do it,” singer-songwriter says of her musical ambitions. “And it’s fucking awesome””
#female leads#Shannon Shaw#Shannon and the clams#Tina Halladay#Sheer Mag#Bethany Cosentino#Best Coast#Claire L. Evans#yacht#Clementine Creevy#Cherry Glazerr
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Active Musical Feminism
We’ve gone through the OG women in rock, built our way up to more recent, and arguably obscure, talents, and discussed the women behind-the-scenes. Now, I feel like it’s crucial to bring to surface more Riot Grrrl-esque feels by introducing a few women who are making important steps to play active roles in the industry.
Shira Yevin, lead singer of Shiragirl, kicks off this week’s discussion in a major way.
Many years ago, in 2003, Shira worked for the Truth Campaign, which toured with Vans Warped Tour every summer. She realized something that those creating the lineup clearly missed-there was an extreme lack of female acts.
“The following summer, the singer told Kevin Lyman, founder of the tour, that the festival needed a women-centric stage. While Lyman supported the idea, he told Shira it would have to wait—so Shira took matters into her own hands. Harnessing the DIY attitude of punk, she crashed the tour by rolling up in a pink RV, creating her own stage, and performing there with Shiragirl. A large, excited crowd quickly formed, and the positive response from festival goers resulted in Lyman asking Shira to host an official Shiragirl Stage the next summer.”
Over the next decade, the Shiragirl stage had been graced with over 200 female-fronted and all female groups, including Joan Jett and Paramore.
Perra Vida, directly translating to “Bitch Life”, comes to us from Lima, Peru, and proves to us that Peruvian punk is not dead.
Perra Vida’s entire mission is to fight corruption in Peru with “hardcore feminist punk”.
"The incredibly high number of femicides, rapes, and sexual exploitation—in conjunction with many other horrible things, it makes you want to collapse and cry. But it can also motivate you to actually do something."
According to the members, it’s the spirit of protest that keeps their music alive.
"There isn’t a real female presence in our scene. Any show you go to, 80 percent of the audience is male and the other 20 percent are just girlfriends of band members," says José. "[Perra Vida] started with the idea of doing something different and trying to set ourselves apart from all the others bands. Having a female voice is so necessary in the social context of women in Peru."
It’s amazing to see groups around the world recognizing such prevalent issues, and taking such a badass stance on the side of improvement. I can only hope to see Perra Vida showing their faces in the United States sometime in the future.
Girls Rock! Des Moines keeps pushing feminist and female-forward attitudes by being the second women-led recording studio in the nation.
Planning to officially open in 2019, Girls Rock! is an international nonprofit organization geared towards empowering young women and girls by way of music and sound education.
“The Des Moines studio plans to provide opportunity for middle and high school-aged girls to learn the science behind record production, DJing, sound design and podcasting, organizers said, combating gender imbalance in audio engineering and exposing young adults to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) career opportunities.”
The group also hosts 2 local summer camps available to girls aged 10-16. With the purpose of further empowerment, attending girls essentially learn how to create their own music, eventually ending in a final showcase.
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Foundation.FM, launched in London, is yet another female-led program to “showcase the underground music scene”.
A radio station started by three women experienced in the radio scene, Foundation.FM recognized the lack of female acts in radio shows, and decided it was time to see more.
“Usually there's only one seat at the table for a female DJ, whereas at Foundation.FM every seat at the table is open to anyone, whatever their gender or sexual orientation,” Bennett said in an interview with Time Out, adding that “radio is still a very male-dominated place.”
While their mission is to be female-centric, however, Foundation.FM is not exclusionary to men by any means.
The Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, based in southern California, provides us with a study that proves why the women mentioned above are so crucial today and forever.
In a report from earlier in the year, research showing the lack of diversity in Hollywood, done by the AII, shows harrowing statistics surrounding the “major lack of representation by women in the music industry”.
Dr. Stacy L. Smith, founder/director of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, followed up on these stats in an interview with Billboard:
“For me, these three findings really punctuate that there is a lot of work to be done, not only on the artistic side but in regards to who is getting access to content creation as songwriters and producers of content.”
Not only do we just observe that women mis/under-represented in the music scene in general, but now we’re faced with actual statistical evidence. This is why this matters. This is why women matter. This is why we need these organizations, groups, and constant female-empowerment.
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Female Producers
As our discussion of solely female artists and groups slowly dwindles to an end, I feel it’s important to acknowledge the women that do the behind-the-scenes work to bring music to the surface.
DOT brought us to the end of last week’s discussion on solo female artists, Picking up where we left off I want to focus, this week, on her production of music.
