Soundtracks
Soundtracks: a visual reading guide for listening, an auditory engagement and the liner notes on this issue's imagined inner sleeve. Here, a selected group of writers, artists and thinkers sonically approach the concepts of feminism and punk anteriority.
Mariam Bastani– we are destroyers of the status quoIraya Robles – REMOTELY FEMALECeci Moss – I HATE HISTORYMimi Thi Nguyen – Making Waves: Other Punk FeminismsKate Wadkins – making sure the FREAKY LADIES get represented
(Above figure: Elizabeth Stinson, Walking on State Lines, collage, 2010.)
Editors: Lydia Brawner, Ph. D. Candidate, Department of Performance Studies, New York University Contact email: lmb294@nyu.eduElizabeth Stinson, Ph. D. Candidate, Department of Performance Studies, New York University Contact email: stinson@nyu.edu
we are destroyers of the status quo Mariam Bastani
REMOTELY FEMALE Iraya Robles
Side 1: A New Chronology Of Lady Proto-ness: Some Foremothers
1) BETTY DAVIS, “F.U.N.K.” Nasty Gal (Island 1975/Light in the Attic 2009) Betty Davis was/is supremely original. This young Soul Sister had a voice like no other. She presented “like a Black Panther Woman” and wrote & produced innovative, risk taking, wild & Freaky Funk at an incredibly intense rate, then left the music industry wholesale by the late 70’s. Although recognized by her peers, she was hard to categorize, harder still to market, and Black Radio would barely touch her. (Being a former model still didn’t help!) Her controversial live performances were notorious and even boycotted for explicit themes, lyrical role reversal, and her raucous audience interactions. Post-punk (with its distilled funk/jazz rhythms, re-labled as “Art”) owes a huge debt to her serious brand of hard funknroll & attitude. Check out Anti-Love Song (1973) for further evidence. Foremother and innovator of many things: HardFunkSoulGlamJazzRockAfropunkHipHopPostpunk
2) YMA SUMAC, “Taita Inty (Virgin of the Sun God)” Voice of the Xtabay (Capitol 1950) Extremely beautiful opening piece from this Peruvian Diva’s U.S. debut. Commanding a 4 (or possibly higher) octave range, Ms. Sumac was a soprano courted by the Met, but stuck with her solo career, thank Goddess. Emanating Indigenous-influenced soundscapes, Yma sang in Quechua & Spanish, interspersing birdcalls and phrases, going from extreme highs to low baritone guttural growls and chants. With longtime collaborator and spouse, composer Moses Vivanco, they made a pair, his brilliant high concept arrangements and folkloric adaptations matching her grandiose Operatic Hybridity vibe. With her ritualistic glamour and fabulous costumes, she played up Incan Royalty rumors. Packaged by the industry as “Exotica” to 1950s audiences, Yma was so much more. Majorly set the stage for female artists to come, like Astrid Hadad, Diamanda Galas, Nina Hagen and a big influence on the B-52’s and others. Blew genres apart and repped Pachamama.
3) PHYLLIS DILLON, “One Life to Live” (Treasure Isle 1971) The Queen of Rocksteady! Just a classic track full of sweet longing, and lyrical wordplay about a young woman’s self determination, soap opera titles, independence and -what else- falling in love! Smooth & on point phrasing in this one. This cut is a staple, and no delivered like Ms. Dillon. Confident yet vulnerable. Phyllis started off as a Ska artist and held her own amongst her male peers. Rocksteady & reggae attitude and song composition was a major influence on early punk…. One of the great female artists of the genre!!
4) PAULINE OLIVEROS, “Mnemonics III,” Four Electronic Pieces 1959-1966 (Sub & more. Visionary. Rosa 2008) Composed in 1965 at the San Francisco Tape Music Center, using two Hewlett Packard oscillators, patch bay, line amplifier and two tape recorders. Composer & teacher of Deep Listening. In this work she creates Aura stirring & captivating tonalities that breach, hum and soothe. Tape scratching. Membrane theory begins here. Incredible live. Predates Eno Throbbing Gristle, noise, industrial et al. Just Wonderful. Zeena Parkins, Bjork, Laurie Anderson many more etc. stem from this. Heavy Electronix Icon. Looking forward to her new album, released on her 80th birthday!!
