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.

---

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

Suture

First, Jessica Hopper linked to this interview recently, making me revisit an old favorite: "But speaking of lesbianism, tell me about your mom’s favorite song on the new record." Check out this interview Miranda July did with Khaela from the Blow. (From/who is the Blow? I don't know how what is proper to use.)

I keep giving this Mary a shout-out, so I think it's high time another Mary gets one. The East-Coast Mary has revived her blague Cindy Shmerman, which you should check out.

To the point, I was talking about Suture with West-Coast Mary a couple weeks back. As she said, anything with both Kathleen Hanna and Sharon Cheslow is bound to be awesome. Suture features Kathleen's signature roar, but is perhaps more similar to Viva Knievel than Bikini Kill, mixing grunge, post-punk, and general brattiness. I believe they performed at IPU's Girl Night (aka punk rock dream come true).


And we're back to my shitty photobooth pictures...

Suture released a 7" in 1992, a split release between Decomposition and Dischord. My favorite is the more delicate B-side "Pretty Is." They contributed these three songs ("Good Girl," "Falling," and the aforementioned "Pretty Is") to the compilation cassette A Wonderful Treat, which included another one-off Kathleen Hanna project, Wondertwins. I'm going to include all four tracks on A Wonderful Treat in this upload. The 7" is long out of print, so snag it if you can!

Suture- four tracks

The Dixie Cups

In addition to sharing some genes and a love for her sassy personality, my younger sister and I share a penchant for Father of the Bride. This film introduced me to the Dixie Cups #1 hit "Chapel of Love" back in the day. While browsing youtube videos of '60s girl groups back in the spring, I discovered a new love for the Dixie Cups, this time for "I'm Gonna Get You Yet."



Those dance moves, that hair... I only wish the video were in color so that I could get the full effect of the dresses. They released their earlier music on Red Bird Records, which was also home to the Shangri-Las for some time.

The Dixie Cups- Complete Red Bird Recordings

Neonates

I gave this band a little bit of a shout out, and now it's time for a more proper one. Neonates are a new-ish band from the LA area. They pretty much got started when Mary wrote lyrics/recorded a few songs based on some interviews for a global sexualities class. This post is long overdue, and since I finally mailed a mix to Mary yesterday that I had been meaning to send out for a few months, I figure this should make an appearance as well.



Neonates play mid-paced post-punk with plenty of no-wavey/new-wavey yelping, as if it were Max’s Kansas City in 1979, fitting in the league of girl-fronted arty punk bands coming from the West Coast these days-- think a more no-wavey Brilliant Colors, for example. The band’s variation comes from a combo of dual guitars at times and guitar-bass at others along with Mary’s perpetually changing vocal pace. Occasional backed vocals and frequently hi-hat-happy songs = toe-tapping all the time. Perhaps Mary's killer podcasts might also hint at what her band sounds like.

They put out a split CS with Pussy Patrol from France on ClanDestine Records (UK). You can get it here. You should join me in talking them into venturing out to the East Coast for a tour (hint, hint).

Neonates- Demo

Sourpatch

A bit of news to start off this post... My friend Lee who is in Titfit and The Facts We Hate is organizing a mini Brooklyn girl punk fest on Thursday, October 21. Hopefully you can make it!



Picking up where my Bad Banana post left off, I have been crazy about Sourpatch for some time now. They played at Platonic Sleepover House a couple falls ago, but I couldn't go to the show and have been kicking myself ever since!



I have been in love ever since the Sourpatch demo- a dose of delightfully fuzzy pop. Their LP, which came out late last year on Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records, took it in a slightly more art-punky direction while retaining the poppiness that hooked me to begin with, not dissimilar from some of their neighbors (Brilliant Colors for example)... perhaps most akin to a more art-punk Tiger Trap. I've always found in interesting that this band shares a drummer with the grindcore band In Disgust; I think the drums sound pretty rad on this record, coming in nicely at the end of "Never (Ever Ever) Enough" for example. I think recordings of little kids speaking kind of creep me out, so I always skip the first track, but I think "Fun" is my absolute favorite. Topics generally go along with standard indie pop themes of crushes (shocking given the title of the album) and so forth, but the lyrics never sound totally cliche or forced. "Toothache" has some pretty good dueling boy-girl vocals, which I'm always partial to. I would say this is my favorite pop full length of 2010, but I think it actually came out last year.