Dot began producing not too long ago, in 2014, with the creation of her own record label. Giving women a stronger voice in the music scene, Unspeakable Records, based in Los Angeles, is an “independent label for female creators”.
With over 15 artists under their belt, Unspeakable Records also supports a handful of artist development programs.
“Our mission is to give women a voice in music. We provide our artists with a platform to share their work and a supportive community to grow within. Through music releases, events, and education opportunities, we are redefining what it means to be a record label in a new era of creative industries.”
Unspeakable Records is bringing a whole new wave to the feminist music and art revolution.
Shura comes to us from England and was born to very creative parents. With her mom being an actress and dad being a filmmaker, she was inspired to start playing the guitar at the age of 13, and began recording at 16.
“While reading English Literature at University College London, she formed a band with guitarist Patrick Duncombe and collaborated with producer Hiatus (Cyrus Shahrad). Shura took a gap year after her university studies and developed her songwriting skills while working in the Amazon rainforest.”
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Shura eventually decided to take over the production of not only her own music, but the recording, directing, and producing of her own videos; like the video for her single “Touch”, above.
Imogen Heap, a personal favorite since I was young, also comes to us from England.
With a sample of her song “Hide and Seek” in a 2010 song by Jason Derulo and a recent Ariana Grande cover of her song “Goodnight and Go”, I can only hope she makes a public comeback.
Below is a mashup of Grande and Heap’s versions mashed up:
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Heap’s music has appeared in multiple films as well, including a cover of “Holding Out for a Hero” on the Shrek 2 soundtrack.
Catherine Marks aside from being a record producer, is credited with being classically trained in piano from the age of just four years old, as well as being a mixing engineer, and an audio engineer.
Being a successful producer, she has worked with many popular artists;
".....such as Foals, Manchester Orchestra, The Killers, Local Natives, Wolf Alice, Beware Of Darkness, The Big Moon, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, The Amazons, Arno, Howling Bells, Sunset Sons and Eliza Shaddad.”
With production credits starting in 2012, Marks won the 2016 MPG Awards as Breakthrough Producer of the Year, and another in 2018 as Producer of the Year.
Madame Gandhi is another artist, activist, producer, and has also been known to be a touring drummer for popular artists such as M.I.A. and Kehlani.
Gandhi brings us back to the aggressive feministic attitudes of the Riot Grrrl movement:
“Gandhi's music and activism focuses on female empowerment and Fourth-wave feminism. In 2015, she ran the London Marathon bleeding-freely on her period as a symbolic act to combat global menstrual stigma.”
In 2012, Gandhi produced the live drum accompaniment to M.I.A.’s “Bad Girls”, and in return was asked to join on M.I.A.’s tour.
More recently, in 2017, “Gandhi collaborated with female-identifying producers to release Voices Remixed. That year, she also ran the Vancouver Marathon and was the opening act for Ani DiFranco's Rise Up Tour. She toured internationally including Europe and India, and also spoke at Airbnb, Pandora Radio, Spotify, the United Nations and on college campuses.”
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Solo Female Rock Artists
With much of our previous discussions focusing on all-female groups, whether they be power trios, quartets, or an art collective, it’s important to acknowledge some of the women who are out here making a name for themselves, by themselves. While these women can’t be confined to one simple sub-genre of rock, they bring forth an independent sense of female-empowerment and individuality.
Sky Ferreira, like a handful of other previously discussed women in this blog, comes to us from Los Angeles, California.
Since she was 18, Sky has been throwing us synth-pop/indie-rock vibes to dance, cry, or party to, and she isn’t stopping any time soon. Or at least, I hope not.
Reflecting back on last week’s discussion mentioning lost-in-my-bedroom vibes, Sky is the mother of this reference, bringing us the exact statement in a song title.
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“Ferreira's earlier work incorporated elements of dance-pop, while her recent projects experiment with acoustic, new wave and primarily indie rockmusical styles. Her lyrical content originally incorporated themes of rebellion and teenage romance, and has since evolved to discuss personal insecurities and more mature romantic themes.”
So really, growing up with Sky Ferreira for the last 8 years was like having an older sister I never knew I needed.
Mitski (Miyawaki) comes to us from the other side of the states, in New York City, though born in Japan to an American father and Japanese mother.
“Because of her father's job, which she prefers to not disclose, she and her family moved frequently, living in thirteen countries, including Turkey, China, Malaysia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, before eventually settling in New York City. After enrolling at Hunter College to study film, she decided to pursue music instead and transferred to Purchase College's Conservatory of Music, where she studied studio compositions.”