5) DARA PUSPITA, “Kerja Kami (Our Work)” 1966-1968 (Sublime Frequencies 2010) This all female Indonesian band, played & wrote original stunning psych garage shimmers that get tough when necessary. This was reissued by bearded white men and then immediately went out of print.. (I am gonna try to see it as reparations of some kind, only we should all be getting records for free. Yes, I am serious.) I truly needed to hear this when I was younger and obsessed with the ‘60s. Asian ladies freakbeat, paving the way!!
6) ALICE COLTRANE, “Blue Nile,” Ptah, The El Daoud (Impulse! 1970) Alice on Harp & Piano, with others. Octave Healing. Rhythms & Drones. Vibrational Knowledge. Introspective and Dissonant. Trance inducing (of course). Ancient, yet Still New. Complex. Astral. Challenged the jazz males with it all and wrote her own rules. The earth is in the key of B and so is she… SACRED TEXTS MUST BE WRITTEN in ALICE-FORM… Alice FOREVA!!!
7) YOKO ONO, “Don’t Worry Kyoko, Mummy’s Only Looking for her Hand In the Snow,” Fly (1971) Yoko? I can only agree: YES. To GRAPEFRUIT. WISH PIECE & CUT PIECE. Don’t Worry. FLUXUS & BOTTOMS. Together. She was Shinto/Bhudda/Jesus/then? Channelling, reaching, chanting, ghostly weighty…Ameratsu witchy beauty. YES to Kyoko, and all of this recorded moment. PS: pinpoints what’s to come in experimental, punk & noise. SEE: UT, Butthole Surfers, MARS , Sonic Youth, etc.
8) THE CAKE, “Annabelle Clarke,” A Slice of the Cake (Decca 1968) GREAT psych/abstract number by this unique NYC baroque girl group. The teen vocal trio also broke new ground in that they wrote a lot of their own material, and were seen as equals among their rocker boy peers (Jimi, The Animals, Cream etc.), had a high mod androgynous look, and a “switched on” defiant attitude! They were a multiracial band too - Jeanette was Black and Greek, Barbara was a Puerto Rican Mestiza, and Eleanor was of Armenian Jewish descent. Called “the missing link between the Ronettes and the Runaways,” they were totally ahead of their time. “P.T. 280” is another catchy, cryptic, & collage-y art nouveau fave from them about meeting the WHO in LA, among other things. Trivia: The late J Dilla sampled “Annabelle Clarke.” These girls in the garage have many stories….
9) AMON DUUL II, “Archangel Thunderbird,” Yeti (1971) Renate Knaup’s low vocals soar over and yes -thunderous- riffs and propulsive drumming. Amon Duuul II was a West German radical leftist hippy commune band. (The tradition lived on with CRASS etc., a few years later.) One of the founding "Krautrock" groups, and one of the few to have any female members at all. Renate wrote this piece and it is one of the band's most popular tracks ever, for good reason. She reminds one of a Viking Hippie Glamazon meets the "Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant," rocking cold and Doomy as her male counterparts. Contemplate, listen and willingly submit to the HEAVINESS!!
Side 2: Underground Sisterhoods, Obscure Hitmakers & Rarer 45s
10) THE SELECTER, “On My Radio” (1979/1980) Ska Icon Pauline Black tears it up on this two tone classic about a girl and a boy and the true objection of their shared affections: the search for new sounds & ways. One of the few Black frontwomen on the scene, undeniably in command, and chic in her suits. The first album is classic front to back, and everything by them is necessary! Rude Girl Style & Flow in a Massive Way. Ladies Get yr Punky Reggae Party On. Singer, Actress, and Author, Pauline's just-published-in-the-States Black by Design: A 2 Tone Memoir is on my list of must-reads. Long Live the The Queen of Ska!!
11) ANDROIDS OF MU, "Bored Housewives,” Blood Robots (Fuck Off Records 1980) Awesome anti-domestic track by these Dystopian/utopian anarcha/postpunk feminists. I love the concept of Blood Robots - Prophetic, nicely paranoid/realistic. Wouldn't let CRASS drum for them contingent on a record deal!!! Bullshit detector indeed. Lesbian iconoclastic Sci-Fi Seperatist choir meets an agit prop take no prisoners stance. One of the Androids also put out the Making Waves feminist comp of twelve all-female punk bands in 1981.
