HELL ON HEELS - Dogs, Records & Wine (2007)

When Bomp impresario Greg Shaw first heard Hell on Heels, an all-woman four-person garage band out of Phoenix, Arizona, he told one reporter, “I feel the same way that Phil Spector must have felt when he first saw the Ronettes.” (He put out the first Hell on Heels record, Les Hell on Heels shortly before his death.) That’s maybe a little strong, but Dogs, Records and Wine is one monster of a garage-rock album, with fierce snarling verses and shout-along choruses, strident guitar mayhem and sweet 1960s organ. Album highlight “Can’t Buy Cool” is pure rampage, as lead singer Paula Monarch dresses down a poser, while “Send Him” slithers and insinuates atop an evil bass line. Kindred spirit Nikki Corvette steps up to the mic for the sublimely sardonic, call-and-response havoc of “Pretty Mess” and “Made Like No Other”, a sexy, self-assured “c’mere you” anthem that subtly updates the Shangri-Las. The 1950s and 1960s atmospherics are thick in the air, but you never forget that these are very independent, modern women. None of that moping around in a poodle skirt Mr. Right—the ladies of Hell on Heels are perfectly okay on their own. “It’s not that I don’t need anyone / It’s just the ones I need are few and far between,” growls Monarch in the swaggery-slow, blues-tinged title track. She’s got a dog, a bottle of wine, some cool records and a kicking rock band. A man would just be superfluous. Jennifer Kelly (popmatters)

01 Win Some Lose Some

02 I'll Come Runnin'

03 Dogs, Records & Wine

04 Can't Buy Cool

05 Matter Of Time

06 Made Like No Other

07 Pretty Mess

08 Through With You

09 Send Him

10 Sassy

11 C'mon Turn Me on

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SHONEN KNIFE - Fun! Fun! Fun! (2007)

Fun! fun! fun! is the first CD with Etsuko as the second SHONEN KNIFE. The songs are split evenly between English and Japanese. There are some classic Naoko-style songs, ‘Barnacle’ and ‘Ramones Forever’ being my favorites. ‘Cookie Tabetai’ is the guitar cruncher for this outing. In some of the songs, though, Naoko is truly stretching her songwriting wings in more sure and graceful ways than she’s allowed herself before. There are a number of examples on fun! fun! fun! where she has achieved real beauty, both musically and emotionally, and it’s a wonderful step for her to be taking! (Rock of Japan)

01 Gravity Zero Gravity

02 Barnacle

03 Flu

04 Ramones Forever

05 Las Vegas

06 Birthday

07 Popcorn

08 I Wanna Eat Cookies

09 Southern Islands

10 Good Night

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BRATMOBILE - Ladies, Women and Girls (2000)

I really wanted to like this album. Bratmobile, in part, are responsible for creating a veritable revolution in the punk scene. And what was this revolution called? Riot grrl. Along with DC based Bikini Kill, Bratmobile helped create a national touring network and a zine distribution network which showcased feminist bands and literature. Because of Bratmobile’s efforts, sexism in the scene was somewhat reduced, and as a result, girls were actually able to see and participate in concerts. Or so I hear. I was around nine during Bratmobile’s heyday and, a boy. But, I can listen to the music now, and it is, quite simply, boring.

While Bratmobile have matured as musicians since previous releases, much of their reckless rock n’ roll charm is lost. The fourteen tracks on Ladies, Women and Girls blur into one long, indistinguishable surf jam. For the most part, the album is a little more than listenable. At times, it is catchy – “In Love with All My Lovers” and “Girlfriends Don’t Keep” with handclaps – “Gimme Brains” and keyboards – “You’re Fired.” But for the most part, Ladies, Women and Girls seems to be devoid of any enthusiasm whatsoever. Unlike Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna, whose vocal range could go from primal, guttural screams to beautiful melodics within a single song, Bratmobile’s Allison Wolfe’s voice falls flat. Wolfe sings in such a monotonous voice, she’s basically speaking.