Mitski is a very fresh face in not only the rock scene, but the music scene in general, and she seems to be winning over the hearts of people everywhere.
With her debut album released in 2012, and her most recent released just this summer, we can expect to be hearing a lot more chilled out indie vibes from Mitski in the future.
Bishop Briggs embodies the badass hidden, or not so hidden, in all of us.
Born in Scotland, her name derives from the exact city she originates from, Bishopbriggs. Creative? Not so much. Dedicated to her hometown? Apparently. Like I said; badass. We love remembering where we came from.
Despite her across-the-pond roots, she’s said to be from Los Angeles, California, newfound home of the strong-willed women with musical talent.
Briggs is most known for her song “River” and makes a very prominent place for herself in popular musical settings;
“Bishop Briggs opened on the main stage at the 2017 Panorama Festival in New York City and played Coachella 2017. Briggs contributed to the soundtrack of xXx: Return of Xander Cage with her song "Mercy". She featured in Cold War Kids' song "So Tied Up", released in March 2017.”
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Kate Nash is yet another name that may be seen more due to her recent role in GLOW, but should primarily be credited for her unique indie/alt rock sound.
Maybe the source of my bitterness towards her lack of American recognition is due to the fact that she was born in London, but Kate Nash has been a staple in my life since my emotions were born.
“Her debut album, Made of Bricks, peaked at #1 in the UK and #36 in the US. Nash subsequently won the award for Best British Female Artist at the 2008 Brit Awards.”
With confident and sophisticated, yet angsty, lyrics, Kate Nash takes listeners through an extremely wide spectrum of emotions.
Not only does she possess an insane amount of talent musically and theatrically, Nash has faced criticism related to her music and her openness to sexuality, and still remains an activist and supporter for mental and physical disability, the LGBTQ+ community, and other female music groups in the industry.
DOT is a multi-talented, multi-instrumentalist, with beautiful indie and R&B vocals. Aside from performing, DOT is a successful producer as well, which we’ll get more into in the future.
Born and raised in Olympia, WA, Dot’s upbringing in the Pacific Northwest and background in classical music had a profound impact on her current aesthetics and influences. She moved to Southern California at the age of 17 to study classical music at the Conservatory of Music at Chapman University, which quickly led to her immersion in the LA beat scene and signing to Alpha Pup Records.
Similar to the synth-pop feel of Sky Ferreira, Dot brings a fusion of electronic and indie-rock with smooth vocals and a new sound to a traditional focus.
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Surf Rock
The discussion of punk continues to extend, and the offshoots are noticeably dialed back, yet still providing us with strong guitar sounds and powerful lyrics. While it can be difficult to decipher between the subcategories under whatever ‘punk’ means to you, the greatest difference between indie and surf lies in the dreamscape-y vocals and wavier, if you will, undertones.
Skinny Girl Diet, with evident punk roots and influences in the riot grrrl movement, began in 2010 originally as a trio, which dwindled down to a simple duo in 2017.
These highly feministic influences can be seen right off the bat in the band’s name, which is meant to be a sort of “critique of the dieting industry”.
The girls inevitably hold strong female-empowerment viewpoints similar to their riot grrrl sisters, yet still bring us smooth vocals that have a tendency to stray from typical lo-fi surf rock.
“They have been vocal about addressing the lack of female musicians that still exists in today's music industry, as well as other issues of equality under a contemporary feminist context.”
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While they have these aggressive background influences, messages, and a punky aura in the music itself, they still manage to bring the smoother, funkier, surf-rock vocals in to balance out the groove.
L.A. WITCH paints us the exact dreamscape picture I’m aiming for when explaining surf rock. Not only do they provide an accurate depiction of surf-vibes, but they come to us as yet another female trio; an apparently prevalent trend in this scene.
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“Album opener “Kill My Baby Tonight” is the perfect introduction to the band’s marriage of ‘60s girls-in-the-garage charm and David Lynch’s surreal exposés of Southern California’s underbelly. Sade Sanchez’s black velvet vocals disguise the malicious intent of this murder ballad, with the thumping pulse of bassist Irita Pai, the slow-burn build of drummer Ellie English, and Sanchez’s desert guitar twang helping beguile the listener into becoming a willing accomplice to the narrator’s crimes.”
Hailing from Los Angeles, and presenting themselves in 2011, the women have killer vocals, yet don’t actually participate in any witchcraft, contrary to their title; yet their ability to conjure a specific time and place through their sound does suggest a kind of magic.
La Luz is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California, like L.A. Witch, and was founded in 2012. Deviating from the trio-trend, La Luz comes to us in fours with Shana Cleveland, Marian Li Pino, Alice Sandahl, and Lena Simon.