12) PEARL HARBOR, “Get Outta Here,” Pearls Galore! (Island Records 1984) Tough little Punkabilly tune from the illustrious Ms. Harbor! Pearl was a Filipina Mestiza and one of a few API punk/wavers in SF, and known for her distinctive hiccupy voice, awesome stage presence and dancing theatrics. Previously of Leila & the Snakes, she had some ok new wave hits with The Explosions. Went solo in ‘81, and moved to the UK, then musically really gelled! Married some guy from the Clash, and sang “Fujiyama Mama” with them to massive concerts of adoring Japanese punks, billies & rockers which I think is a really interesting commentary on Philippine/Japanese post-WWII pop & culture relations. Whoa. Actress and Hairdresser too. Messed with Dragon Lady Paradigms. “Here Comes Trouble”!!! Also listen to: “Don’t Follow Me, I’m Lost Too.”
13) THE VARVE, "Erotic Fridgidaire" “Bamboo Curtain/Erotic Fridgidaire/The Plan” EP (Risky Records 1982) Very catchy track on the wavey/post side of things. Sample lyrics: “One day he’s up, the next day he’s down.” (!!!) Self described “Art-Punk-Rockabilly styled," the Varve evolved from another all-female outfit, The Guys. After relocating from Colorado to SF in early ‘81, they played to fashionable, dancey, Liquid Sky-esque rabid crowds at "LeDisque" on Haight St! They appear on several singles & 12 inches, the Live at Le Disque LP comp, and a cassette-only release. Lead singer Jo Anne Gogue totally appears to be a postpunk of color. Funk/Jazz/Rockabilly/Ska breaks with sax. Underrated!
14) CASTRATION SQUAD, “The X Girlfriend” (1981) Deathrock underground hit, taped bootlegs only, later ened up on vinyl-only bootleg series KILLED BY DEATH, Vol. 13. I Taped mine off the MRR Radio in spring ‘87, this is personal favorite for me. I also had taped The Bags’ 7-inch Survive and listened to it constantly. Alice BAG blew my 16 y/old mind and I pined for ’77-81. Major influence. Members included Mary Bathing (Dinah Cancer from 45 Grave), Shannon, Elisa Bello (Go-Go’s), Tracy from Redd Kross, and Phranc. REPAIR MEN!!!
15) VS, “Magnetic Heart,” S/T EP (Monkey Records 1980) Excellent single from “SF’s first and only all-female ‘bondage rock’ band,” although they actually ended up adding two guys before cutting this recording. Hypnotic vocals by Heidi Familiar & Olga DeVolga, wailing great lyrics about “falling metal” and more over eerily condensed, tough, angular riffs. Bassist, main songwriter & vocalist Olga was later in the The Lewd, who also have a kickass punk/hc version of this song. “Leather Complex” on side B is another bizarrely deviant gem. X-Capees, Streetart & Hardcore California featured intriguing early photos & flyers of VS. which say it all…uniformed for the Miracle Mile, a chick version of CRIME (at least visually!).
16) FRIGHTWIG, “The Wanque Off Song,” Cat Farm Faboo (Subterranean 1984) San Francisco’s legendary ladies of NoisePunkHC Psych Experimental etc. Sometimes labeled “the female answer to Flipper” -- and just who asked that question??? Maybe the hardcore dudes they asked to strip and dance at every show!! (Those dudes listened too.) Wild! These deeply influential mamas inspired many with their sludgey & thumping wailing sound, awesome lyrics, and unapologetically feminist dirges. The name comes from the ‘50s term for a crazy messy inappropriate lipstick smeared crooked-seamed stocking kinda womanhood. YEAH!!!
17) RIP RIG & PANIC, “You’re my Kind of Climate” (1982) Incredible cut featuring superb Afro-Dutch vocalist Nenah Cherry & UK’s the Pop Group. Gorgeous and pulsating, it is Jazz funk dub punk at its finest. Veers from super tight to a wildy atmospheric free form futura groove…..still no one comes close! Named for a Roland Kirk joint and Neneh’s dad was some trumpeter named Don. All of their output is CRUCIAL. Instrumentals like “The Ultimate Fun” are a joy. Pure & unstopplable DOPENESS!!! Neneh later charted with “Buffalo Stance” in 1988.