Ladies, Women and Girls seems to lack any real enthusiasm or emotion. Unless you are a diehard Bratmobile fan, I wouldn’t purchase this album.  (Punknews.org)

01 Eating Toothpaste

02 Gimme Brains

03 It's Common (But We Don't Talk About It)

04 Not In Dog Years

05 You're Fired

06 Cheap Trick Record

07 In Love With All My Lovers

08 90's Nomad

09 Well You Wanna Know What?

10 Flavor Of The Month Club

11 Affection Training

12 Do You Like Me Like That

13 Come Hither

14 Girlfriends Don't Keep

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THE HORNY BITCHES - 13 Reasons to Fuck (2010)

Three females from Montreal, Quebec. The band does a good job staying just on the punk side with their speed, not really getting to into the hardcore, just punk porn rock, I guess you could call it. All of the songs deal with some aspect of sex, so if you are delicate, beware, they aren’t for the faint hearted, or the tight assed. They zip through these songs at a quick pace, playing with a lot of energy and tongue buried in cheek, if not other places as well. A fun release that will make you smile. I know that I chuckled a few times while cranking it up, and you should crank it up as well to piss off your neighbors. – 

Guest Contributor (Trigger) (razorcake.org)

1. 800 Tie Me Up
2. Scat Lovers
3. Chicks With Dicks
4. Your Ass Is A Storage Room
5. Choke Me
6. DP Story
7. Suck N Swallow
8. Gag On This Porky Pig
9. Lick My Big Toe
10. Milf
11. Nympho Cant Say No
12. Necromaniac
13. Lesbians Are Lesbians

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TILT - 'Til It Kills (1995)

After leaving Lookout and signing up with punk juggernaut Fat Wreck Chords, Tilt released their sophomore full-length, 'Til It Kills, in 1995. Despite changes within both the band and the rapidly evolving pop-punk musical landscape, this follow-up to Play Cell is very similar to its predecessor. The material is melodic, up-tempo punk and vocalist Cinder Block is in her usual fine form, but aide from the fine opener, "Libel" -- a minor underground hit -- there is little evidence that the punk outfit experienced any songwriting growth during the two years after their debut. The tunes are often repetitive, slightly vague, and even a little pretentious at times. Throughout the late '90s, Tilt maintained their second-tier pop-punk status, offering up many more titles for Fat Wreck Chords; however, there is no individual characteristic that sets 'Til It Kills (or any of these records) apart from the rest. Many fans of the Bay Area punkers believe that this is a powerful effort from the group, but casual fans of this genre and new Tilt listeners aren't likely to notice anything special.  Vincent Jeffries

01 Libel
02 Confines Of Love
03 Leanin' Like A Barn
04 Unravel
05 Suspended
06 Acathisia
07 'Til It Kills
08 Windowsill
09 Dumb Little World
10 Land Of Fragments
11 Lips Tits Hips
12 Past The Point
13 Dirty Kitchen Eternity

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FRIGHTWIG - Wild Women Never Die... (1993)

Frightwig was an American 1980s all-women band from San Francisco, California. They pioneered the riot grrrl movement and were influential to its development. They often played at The Farm. They were known for inviting a male audience member on stage to "dance" during the song "A Man's Gotta Do What a Man's Gotta Do", and thereby publicly ridiculing him. Frightwig was composed of Cecilia Lynch, Deanna Ashley, Mia Levin, Susan Miller, Megan Page, Lynn Perko and Rebecca Tucker.
Kurt Cobain was a fan of Frightwig. At Nirvana's MTV Unplugged concert, he can be seen wearing a Frightwig T-shirt.
This album is a compilation of their first two LP's, 1984's Cat Farm Faboo and 1986's Faster, Frightwig: Kill!! Kill!! and is definitive listening for anyone interested in the evolution of Riot Grrrl Rock. (Wikipedia)

01 Wanque Off Song
02 My Crotch Does Not Say 'Go'
03 Jeri's Song
04 I Got Lost
05 Hot Papa
06 A Man's Got To Do What A Man's Got To Do
07 Vagabondage
08 Only You
09 Take This And Fuck Yer Head
10 I'll Talk To You And Smile
11 Tomorrow Never Comes
12 Something's Gotta Change
13 Beverly Hills
14 Crazy World
15 Big Bang
16 Punk Rock Jail Bait
17 Manifest Destiny
18 Booby Prize
19 American Express
20 I Don't Want To Be Alone
21 Freedom

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SODOPP - Pop Rider (2006)

Sodopp is an all-girl rock trio from Japan. Their debut album "Pop Rider" is a little jewel of indie pop-rock sound with 60's reminiscences.