“La Luz is known for their "surf noir" style with layered vocal harmonies. Their energetic live shows often include Soul Train-inspired dance contests and crowd surfing.”
With vocals that almost remind me of a more haunting Shannon Shaw, of Shannon and the Clams, La Luz is the mellow, lost-in-my-bedroom, garage band quartet we never knew we needed.
Ex Hex brings us more fast-paced tempos, yet mellow vocals, to pump up the surf party, starting in 2013.
Inspired by previously discussed glam rock and punk, Ex Hex, born in Washington, DC, throws us yet another power trio, whose name has appeared on a Coachella lineup in recent years, as well as playing in the Panorama music festival over this last summer in New York City.
“The group played a handful of shows and a couple of months later, in the spring of 2014, headed into the studio. Working furiously, they recorded over the span of two weeks in North Carolina with Mitch Easter (Let’s Active) and in the basement of Mary’s home with frequent collaborator Jonah Takagi. Bobby Harlow (The Go, Conspiracy of Owls) was tapped to mix because of his unique take on making rock records.
What results is Ex Hex Rips, twelve songs about underdogs, guys stealing your wallet, schoolyard brawls, and getting bent. The record happens pretty quickly, so don’t blink.”
“Drums, bass, guitar, P90s, searing leads—this is unapologetic rock ’n’ roll spat out in the discipline’s mother tongue.”
The Surfrajettes found me today, upon my further digging into female groups that we may not be familiar with. Deviating from our expected trios, The Surfrajettes are a ‘60′s-esque quartet that actually don’t use any lyrics in their songs at all.
An all-instrumental all-female group that sounds like summer? Absolutely. Bring it on. And they do.
The girls, hailing from Toronto, Ontario, fit an extremely Austin Powers vibe, and their style is cohesive.
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I’ve never hung looser than I did when this video introduced itself to me. A cover of a classic Britney Spears song, the strictly instrumental version brings to the surface a completely new sound, especially for 2017. Amazing.
#Surf rock#surf punk#all female bands#feminism#Skinny Girl Diet#LA Witch#La Luz#Ex Hex#The Surfrajettes
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Indie Rock
To dial back the aggressive politically charged pussy talk, we’re taking a slight regression in sounds to the present world of women in indie music. The bands we’re focusing on this week, while being a bit less wild, still hold ties to the women in punk, and still carry the same female-empowering undertones as their vivid sisters.
Chastity Belt, for starters, was actually Julia Shapiro’s baby before Childbirth, who we talked about last week. While Childbirth’s messages are arguably blunt, loud, and in-your-face, Chastity Belt laid a very smooth foundation while still providing a humorous approach on “feminine stereotypes and customs in their lyrics, challenging gender norms and femininity as a construct.”
Consisting of three other women aside from lead woman Shapiro, the band was born in 2010 in Washington, similar to Childbirth and the Riot Grrrl movement.
Cayetana emerged on the other side of the country in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania after two of the members met in a New York college before moving back to PA where they met the final addition to their triad.
Many of these all female bands tend to be trios, as good things come in threes.
With song titles like “Hot Dad Calendar”, and influences being “bad jokes and good hair”, these self-proclaimed “boisterous Philadelphians” bring us soft, yet strong, vocals, and well, good hair.
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Honeyblood takes us across the pond to Glasgow, Scotland, forming in 2012. A simple duo these days, Honeyblood brings more soft-spoken, yet strong voices, meaningful lyrics, and powerful emotion.
The name comes from a Halloween concert that Tweeddale played. She states:
"Honeyblood is actually a mixture of water, honey, cornflour and red food dye." She continues: "It comes from a lazy Hallowe’en costume I once made for a gig. I swirled it round in my mouth on-stage. And then I spat it over the audience.”
With messages revolving around everlasting feminism and the idea that “babes never die”, these women come to us with more great hair and more inevitable empowerment that so-entrances the female rock scene.
“Thought I'd go up in flames, is that alright?
Strike the match that set me alight
You can watch my fire burn bright 'cause
Babes never die, babes never die
Keep the bait for another hook-line
I'm not gonna be caught this time
When I go I'll be the one who decides 'cause
Babes never die, babes never die”
Camp Cope comes to us from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, out of Poison City Records in 2015.
Their eponymous debut album, released in April 2016, reached the top 40 in the ARIA Albums Chart, and was nominated for a J Award for Australian Album of the Year. They were also nominated in six categories at the inaugural National Live Music Awards and won the 'Heatseeker Award'. Website Faster Louder choose Camp Cope's self-titled debut album as their Album of the Year for 2016. The group also won Best Emerging Act at the 2016 The Age Music Victoria Awards.