This one will only be up for a month, as per request from the band.

Get it from HHBTM

Bad Banana

So last Monday morning I woke up around 5:30 or 6 am for no reason. The door to my room is possessed and creaks back and forth, seemingly endlessly. After about a half hour of that, I decided the internet would be a much more productive thing to do. I'm not a fan of all this facebook crap where people invite you to be a fan of their band and what not because I like to be all allusive on the internet (obviously why I write a blog). Anyway, turns out this fateful Monday morning a great great thing happened because Katie invited me to be a fan of her and Allison's new band, Bad Banana. These tracks would be enough to get me super excited and then I glanced to the bottom left corner to see "tour with SOURPATCH east coast, USA." (More on Sourpatch to follow shortly, but hopefully you already know that they rule.)



But seriously, holy shit. For anyone who loves P.S. Eliot, especially their demo, Bad Banana is essential. Perfectly glorious fuzzy pop punk, probably a little bit more on the indie pop side. I've been listening to almost nothing else since Katie sent it to me. Each of them wrote half the songs and then recorded them, and then they were all mashed together into one demo, so you can try to guess which song is by which sister. (I'll put the answers in the comments.)

My new favorite punk show love song is "Stand Next to Me." Cutest fucking lyrics ever: "I don't know the words to this song, I want you to come sing along and put your arm around me/Stand next to me/I see you across the room and I'd like to get to know you/You seem to be in high demand but you're talking to me about your favorite bands-- Descendents & Dinosaur Jr./Maybe I should have spoken up sooner/I'm not looking for a boyfriend, but if I was I would like you to be him." That is what my crush on Bad Banana is like.

Bad Banana- Crushfield
Tape coming soon

Blass

This one goes out to my darling friend Jess, who loves this 7" as much as I do. It's another 7" unearthed from the Record Hospital coffins, the first 7" of two by German indie pop band Blass. I know this record came out in 1990 on Bad Moon Records, but not much else beside that.


You can see a few more reviews on my lovely photobooth picture of the copy in the RH collection.

This is in many ways more of a single than an EP for me as I only ever really listen to "Bad Effect." I love the touch of art punk/indie rock they introduce from the beginning of the song with the bass line along with lazy jangling guitars and perfect pop lines like "because my heart still burns only for you." "Short Time" certainly has some hooks as well, but who really cares when you have a pop song as superb as "Bad Effect"? I know Jess would back me up here.

Blass- s/t 7"

Meat Joy

Well, it has been a while. Good news is that I'm settled in my new home and have quite a few posts stocked up. Credit to Baris for the introduction to this one, and to Phoenix Hairpins for the link.



Here's the sole, hard-to-track-down LP from Houston's Meat Joy. Only 1500 were pressed by Flesh & Blood Records in 1984, each with a different cover. Totally queer, totally weird, stripped down post-punk. My favorite is the ambling pop jam "Another Pair," complete with snapping; some matter-of-fact promiscuity going on here. Meat Joy add some feminist social commentary with "Slenderella" and some criticism of hardcore with "Proud to Be Stupid," which always reminds me of a quote from a Huntington Beach punk in Mark Andersen and Mark Jenkins' Dance of Days: "The geeks, the people with new wave ties… When we see someone at a gig that we don’t like, we fuck them up." I'd been curious to know how this band interacted with a lot of the queer punk bands from Texas who were similarly turned off by the whole muscle head hardcore mentality. (For more on that check out the article on queer punks in Austin in MRR's queercore issue from last October.)

Meat Joy- Self-Titled

Libyans- Paralyzed

Keeping a low profile these days but still one of the best bands in Boston, Libyans continue recording more than most other bands around. This time it's a one-sided, two-song 7" with an etched B-side. I'm not sure if they all look the same (got the record-release edition when they played at Record Hospital Fest), but as always, you can expect great packaging from Libyans. (Mostly I'm thinking of their airplane-equipped 12".)



