FUCKING DYKE BITCHES

So not too long ago I went to see MEN at the Brooklyn Museum. I am down with MEN's agenda of making queer electropop anthems, of promoting politics through accessible dance music. That was what I needed in Le Tigre in high school, and without this kind of music, this blog wouldn't be here. That said, sometimes you need more confrontation.

Enter FUCKING DYKE BITCHES.



FDB provide a different kind of queer anthem. Think Blatz as a metal band, smacking you upside the face with queerness rather than starting a dance party. Although they're also that. I gave Fucking Dyke Bitches a brief shout-out after they played a show at Manifesta along with Aye Nako, Sandy and the Rats, and Invincible Prismz. It was insanely crowded but still an awesome rowdy time, one of the best shows I've been to this year. FDB did a cover of "Fuk Shit Up" too. Despite the amped up riffs, the Hand Jobs snottiness is definitely still present. Perfect combination of squeak and anger. FUCK YEAH!

Sadly I think this band are no more, at least in their current incarnation. So enjoy this demo.

FUCKING DYKE BITCHES- demo

Burning Kitchen

Wrapping up the supposedly month-long series of international lady-fronted hardcore is Burning Kitchen's 10", Damn You If You Do... Damn You If You Don't. Clearly I'm great at sticking to self-imposed schedules.



Burning Kitchen were a Swedish hardcore band from the mid-1990s through 2000. Think angular Euro hardcore mixed with some of your favorite early US or anarcho lady-fronted punk bands. Topics include punk, immigration, and sexism. Aside from this 10", now out of print, the band put out a three-part 7" series and supposedly now have a discography available.

Burning Kitchen- Damn You If You Do... Damn You If You Don't 10"

P.S. A ton of distro updates here (shameless, I know).

Nog Watt

So I'm failing pretty hard at this whole series idea. Shit happens. There'll be another post after this before May 1. Going back in time, to an early lady-fronted hardcore band, Nog Watt released a sole 7", Fear, in 1985 and contributed to a few compilations.



In addition to the Euro hardcore instrumentation, what strikes me most with Nog Watt is Joanna's howling voice, which sometimes reminds me of early goth bands like 45 Grave. She's aggressive without conforming to stereotypical hardcore tropes. Political topics range from the contemporary to the historical to secret police and paranoia.



For further info on Nog Watt check out Kill From the Heart. Another good resource for early lady-fronted hardcore bands is the compilation series A Reference of Female-Fronted Punk Rock.

Needless to say, this 7" is long gone, but you can get a Nog Watt shirt here.

Nog Watt- Fear EP

Infect

This post will kick off a month-long series of international, lady-fronted hardcore.

I suppose I first got into Infect when 625 put out a discography compilation, I think almost two years ago now. Had been previous into them, enjoyed reading the lyrics/song explanations in English translations when I nabbed their LP from Scot last summer. I was able to pick on some themes due to the similarity of Portuguese and Spanish, but I was certainly pleasantly surprised with a lot of the radical feminist themes-- critiques of systemic oppression, the nuclear family, relationships, and so forth.



This discography compilation is really comprehensive-- including the LP and various splits, comps, demos, etc. Thundering, fast, in-your-face all-girl hardcore, Infect were active from 1998 to 2003.

Infect- Complete Discography 1998-2003
Buy it

Poor Aim: Love Songs

First things first: lots and lots of news. I have been very bad about keeping this updated lately, clearly. The main reason at this point is that the structure of my life has changed drastically. I'm no longer in school and cannot update this thing at work. Aside from work, I've been keeping pretty busy, and I generally don't want to do more computer-ing once I'm home. Here's one thing I've been doing...



New York Abortion Access Fund provides assistance to low-income women seeking abortion. Hopefully you know about all the fucked up shit our government has been doing to hack away at reproductive rights lately, and hopefully you're doing something about it, whether signing a petition, donating to Planned Parenthood, getting involved with some sort of radical health collective, or something else. The Gift are an awesome band from DC featuring Turboslut front-lady Beck. Waxahatchee is Katie's current solo project (from P.S. Eliot and Bad Banana). Dear Marje are playing their second show, and they're just about the cutest band in Brooklyn. If you live here I hope you make it out!

What's been occupying my time more so, is starting a record label--it's called puzzle pieces as well. I'm frighteningly uncreative. The first release, a 7" by Four Eyes is out now. Next up is a 7" by Bad Banana. That one should be ready within the next month. I'm quite excited by this whole endeavor.

This weekend I went to two rad shows-- Friday night was Fucking Dyke Bitches (ex-Hand Jobs), and last night was the release show for the International Girl Gang Underground zine with Slingshot Dakota (who did an acoustic remix of "Until the Day I Die"), Bad Banana, Aye Nako, and a new band called American Sun. If you haven't had the opportunity to check out Aye Nako they are the no-longer-so-new rendition of Fleabag. They are probably my current favorite Brooklyn band, and you can download their demo here.

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And now for a post: For the past however many years, I've had an ebbing and flowing obsession with the Blow. With her electropop songs I think it's easy to get hooked in by the catchy beats, and I certainly have. I think this is only half of Khaela's genius though. She uses pop songs, in some ways more contemporarily pop than other present indie pop bands, to cloak an intelligent critique of popular culture, in a totally queer way. While not overtly queer in physical presentation, she is pretty vocally queer at shows (telling stories about girlfriends and so forth), I think what is so sharp about her performance is in her subtle subversion of pop songs.



The Blow follows the heterosexual paradigm of pop music with songs such as "Hey Boy." She subtly exaggerates the part of the desperate-for-love, over-analytic female, queering it in the process. I've raved to many I know about how I think Khaela is truly fucking intelligent in the hopes to convert them, I could go on and on and on, but I'll cut myself short, in the hopes of getting to bed at a reasonable hour. Seriously also read her blog.

Poor Aim: Love Songs was originally released on Portland's States Rights Records in 2004 before being reissued (accompanied by remixes) by K in 2007 (after the Paper Television craze). As the K website says: "A concept record loosely unified in failings; songs about failed love, and conversely, love songs that fell short - Poor Aim explores love's yearnings, deceptions, addictions, and ultimately, its complacency." It is in this failure that Khaela's critique finds its strength.

The Blow- Poor Aim: Love Songs
Buy it from K Records

Lazy Mary

Lazy Mary kick ass. The label (Mountain Man) says "For fans of Slant 6, the Frumpies, Bikini Kill, the Stooges and Black Sabbath," but I keep thinking of if Heavens to Betsy were a metal band but not really metal. See also other grungy girl punk bands. Lazy Mary are more subdued sometimes and straight-up shrieky at others. I think my favorite track may be the totally chilling "Shiza Minnelli."



As far as I know this is the only release from this Long Beach duo. If anyone knows of a demo or any future releases/recordings, let me know! I'm hoping this band will tour the East Coast at some point in the relatively near future, or that I'll catch them at some point while in the LA area.



Lazy Mary- Crazy Hairy 7"
Get it from Mountain Man