They’ve been described as "part Courtney Barnett, part Juliana Hatfield", and "melodic, uplifting and aching".
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The raw vocals and lyrics only further exemplify how badass women really are.
Dream Wife keeps us on the same international road we’re apparently traveling down this week, hailing from the United Kingdom as another dynamic trio formed in 2016 at an art school in Brighton.
Their debut self-titled album was released earlier this year in January, and introduces us to hardcore, spooky sounds, resonating more with the punk side of rock, while the vocals bring the smooth indie we know and love so dearly.
The girls also bring us more straight-forward self-empowering titles like “Let’s Make Out”, “Spend The Night”, and “Hey Heartbreaker”.
“I know I'm young
And I know you're old
I know I'm old
And I know you're young
But we have so many stories untold
And the way you move
And the way you tilt your head
And all I want is to
Crawl back in with you”
Looking at the lyrics to “Hey Heartbreaker”, we listen to a story of a woman on an adventure with a man she knows isn’t good for her, but they’re having fun. A tale so many women can unfortunately relate to, but with the carefree tone of Dream Wife can sort of embrace.
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Present-day Punk
Thanks to Sleater-Kinney and the Riot Grrrl movement, women continued to take charge in a predominantly male society. Those that set the stage in the Riot Grrrl movement/era became inspirations and Queens of the punk age, and few were considered to have created the best bands of all time.
Sleater-Kinney, while previously described as one of the most essential rock groups of the early 2000s, Rob Sheffield, a writer for Rolling Stone, dares to say the ladies are the “best American punk rock band ever. EVER.”
“They stayed true to the Pacific Northwest riot grrrl ideals that inspired them, but they didn’t waste time critiquing the mainstream–instead, they seized their own independent vision of freedom, acted it out, lived it out, gave that vision a sound. That’s why they never sounded like anybody else, and that’s why their music remained intensely moving while other bands ran out of gas.”
The article was written in 2006, the year the band went on their much-too-long hiatus, but still holds true by way of their influences, and the way they continue to influence the scene they took over. Sheffield goes on to list 10 songs (above) that explain why exactly S-K is the greatest punk group of all time, while bidding the girls a sweet farewell as the universe was unaware that they’d be back for more.
Pussy Riot brings us intense messages of feminism, sexuality, and politics surrounding the two with passionate ties to the Riot Grrrl movement.
Based in Moscow, Russia, and born in 2011, Pussy Riot is a punk collective of around 11 women. However, since the Riot Grrrl movement was purely based in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, Russia didn’t get the chance to really participate.
The band cited American punk rock band Bikini Kill, performance artist Karen Finley and the riot grrrl movement of the 1990s as inspirations. They stated:
“What we have in common is impudence, politically loaded lyrics, the importance of feminist discourse and a non-standard female image. The difference is that Bikini Kill performed at specific music venues, while we hold unsanctioned concerts. On the whole, Riot Grrrl was closely linked to Western cultural institutions, whose equivalents don't exist in Russia.”
The girls in Pussy Riot still stepped completely out of bounds and made a name for themselves globally in 2012 through political feminist rebellion;
“....when five members of the group staged a performance inside Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior on February 21, 2012. The group's actions were condemned as sacrilegious by the Orthodox clergy and eventually stopped by church security officials. The women said their protest was directed at the Orthodox Church leaders' support for Putin during his election campaign.”
Pussy Riot speaks to European crowds and American crowds alike, as they released a song prior to Trump’s election titled “Make America Great Again”, which received an immense amount of predictable backlash, and Russia’s own citizens declaring disgust and shame towards the group.
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Still, the negative feedback doesn’t stop the messages from getting through. In this video, one of the lead members states,
“I don’t think feminism is radical enough in America, so that’s why Trump won. If you don’t want Trump to win in 2020, then feminism has to be more radical than now.”
Childbirth, another all-female alternative/punk trio, elaborates further on female sexuality and the power women hold on themselves, their own lives, and their own bodies.
Beginning in Seattle, Washington in 2013, the group is a result of a collaboration between three women that pulled themselves from other bands.
With songs revolving around female-empowerment and feminist borderline-satire, the band performs dressed in maternity gowns. This ‘birth’ of a new sound was introduced in their debut album, “It’s A Girl”, which provided us with songs like “I Only Fucked You as a Joke” and “Menopause”.
Two years later in 2015, the band released their second album, “Women’s Rights” which includes titles like “Siri, Open Tinder”, “More Fertile Than You”, and the following “Let’s Be Bad”.