18) SNATCH, "I.R.T./Stanley” (1977) Fuckin great single from this NYC duo. Tough, minimal and full of attitude, “I.R.T.” describes dealing with flashers & pervs on the train. I picture them scaring boys with Debby Harry in her Stilletos days n Tish n Snookie of Manic Panic fame. “Stanley” feels like a john waters skit and to me is a preview of art/craziness like BONGWATER or Teddy & the Frat Girls.
19) BODYSNATCHERS, “Let’s Do Rocksteady/Ruder Than You” (Two Tone/Chrysalis Records 1980) The 7-piece Bodysnatchers were fierce! A rarity as the only all-female Two Tone act at the time, they played, wrote and sang all their material. TOUGH!! Appearing in the 1981 film documentary Dance Craze, they were a huge inspiration to girls everywhere into The Ska. The band later morphed into female new wave group The Belle Stars who charted with “Sign of the Times,” a song about a long-over relationship, and independent ladies! Lead singer Rhoda Dakar went on to work with the explosive Special AKA and released a solo album. Later in 1984, former B-snatchers put together another excellent all-female ska sensation, The Deltones. "RUDE GIRLS COOL AS ICE!"
20) THE PHOTOS (with Wendy Wu), "Irene" (Epic 1979) Waver Powerpop Mod perfection (mostly) sans keyboards. Super Dreamy song about a narcisstic femme fatale....from Evesham, England. The “UK’s answer to Blondie.” Wendy Wu was an awesome front person. Former ‘77 band Satan’s Rats back her up. I am gonna believe Hong Kong-born Wendy Wu is Hapa/Mixed Heritage until someone tells me otherwise!!! Haven’t found anything confirming her background yet but I am ready…
21) LEGAL WEAPON, “Daddy’s Gone Mad,” Death Of Innocence (Arsenal Records 1982) Fierce vocalist Kat Arthur wipes the floor on this rager around the themes of dysfunctional family, cycles of addiction & domestic violence. Punk as Fuck, Kat’s lyrics were world weary, melancholic & moving. They had a range. Brought a much needed dose of snarly female deathrock meets bluesy rocknroll attitude into male dominated Los Angeles HC, and of course heavy eyeliner, black lace dresses and leather gloves to match the intensity. Later went hard rock. Earlier lineups includeded Patricia Morrison (Pat Bag!) and members of The Adolescents (on this version). This track was first on 1981’s Hell Comes to Your House comp. Instant SoCal punk classic. Shreds!!
I HATE HISTORYCeci Moss
Making Waves: Other Punk FeminismsMimi Thi Nguyen
In the 1990s, riot grrrl spawned fiercely feminist bands such as Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Heavens to Betsy, and Huggy Bear -“Her Jazz” is in my top ten forever- but feminisms (and proto-feminisms) were not then new to punk. What follows is a briefly annotated, and painfully incomplete, soundtrack of personal favorites and also representative bands from these other punk feminisms before or contemporaneous with but perhaps outside of the riot grrrl movement (1998 is an arbitrary date to close out this list), which might help us consider alternate genealogies of punk feminisms through anti-imperialism, economic justice, and queer anti-assimilationist politics.
The Pleasure Seekers, “What a Way to Die” (1965) An anomalous all-girl garage band fronted by a very young Suzi Quatro and her sister. The Detroit-based Pleasure Seekers growled their way through anthems like this one to teenaged drinking. I include it on this list because this song rages.
X-Ray Spex, “Oh, Bondage Up Yours!” (1977) X-Ray Spex was formed and fronted by the wonderful Day-Glo-clad Poly Styrene (born Marion Elliot-Said), whose resonant vocals on the anti-consumerist “Oh, Bondage!” are a lesson in rebellion that reverberate decades later.
The Bags, “We Will Bury You” (1978) Formed in 1977, the legendary Bags were a first generation Hollywood punk band formed by by the fierce Alice Armendariz and Pat Morrison, who took on the stage names Alice Bag and Pat Bag (the band infamously began performing with paper bags over their heads). In 2011, Alice published a must-read memoir called Violence Girl: From East LA Rage to Hollywood Stage, a Chicana Punk Story.