Anyway, the "A-side" (really just the first song), "Paralyzed" is going to be on the band's upcoming Sorry State 12". Similar to their other 7"s, the A-side is really more of the single, the catchy more Dangerhouse-esque song where the B-side packs a bit of a harder touch. On "Paralyzed" Liz even sounds a touch snottier, at least at the beginning of the song. We've gotten some backing vocals before, but Dan (Libyans' drummer) counters Liz on "Keep Waiting." Normally I'm not a huge fan of bands releasing a single as an album teaser or whatever, but "Keep Waiting" is worth getting this record. In fact, one reviewer called it "the most poignant love song Panella has ever written." (Scroll down all the way on that link. You know it's really saying something if you've ever heard Corner Club.) In all seriousness though, from the bass line starting off the song to the perpetually scratchy guitar riffs, you want to listen to "Keep Waiting."

Libyans are mostly on a break for the summer, but hopefully you can catch the tail end of the Eunuch tour and their new 7" (Liz plays bass in that band) or Foreign Objects (Dan also drums with them).

Libyans- Paralyzed 7"
Buy it from Upstate Commerce or Sorry State

P.S. Eliot- Living in Squalor

So first things first- P.S. Eliot have a new EP on Freedom School Records called Living in Squalor. Second, they did a short but sweet tour about a month ago at this point with Virginia's the Two Funerals. They'll also be hitting the road with Football, Etc. from Houston this summer. I just about peed myself with excitement at the St. Patty's Day show (some evidence here, thanks to Rob's trusty video camera), so definitely make your way to a show in your area.


Artwork by Kate Wadkins.

As for the EP, it's pretty along the lines of Introverted Romances in Our Troubled Mines, which clearly can only be a good thing. Think Lemuria, Tsunami, Discount, and a bit more '90s indie rock. Four new songs plus the a new version of "Broken Record." I was going to say what my favorite new tracks are, but I really can't decide... "Cry Uncle," "Acid Flashbacks," "Dark," "Bear Named Otis,"-- I really don't know. With "Acid Flashbacks," Katie's voice is just so earnest at the end. "Bear Named Otis" has some of the start-stop business that I loved so much in "Sore Subject" off the LP.

I thought "Broken Record" was really a dark horse from the demo, the kind of song that doesn't jump out at you quite as much at first, but after you've been listening for the 25th time or so (I've probably listened to that about 10 times that amount), you realize just how awesome it is. I've had extensive discussions about this, and I think, like for many of my friends, the songs rerecorded from the demo will always remain in their original version in my mind, but I still enjoy hearing the more polished versions. I have to say though, I didn't have to adjust to the abrupt change in recordings, so I've eased into this version, and the EP as a whole pretty much instantly falling in love as I always do with this band.

On Living in Squalor, P.S. Eliot remain solid where they have been in the past, primarily Katie's songwriting (check out King Everything, her solo project, if you haven't already). In addition to that, I think Allison's drumming really comes together on this one, better recorded... tighter and looser simultaneously- not ever forced while remaining pretty seemlessly fluid. Will's guitar too, especially the slight scratchiness on "Bear Named Otis." I think you can really tell that this band has started to come together as their line-up has solidified, yet they haven't become stale. I always have to cut myself on from continuing to ramble about this band because really just listening to their songs will tell you more than I ever could.

Grab this 7" from Freedom School for just $5 plus $2 shipping for up to three copies, and feel free to get in touch at or paypal (probably helpful to note somewhere what you're ordering) thehunchback@hotmail.com.

P.S. Eliot- Living in Squalor EP
Get it from Freedom School.

Neo Boys

I had been thinking about posting some Neo Boys over the summer, but, as with so many things, I hadn't gotten to ripping it at the station. Luckily Mary Jane (P.S. check out her new band, Neonates) sent me some goodies. I did a quick search to see if anyone had posted these before, pretty much only to find results that Grass Widow had been touting the band as an influence. Well, if you want to listen to them for that reason, then here they are. If for other reasons, here they are still.

Here's a little bit of history: "The Neo-Boys, who came from the ashes of Portland’s first all-girl punk band (Formica and the Bitches) had two proper records in their day: A self-titled 7” on Greg Sage’s Trap Records in 1981, and the Crumbling Myths LP on Joe Records in 1982. They also had a couple of songs on the classic early PDX punk comp 10/29/79, a live LP that also included the Wipers, and Sado-Nation." (by Golnar at Maximum Rock n’ Roll)



I first got hooked on their 7" after finding it among our endless number of 7"s over at the Record Hospital, but lately it's been all "Poor Man's Jungle" for me. A couple weeks ago I traded some books with Chuck who puts together the Messthetics comps. He's working on a new girl-band comp and was talking about the idea of uniquely women's music versus just working from the tradition of pre-established male tropes. Anyway, I think Neo Boys along with others like the Raincoats really exemplify this approach within sort of post-punk/art-punk realms.