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This video illustrates a perfect example of what Childbirth’s image and message is really about. We’re introduced to a woman doing chores at home, with her “bad” alter-egos pushing her to be “bad”. Sort of a stereotype of what women are “supposed” to be, paired with a tasteful mockery of what women “shouldn’t” do;
“Let's indulge ourselves tonight
I'll order a couple of white wines
Let's be bad, we deserve it
Let's wear skirts that barely fit“
Childbirth brings cold hard truths to the forefront with shameless lyrics, aimed to take a spot in your brain.
The Coathangers come to us with more aggressive female sexual power, with their name directly referring to self-induced abortions. Their title was specifically chosen to make people feel squirmy right off the bat with “irreverent vulgarity”.
Forming in 2006 around the same time as the Sleater-Kinney hiatus, another female trio hit the punk scene hard with more assertive messages proven in song titles such as “Don’t Touch My Shit”, “Nestle In My Boobies”, and simply “Shut the Fuck Up”.
The Coathangers belong to the same record label as Childbirth, Suicide Squeeze Records, which makes some sense when comparing the two groups’ messages and what they want the people to hear.
The label helped the girls release their first live album, “Live”, in June of this year, and adapted to the core of rock music with only 1500 copies released on cassettes and tri-colored vinyls.
Sharkmuffin, adhering more to the aggressive messages of the female punk world, and another trio, released three EPs right away in 2013.
The sound that comes with Sharkmuffin takes us back to ‘90′s grunge bands mixed with the glam rock style we’ve previously gone over, though they were created in a Jersey Shore beach house.
"Sharkmuffin are either the most glam garage band around, or the grungiest glam band around." - NPR
Introducing us to more assertive song titles like “Tampons Are for Sluts” and “Mermaid Sex Slave”, the group credits Nirvana and The Ronettes as being their biggest influences.
#Punk rock#Sleater-Kinney#Pussy Riot#Childbirth#The Coathangers#Sharkmuffin#Suicide Squeeze Records#Feminism
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Punk Rock and the “Riot Grrrl” Movement
Around the same time as our 1987 introduction to Babes in Toyland, discussed last week as being the women who brought us the crossover between glam rock and punk, the Riot Grrrl era was loudly and proudly born.
Riot Grrrl
In the early ‘90′s, originating in Washington state and spreading across the pacific northwest, feminist artists and music groups across the globe came together to create a politically charged underground feminist punk movement; the Riot Grrrl movement.
With influencers including Bikini Kill (the most heavily associated band with the movement), Excuse 17, and Huggy Bear, the movement aims to bring awareness to the heavier topics involving women and sexuality.
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These bands often address topics such as rape, domestic abuse, sexuality, racism, patriarchy, and female empowerment. Most of the issues pushing these women towards taking a stand stemmed from the fact that women in the punk scene were treated like, well, shit.
While the movement isn’t strictly confined to musical acts and all-female groups, the creative minds involved work hard to form organizations, meetings, and projects to dismantle the stigma surrounding what it means to be a woman in a punk society.
Bratmobile joined Bikini Kill as one of the first generation Riot Grrrl bands in the early ‘90s. Making their debut in 1991 until ‘94, before a four-year hiatus, Bratmobile began after two of the members had collaborated on a feminist zine (urged to be created by Tobi Vail of Bikini Kill) for the Riot Grrrl movement.
Allison Wolfe, Molly Neuman, and Erin Smith proudly led the movement alongside Bikini Kill and Sleater-Kinney (who we’ll introduce later) and were considered Riot Grrrl’s ‘pottymouths’.
“Known for the brash lyricism of singer Allison Wolfe, the steady beats and sneer of drummer Molly Neuman and the ferocious yet catchy guitar riffs of Erin Smith, Bratmobile combined the power of rock music and the political-literary influence of zines to spread its message of female empowerment from 1991 to 2003.”
The band ultimately considered themselves to be “fake”, as they had only just written songs, and had no instruments to create them. This was until they were fortunate enough for “local musician Robert Christie lending them instruments, at a Valentine's Day gig supporting Bikini Kill”.
Emily’s Sassy Lime, a palindrome, was a group of high-school girls who actually came together after sneaking out of their homes one night to see an apparently inspiring Bikini Kill and Bratmobile show.
Living a fair distance from each other, the song writing process was mostly done over the phone, leaving voicemails of themselves singing hooks and lines and “what do you think?”s.
Two sisters, Amy and Wendy Yao, teamed up with Emily Ryan to create a noise-pop-punk sound best described as “whatever, just play”. This “whatever” attitude was generally due to the fact that the girls didn’t have any instruments of their own, and borrowed other artists’ when it was time to play a show. Since they didn’t have places to practice (high school maaan, parents are a drag) or their own instruments, this made every live show they performed incredibly different and authentic in that they really had no plan, they were just doing the damn thing.