LiLiPUT, “Hedi’s Head” (1978) Formed in 1978, and formerly known as Kleenex before a lawsuit threatened, this Swiss all-lady punk band produced cacophonous art punk noise with jangling guitars and deadpan delivery (in English and German). Kill Rock Stars released a 24-track CD/DVD of Kleenex/LiLiPUT recordings in 2010.
The Slits, “Typical Girls” (1979) Oft-cited as a feminist forerunner, The Slits’ “Typical Girls” is a discordant –at times poppy, at times trippy—list of the ways “typical girls” are required to be, and to behave. The song’s title also lends itself to a long-running listserv about women in punk.
The Raincoats, “Fairytale in the Supermarket” (1979) The incredibly influential Raincoats formed as an all-woman punk band in 1978, and the anti-normative “Fairytale in the Supermarket” was their first single. I recently saw The Raincoats perform (with Grass Widow), and it was my favorite show of 2011.
Bush Tetras, “Too Many Creeps” (1980) A New York art punk, no wave band from the early 1980s, Bush Tetras’ lead guitarist Pat Place and singer Cynthia Sley created hypnotically dissonant tracks including “Too Many Creeps,” a feminist-tinged agoraphobic tune.
The Ex, “Meanwhile” (1980) This Dutch band is closest to my dirty punk heart, and their first album Disturbing Domestic Peace is forever my jam. The Ex would go on to address all manner of radical politics (including the 1930s Spanish anarchist movement, the uses of “human rights” as justification for liberal war, et cetera) and experimental sounds, but the short but devastating “Meanwhile” –about the troubling assumption of safety within heterosexual coupling— grounded this anarcho-punk band in the everyday violations of trust.
Poison Girls, “Persons Unknown” (1980) Formed in 1976, singer and guitarist Vi Subversa was a mother of two (self-described as “a middle-aged, militant feminist, peacenik, anti fascist, anti capitalist punk”) whose raspy, raucous songs for this anarchist punk band explored sexual and gender politics alongside political corruption and predatory capitalism. “Persons Unknown” is a strident call to arms by a punk feminist prophet.
Au Pairs, “Armagh” (1981) A British punk/post-punk band formed in 1979, the musically strident and lyrically brilliant Au Pairs released this blistering single in response to allegations of rape and torture of Irish women political prisoners in Armagh, Northern Ireland, skewering the claim that “we don’t torture” propagated by “civilized nations.”
The Stains, “Waste of Time” (1981) Not a “real” band, but Corinne Burns’ The Stains from the underappreciated film Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains (dir. Lou Adler) is nonetheless an amazing proto-feminist entry. In black hose and a sheer red blouse, her eyes outlined in red zig-zags, Diane Lane’s Corinne spits out teenaged truths about “adult” femininity to a stone-faced audience at her first show after their performance of the anthem “Waste of Time,” against the normative time of waged labor and heterosexuality.
CRASS, “Where Next Columbus?” (1981) The Penis Envy LP is the best album from this perhaps most notorious British anarchist punk band, hands down. Eve Libertine and Joy de Vivre rip their way through the institution of marriage, the wedding-industrial complex, “appropriate” femininity, the hidden economic exchanges that underline the romantic mythology of true love, and, in the incredible “Where Next Columbus?,” the masculinist cult of personality in vanguard movements.
Chalk Circle, “Reflection” (1982) Formed in 1980 in the heart of the Washington D.C. punk scene, this all-woman quartet (featuring the archivist and artist Sharon Cheslow) created angular, minimal sounds and existential questions. In 2011, a twelve-song collection of early studio material and live recordings was released.
Conflict (U.S.), “It’s Easy” (1983) Hailing from Arizona, the hardcore band Conflict featured two fierce Asian American women, Karen Nurse (Karen Maeda) and Mariko, on vocals (Mariko also played bass). The album art for their LP Last Hour featured ink drawings of famous and familiar images from the last century’s wars in Asia.
Hagar the Womb, “Dressed To Kill” (1984) Featuring an original line-up of all women, Hagar the Womb formed in 1980 London in challenge to the masculinist anarchist scene. Hagar the Womb featured clever vocals and pointed lyrics in songs such as “Dressed to Kill,” a poppy critique of compulsory –and competitive— feminine gender presentation.