Neo Boys discography

White Lung

Now that I'm home doing nothing for nearly three weeks, I'd figured catching up on things I've been meaning to post since the summer... well either do this or read a book about Reagan-- tough call.

Most of my listening to Vancouver-based White Lung's second 7", Magazines, came at the end of my summer, when I was basically listening to half Dangerhouse/Dangerhouse rip-off stuff (the other half being Lookout! things). After their first release on the smaller Hockey Dad Records, they moved over to Deranged for this one.



I don't know if they have a publicist or it's just 'cause they have the novelty of being four (good-looking) girls in a punk band or 'cause they're awesome, but when I was looking some stuff up, I noticed that White Lung have gotten a lot of press from some unlikely sources (various locals, Vice). This doesn't do much good because they give you token comparisons like the Ramones, but it did pay off when I read that guitarist Natasha described them an "an eight-legged ball of fury."

The A-side is the real hit here; for starters, punk songs about ketamine? Still, with each song on here, Mish's vocals provide a bite. Put that over Dangerhouse style and occasional haunting post-punk moments (as on "Backhouse"), and I'm sold.

As for what's up next, I've read that they've recorded (or are recording a new 7"), and when I emailed the band about posting this a few months back, they said they'd tour the East Coast once they're LP is out-- fingers crossed on all accounts. They've got a West Coast tour slated for February for all y'all on this coast.

White Lung- Magazines 7"
Get it from Deranged

Kitty Cat Spy Club

I just put up Thursday's Halloween show over here, so get yr cover on. I didn't quite get to play everything I wanted to (nothing off of Fortune Cookie Prize, for instance!), but it was a lot of fun!


Here's another gem of lo-fi punk. Kitty Cat Spy Club were a band in the early to mid 1990s out of the Bay Area. They remind me of some of the more down-tempo Frumpies stuff. In 1995 they put out the Decoy X split with the Teenagers on Radio Trash. I think the real tricky part is that the Teenagers were actually just an alias of KCSC with them mixing up what everyone played.

Kitty Cat Spy Club were a relatively short-lived band, but while they were around they played with the likes of Bikini Kill, Team Dresch, and the Donnas before they were the Donnas.

Kitty Cat Spy Club/Teenagers- Decoy X split

Vendabait

My favorite Centless Productions release would almost for sure have to be Archie and the Pukes' 7". STRAIGHT EDGE PEOPLE SUCK- happy edge day kiddos. Centless was a Cincinnati-based label, which I can only assume expired at some point in the '90s.

A close second would be the Vendabait's Crushing My World 7". I can find virtually no information on this band, but what drew me to this record in the RH library was a sticker that described it as punk by two boys and two girls (it doesn't take much more than this to sell me but it also said it was good and was written by the trusty squid). This came out in 1992; I can only assume they're also from Ohio, but as I said, I can find virtually no information on this band, and I'm too lazy to go back to the station and look at the liner notes right now (hence the tiny internet picture). If you need more convincing, there's an Avengers cover ("We Are the One")!

This is out of print, of course.

Vendabait- Crushing My World 7"

Moderate Rock

So I was just not that into my show last night, and I'm lazy and don't feel like upping my whole playlist. Instead I'll leave you with an album that you'll probably care more about anyway.



I posted some Margaret Thrasher a little while back, and since then they released an LP (and also broke up). I don't think Moderate Rock grabs me quite as much as the 7"s, but that may be hard to do. They still give you a dose of straight-up hardcore with throaty lady vocals, this time even scratchier I think. Jules gets it going from the very beginning with "fuuuuuck, not again." "Raise the Bar" was one of my favorite longs from the 7"s and is rerecorded here. It's played faster but somehow doesn't have the same bounce to it. Putting this all together, it doesn't sound like I really like this LP that much, but I do. I really do. A lot.

This was released on P-Trash but is already out of print, so try to hunt it down through some other distros.

Supposedly some of the people from this band have something new going on, but I can't remember the name of it. I'll try to remember to ask Foreign Objects tonight (listen to them at 10 on Christa's show!).

Margaret Thrasher- Moderate Rock