Heavens to Betsy was brought to us around the same time as Bikini Kill and Bratmobile by Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker in 1991, and their uprising is considered to be something of a “punk legend”.
Corin Tucker, a student of Evergreen State College, teamed up with a fellow student and close friend, Tracy Sawyer.
“....it wasn’t until Tucker moved to Olympia to attend college, and she found herself in the midst of a vibrant DIY music scene that included Bikini Kill and Bratmobile, that things were set in motion. “I was able to finally connect with a group of people that were all in bands and they were all playing house shows. It was all happening so I just said, ‘Well, I have a band, too!’”..”
Heavens to Betsy, while being most well-known as the band that created Sleater-Kinney, were included in an all-female lineup, dubbed "Love Rock Revolution Girl Style Now", which ended up to be an event that is “widely considered one of the pivotal events in the inception of the Riot Grrrl movement.”
Sleater-Kinney followed the demise of Heavens to Betsy when Tucker teamed up with the famed Carrie Brownstein of Excuse 17.
The two began to play together after a compilation between bands, and went on to form Sleater-Kinney, with the addition of drummer Janet Weiss (after cycling through many other drummers), to complete an extremely influential trio.
“Critics Greil Marcus and Robert Christgau have each praised Sleater-Kinney as one of the essential rock groups of the early 2000s. Marcus named Sleater-Kinney America's best rock band in 2001. Tom Breihan of Stereogum called them the greatest rock band of the past two decades in 2015.”
Tucker and Brownstein, former lovers, eventually released their first self-titled album after a trip to Australia in ‘94.
Influenced heavily by the Riot Grrrl scene, Sleater-Kinney comes at us with left-leaning views and feminist messages, as was fitting for the movement.
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Though the band did take a lengthy hiatus (9 years; ‘06-’14), they continue to bring us feministic indie-punk sounds today, while Brownstein continues to further her acting career as well.
#Punk rock#Women in punk#women in rock#Riot Grrrl#feminism#female empowerment#Bratmobile#Emilys Sassy Lime#Heavens to Betsy#Sleater-Kinney#Carrie Brownstein#Corin Tucker
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Glam/Hard Rock
Rock as a whole is comprised of multiple sub-genres; the first of which I’ll be diving into being “glam rock”(similarly, hard rock).
To pick up where we left off with the brief discussion of Joan Jett and Suzi Quatro, glam rock introduced itself to us through these women in the early 70′s. Drawing inspiration from the big names in rock and roll like David Bowie and Freddie Mercury, glam rock brought us the glitz and glam that many don’t initially think of when discussing rock music.
Joan Jett (and the Runaways) came to us at the young age of 15 years old. With her crazy hair, bright makeup, and leather jumpsuits, she defined glam rock for women at the time and shouted her name into our musical lexicons.
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“No one had ever heard of women performing such heavy rock, and some critics found their raw talent tough to swallow.”
Not to completely discount the men in glam rock, or rock in general, Joan stated in an interview with Esquire that she had actually “learned to scream from Marc Bolan of [the group] T. Rex”.
Suzi Quatro, another strong presence in early 70s glam rock, was the first female bass player to become a major rock star. Suzi packed a large punch within her 5-foot stature and, like Jett, started her career at a very young age: just 14 years old.
“Suzi's aggressive stage presence and ballsy attitude, wrapped up in such a small package, impressed [Mickie] Most (British producer) enough to offer to take her to Great Britain to sign a contract on his RAK record label”
Suzi made it a point to prove that women can absolutely do as much or more than men and
“.....challenged social norms that “good girls don’t do that” by dressing all in leather, playing bass guitar and singing lead vocals in a hard rock band that produced a string of great hits, all while using sex as a come-on to the music.”
Lita Ford was introduced to us first by Joan Jett, as a former member and lead guitarist of Jett’s band, The Runaways.
Beginning her career as an artist when she started learning guitar at 11 years old, Lita drew inspiration from Ritchie Blackmore’s Deep Purple. Joining The Runaways at 16, Lita’s guitar skills created an impressive dictation of the band’s sound. This sound could only hold her place for so long, as Jett wanted to take the band in a punk direction. Lita stuck true to her hard/glam rock roots and went on to make a name for herself, and she did just that. Ford eventually married an unfortunately abusive member of Ozzy Osbourne’s band Black Sabbath. Today, she is probably still basking in the glow of her 2016-published memoir, Living Like a Runaway: A Memoir.