Lost Cherrees, “Why Does It Have to Be A Dream” (1984) The Lost Cherrees was a female-fronted anarcho-punk band from Surrey, England, formed in 1979/1980. This track from their brilliant album All Part of Growing Up (featuring also songs about rape and feminist refusal to conform to a man’s measure) reflects a feminist politics against war and nuclear escalation so popular in Britain at the time (see the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp).
Chumbawamba, “Beginning to Take It Back” (1986) Long-running British anarchist band Chumbawamba’s first album, Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records, brought to bear a critique of charity mega-concerts that elided the geopolitical causes of strife and poverty. “Beginning to Take It Back” addresses women’s participation in the Nicaraguan revolution and the United States’ covert support for the anti-socialist Contras in the 1980s.
Yeastie Girlz, “Orgasm Addict” (1988) From the “Ovary Action” EP, this Bay Area feminist punk acapella trio covered the Buzzcocks’ classic alongside other sing-song pieces about safer sex and reproductive justice. Yeastie Girlz’ Jane Guskin was also a Maximumrocknroll contributor, whose monthly columns about the United States’ antidemocratic activities throughout the 1980s inspired my own political and intellectual interests in US empire.
The Gits, “Second Skin” (1991) Based out of Seattle in the early 1990s, the Gits featured the raw, sensual growl of singer Mia Zapata, and the incredibly fierce “Second Skin” presents a tough girl’s strength in admitting vulnerability. Zapata’s rape and murder in 1993 prompted a radical turn in punk feminisms, inspiring women’s self-defense collectives (including Home Alive in Seattle, and Girl Army in Oakland) and compilations (most notably the 1995 release of the double album Free to Fight! featuring all-women bands as well as testimonies and self-defense instructions).
DIRT (Dirt Is Reality Today), “Plastic Bullets” (1994) Formed in 1980, DIRT is another long-running British anarcho-punk band featuring alternating masculine-feminine vocals. From the four-song EP Scent of the Kill, “Plastic Bullets” (a cover of anarcho-punk band Belfast’s 1987 release) scathingly tackles the British empire’s repression of independence movements in Northern Ireland, and specifically the supposedly more “civilized” use of plastic bullets by police forces on protesters.
God Is My Co-Pilot, “QDA (Anthem)” (1995) From in New York City in 1991, God Is My Co-Pilot is a queercore noise band whose “QDA (Anthem)” is a raucous, noisy and totally danceable paean to anti-assimilationist, radical queer politics – and still completely relevant.
Team Dresch, “#1 Chance Pirate TV” (1995) Formed in 1993, Team Dresch named their first album Personal Best after the 1982 lesbionic film featuring women track and field athletes. Co-released on hugely important labels Chainsaw Records (run by bassist Donna Dresch) and Candy Ass Records (run by singer/guitarist Jody Bleyle) in 1995, this astounding album is foundational to the 1990s queercore scene.
Sta-Prest, “Form-Fitting” (1998) This multisubcultural, multiracial queer punk band from ‘90s San Francisco featured two of my favorite people, Aloofah (a.k.a. Iraya Robles) and D.M. Feelings (a.k.a. Gary Fembot). Experimental, noisily melodic, and otherwise lyrical geniuses, Sta-Prest released a handful of witty singles including “Form-Fitting”/”Diffy Peeps” (both songs skewering cultural and subcultural norms of comfort and content) for the Kill Rock Stars 7” Mail Order Freaks Club.
There are so, so many more bands that I could have included. Here are just some, both old and new (with suggestions from Jennifer Allen, LB Johnson, Donna Poole, Marike Seem, Jill Reiter, Iraya Robles, Sarah Roberts, Miriam Wilding, Ken Wissoker, Jessica Wurster, and Francois Villeneuve): A.P.P.L.E., Androids of Mu, A.S.F., Avengers, Bambix, Bitchfight, Blatz, Bound and Gagged, The Brat, Castration Squad, Crazy Band, Delta 5, DISBAND, Dog-Faced Hermans, Dolly Mixture, Emily’s Sassy Lime, Erase Errata, The Ex, Finally Punk, Frightwig, G.A.S.H., Grass Widow, Household, Hue & Cry, In School, Kamala and the Karnivores, KUKL, Legal Weapon, Life But How to Live It?, Mary Monday, Mika Miko, Mo-Dettes, Mudwimmin, Naked Aggression, The Need, Neo Boys, Nervous Gender (with Phranc), New Bloods, The Nuns, Ovarian Trolley, Pandoras, Pearl Harbor and the Explosions, Penetration, Raooul, Rubella Ballet, Sado-Nation, Scissor Girls, Shoppers, Skinned Teen, Slant 6, Spitboy, Suburban Lawns, Summer’s Eve, A State of Mind, Trash Kit, Third Sex, Tribe 8, Vegas Beat, and Y-Pants.