01  Music Rider

02  Yoru no Hana

03  Yeah!!!

04  Norausagi

05  Apostrophe

06  Hoto Pierrot

07  My Car

08  4Beat

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Miss LUDELLA BLACK feat. THE MASONICS - From This Witness Stand (2008)

Holly Golightly isn't the only former Headcoatee with a solo career these days, and with her second album, Ludella Black is proving she's every bit as gifted as the best-known member of Billy Childish's Ladies' Auxiliary. From This Witness Stand features Black singing 14 songs, most written by her significant other, Mick Hampshire, and featuring the estimable backing of Hampshire's combo the Masonics, but even though she gets some valuable assistance on this set, Black is clearly the star of this show. From This Witness Stand is considerably more than standard-issue U.K. garage rock; "Hey, Johnny Raw" is a potent, atmospheric anti-war song that wouldn't be out of place in The Three Penny Opera; she offers a slinky torch number with "I'll Ride the Storm"; "Take a Heart" is a tough slice of blue-eyed R&B; "Push-Button Geoff" is folk-rock with a nice sense of snarky wit, and the cover of the Downliners Sect's "The Cost of Living" aims to charm rather than pummel, and it succeeds. Black's voice is strong and malleable enough that she can cover a number of musical bases and sound sweetly confident and subtly powerful whatever direction she takes, and if you do want to hear her rock out, don't fret: "I Want Some Answers," "Loony," "This Heart Is Condemned," and the title tune deliver the big beat with style. Ludella Black has a great voice and she knows what to do with it, and anyone who doubts it need only turn to From This Witness Stand for some engaging proof.  Mark Deming (All Music Guide)

01 From This Witness Stand

02 Don't You Walk Away From Me

03 Cost of Living

04 I Want Some Answers

05 Come to Me

06 Hey Johnny Raw

07 This Heart is Condemned

08 Take a Heart

09 Push Button Geoff
10 I Can Lose You
11 I'll Ride the Storm

12 This is Elvis Dog

13 Whisper in my Brain

14 Loony

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BOBBYTEENS - Young And Dumb! (2001)

A collection of tracks from demos and 7"ers by this mostly-female glam-punk-powerpop band. Great hooks, cool girlie singing and definite style make songs like "Baby Doll," "Hot City Boy" and "Treat Me Right" rock hard. Note that some of their early tunes were penned by Mr. Raffaelli of early Donnas fame.  
Reviewed by Alan Wright  Source

01 Secret Date

02 Gimmie, Gimmie

03 You're Too Young For Me

04 Hey Roxy

05 Firecracker

06 Baby Doll

07 Hot City Boy

08 Your'e Too Young For Me

09 Do You Wanna Touch

10 Gimme Gimme

11 I Wanna Go Home

12 Pay The Price

13 Treat Me Right

14 Girl Downtown

15 Liquid Love

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FREE KITTEN - Inherit (2008)

Free Kitten is a two-guitars-plus-drums trio that seems to be co-led by Julie Cafritz and Kim Gordon (whose regular gig is playing bass for Sonic Youth). With drummer Yoshimi, they create a ratty, often dense and sometimes dissolute noise that will certainly be of interest to Sonic Youth fans and may also catch the attention of extreme hipsters but is unlikely to hold anyone's attention for very long. The pattern is laid out early on with "Erected Girl" -- if minimalism is intended to be part of this song's charm, well, it works OK for about two minutes, but when the song hasn't substantially changed after four minutes you start getting a bit restless. Then it changes kind of suddenly but not completely enough, and ends up being about four minutes too long at almost seven minutes. "Seasick" features aimlessly wanky wah-wah guitars, plodding drums, and equally plodding lyrics; it's no fun to listen to, but was probably fun to play, and it earns bonus points for including the line "I like the cut of your jib." "Free Kitten on the Mountain" offers eight minutes of unrelieved murk and tuneless acid-trip vocals; "Roughshod" is still murky, but more intense and interesting and snarky ("I'm not like you/I can't be cruel") -- and also, it must be noted, only about 90 seconds long. "Help Me" sounds like it was recorded on a crappy hand-held tape recorder, which nicely contains and focuses the song's sonic messiness -- then suddenly it explodes into relatively higher-fi sound and turns into a punky rave-up that works beautifully. "The Poet" is short and pointless; "Monster Eye" is long and pointless. There are interesting and compelling moments scattered throughout this album, but they never coalesce into something worth sitting all the way through. Rick Anderson (All Music Guide)

01 Bananas

02 Billboard

03 Erected Girl

04 Free Kitten on the Mountain

05 Help Me

06 Monster Eye

07 Roughshot
08 Seasick

09 Surf's Up

10 Sway

11 The Poet

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THE GEE STRINGS - Alternative Losers (1999)