The Donnas begin our transcendence into new-age glam rock; beginning in 1993, they draw inspiration from The Runaways, Ramones, AC/DC, and the like.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCvRT2sy5FE
In the video for their most popular song Take It Off, The Donnas sport early 2000s style with an authentic rock sound, proving girls can be girls while stepping out of the box society built for them.
“Rolling Stone has stated that "the Donnas offer a guileless take on adolescent alienation; they traffic in kicks, not catharsis, fun rather than rage”
The band continued to release new music until the 2016 re-release of their fifth album Spend the Night.
Though the album wasn’t composed of fully new tracks, it included 6 bonus tracks which were collected off of the B-side songs of their other albums.
Babes in Toyland brought the crossover from hard rock and glam rock into the punk rock scene.
Closer to home, in Minneapolis, Babes in Toyland introduced themselves in 1987. With Courtney Love as a famed member, the band released close to 15 albums until bringing us up to 2016 with the release of their album Redeux following many member changes and failed attempts to reunite the original band.
#Babes in Toyland#Joan Jett#The Runaways#Suzi Quatro#Glam rock#Lita Ford#The Donnas#Hard rock#Punk rock#Women in rock
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In the beginning...
When we think of rock and roll, and especially classic rock, our minds typically gravitate towards the men that made their names in the early rock scene. The classic bands that paved the way for those pursuing a career in music. Most of which were introduced to us by our parents; people born around the 60s and 70s, growing up in the rock age. We think about Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, and groups of the like. We tend to completely dismiss the women in rock that created a platform for women in music to create names for themselves in such a male-dominated scene. This dismissal isn’t necessarily intentional, but more likely due to the lack of focus on or introduction to female groups.
To provide a background for the women that initially created a female-based presence in the rock scene, I’ve accumulated a few names that put their strongest foot forward in paving the way, beginning in 1962, with Goldie and the Gingerbreads.
Goldie and the Gingerbreads consisted of four women: Genya “Goldie” Zelkowitz, Ginger Bianco, Margo Lewis, and Carol MacDonald. These women formed the very first all female rock band to be signed to a major record label. This was an incredible feat, as most female rock bands before and around them struggled to break through a male-dominated domain.
Though Goldie and the Gingerbreads came to an ultimate dismantle by 1967, and never releasing a full album, they are still considered to be
“...pioneers in the real meaning of the word. The band were the first all female band to be signed to a major label, paving the way for groups like The Runaways, the Go-Gos, Sleater-Kinney and many more, giving them a chance to take the stage and do their thing.”
Within the same year of the Goldie divorce (1967) America was thankfully introduced to the Ace of Cups.
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The Ace of Cups are a group of women who ultimately formed a bond in 1967 and went on to open for Jimi Hendrix, and were close comrades with the Grateful Dead.
Though these women had released many singles, they were never fully welcomed with the opportunity to release a full album-It’s Bad For You But Buy It-until 2003 (you can find the album on Spotify these days).
The perseverance that Ace of Cups upheld throughout the years of fronting for men in the industry is what is truly inspiring and continues to provide a backbone for women today.
Three years after the birth of Ace of Cups, June and Jean Millington share their music with us under another all female group called Fanny; a tribute and simultaneous mockery of feminine representation.
“As a girl, you couldn’t tell anyone ‘I’m in a band,’” June Millington recalled. “You might as well say ‘I’m flying to the moon.’ It just wasn’t in the realm of experience. We had to create our own frame – and then step into it.”
This attitude is what served the Millington sisters their rightfully earned titles as “the godmothers of chick rock”, taking into consideration that Fanny came out of the woodworks to become the first all female rock band signed to a major label to release an album.
One of Fanny’s former band members, Patti Quatro, was fortunately another impactful woman in the industry. Patti’s sister Suzi, however, is another behind-the-scenes name that truly helped women make their mark on ‘70′s rock in 1973, by releasing her self-titled album.
Her album reached #32 on the official UK albums chart, as well as eventually cracking the top 40 of the Billboard 200 in 1979.
All of these women and their dedication eventually lead us to the well-known, (my)self-proclaimed, mother of rock and roll as we know it, Joan Jett.
In 1975, Jett bore another one of the first all female rock bands, The Runaways. As well as being one of the first, The Runaways were the most iconic all female band of the era. Jett’s band earned itself a self-titled feature length film in 2010 until leading to Jett’s induction into the rock and roll hall of fame in 2015.
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#all female bands#rock and roll#feminism#joan jett#goldie and the gingerbreads#ace of cups#millington sisters#suzi quatro#music#women#girl power
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