Notes: “Making Waves” is the name of a compilation featuring “a collection of 12 women punk bands from the UK,” released by Girlfriend Records in 1981. It is also the name of a new zine about punk feminisms (mwzine.tumblr.com).
making sure the FREAKY LADIES get representedKate Wadkins
Soundtracks Contributors
Mariam Bastani, originally from Chicago, lives and works in San Francisco, where she is co-coordinator of Maximumrocknroll. She also plays in bands and joined the "Meet Me at the Race Riot" event in November 2011 at Barnard College.
Contact email: mariam@maximumrocknroll.com
Ceci Moss is a Ph.D. candidate and Adjunct Instructor in Comparative Literature at NYU. Her research addresses contemporary internet-based art practice, digital technology and perception, the materiality of media, postmodernism and digital art preservation. Her writing has appeared in Rhizome, ArtAsiaPacific, Artforum, The Wire, Performa Magazine, and various exhibition catalogs.
Contact email: cecimoss@gmail.com
Mimi Thi Nguyen is Assistant Professor of Gender and Women's Studies and Asian American Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Her first book, called The Gift of Freedom: War, Debt, and Other Refugee Passages, focuses on the promise of “giving” freedom concurrent and contingent with waging war and its afterlife (Duke University Press, 2012). She is also co-editor with Fiona I.B. Ngo and Mariam Lam of a special issue of positions: east asia cultures critique on Southeast Asians in diaspora (Winter 2012). With her second project on the obligations of beauty, she continues to pursue her scholarship through the frame of transnational feminist cultural studies, and in particular as an untangling of the liberal way of war that pledges “aid,” freedom, rights, movement, and other social goods. Nguyen is also co-editor with Thuy Linh Nguyen Tu of Alien Encounters: Pop Culture in Asian America (Duke University Press, 2007). Nguyen has published zines since 1991, including the compilation zine ...Race Riot. She is a former Punk Planet columnist and a Maximumrocknroll worker, and her zine writing is archived at "thread & circuits" (http://threadandcircuits.wordpress.com/). She is also co-author of the research blog on dress and beauty: "threadbared" (http://iheartthreadbared.wordpress.com/).
Contact email: mimin@illinois.edu
Iraya Robles (-bian) is a Metaphysically minded Pinay/Italian Mestiza queer femme Musician and Artist, who was in the queerpunk band Sta-Prest for like 7 years, and the bay area political punk scene awhile before that. She has an especially pronounced interested in cults, vintage clothing & design, ancient history, feminist of color archives, decolonizaton, musicology, sci-fi, and umami-flavored items. She loves the color teal & wants to learn to wildcraft herbs as well as she can dig through crates of vinyl records, in preparation for the solar flares.
Contact email: irayarobles@yahoo.com
Katherine E. (Kate) Wadkins is a Brooklyn-based writer, artist, and cultural worker who recently graduated from Sarah Lawrence College with an MA in Women's and Gender History. She is the Editor-In-Chief of International Girl Gang Underground (2011), a compilation zine and corresponding blog about feminist cultural production twenty years after the riot grrrl movement and in the wake of its legacy. Kate is a contributing writer for Hyperallergic; her work has also appeared in the NY Daily News Page Views blog, Maximum Rocknroll and Sadie Magazine, among others. She writes about art, zines, and feminist cultural production, and also hopes to continue her research on the articulation of masculinity through Detroit punk. Kate is a founding member of For the Birds, a feminist collective. As an avid zine enthusiast and art lover, she continues to curate BRAIN WAVES, a zine and print collection located at Recession Art CultureFix in Manhattan.
Contact email: mskatherinewadkins@gmail.com