Gee Strings are great glam/77 style punk with great female vocal. "Wanna Buy A Boyfriend" opens this record with great guitar riff & catchy chorus. "Paranoia" & "The Blue Attack" are great punk songs. "Sister Damned" & "Second To None" are more rockin'. "Second To None" is one of my favorites. Gee Strings have great solo guitar which fills & pumps & makes their songs sound so great. "Stereotyped" is definitely Gee Strings best song - it's also on their 7". "Stereotyped" starts like "Pretty Vacant" rip off, but when punk'n'roll guitar starts to drive, you can't sit anymore - you have to pogo. Ingi sings great and she is one of my favorite female singers. Anyway, pogo continues through "Burnt Myself". "Cherry Bomb" is great glam punk Runaways' cover - also one of my favorites - you know that great chorus "ch-ch-ch...cherry bomb"!!! A side is great, but B side is even better. All songs are real killers & Gee Strings are really great. This LP is recorded in Holland, so I hope they'll come to tour here too. (nobrainszine.com)

1. Wanna Buy a Boyfriend
2. Paranoia
3. The Blue Attack
4. Sister Damned
5. Second to None
6. Stereotyped
7. Burnt Myself
8. Cherry Bomb
9. Nasty Bites
10. Freak Out Brat

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7 YEAR BITCH - Sick 'Em (1992)

Sick 'Em is the debut album by Seattle punk rock band 7 Year Bitch. It was released in October, 1992 on the local C/Z Records label and collected all of the band's previous releases up to that point onto one record. The album was originally slated for an earlier release date but was delayed following the death of guitarist Stefanie Sargent in June 1992.  

(Wikipedia)

01 Chow Down

02 Tired Of Nothing

03 Knot

04 In Lust You Trust

05 Sink

06 Gun

07 Lorna

08 You Smell Lonely

09 No Fucking War

10 Dead Men Don't Rape

11 8-Ball Deluxe

12 Can We Laugh Now?

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THE DONNAS - Do It Live! (2002)

01. Are You Gonna Move It?
02. Do You Want To Hit It?
03. I Wanna Be Your Girl
04. Hyperactive
05. You Got A Crush On Me
06. Get Rid Of That Girl
07. Hook It Up
08. 40 Boys In 40 Nights
09. Doin' Donuts
10. I Wanna Get Some Stuff
11. Living After Midnight
12. Huff All Night
13. You Wanna Get Me High

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BETTY BLOWTORCH - Are You Man Enough? (2001)

 

Spewing the sort of unrepentant, biker-bar hard rock that's glory days ended with the breakup of Guns N' Roses, Betty Blowtorch are four leather-pants-wearing gals from L.A. singing about wanton sex, petty jealousy, and your usual rock & roll subject matter with conviction and just a tiny bit of irony. Singer Bianca Butthole's former band, Butt Trumpet, was a silly punk band and Betty Blowtorch have definitely come up from that scene too. But they sound more at home pulling off fiery metal leads and busting rock star moves than they would in a dank punk club. Raunchier than the Donnas and feistier than the all-girl nu metal band Kittie, the gals from Betty Blowtorch write some catchy tunes, some a bit pop-sounding like "No Integrity" and others more Nashville Pussy-like, such as "Hell on Wheels." They are equally adept at both pop and hard rock. On the song "Size Queen," Vanilla Ice makes an incredibly embarrassing appearance rapping about his giant wanger. The song is a sort of editorial from Betty Blowtorch letting guys know that size does indeed matter. Though all this material has been tread upon a million times before, Betty Blowtoch manage to keep it lively. Adam Bregman (All Music Guide)

01 Hell On Wheels

02 Love & Hate

03 Size Queen (feat. Vanilla Ice)

04 I Wanna Be Your Sucker

05 I'm Ugly And I Don't Know Why

06 Shut Up And Fuck

07 No Integrity

08 Frankie

09 I Wish You'd Die

10 Big Hair, Broken Heart
11 Part Time Hooker

12 Rock My World

13 Dresses

14 Strung Out

15 Rock 'N' Roll 69

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THE ETTES - Shake The Dust (2006)

Serving up a sexy but undeniably fierce mix of pop smarts and garage rock power, the Ettes are vocalist/guitarist Lindsay "Coco" Hames, drummer Maria "Poni" Silver, and bassist Jeremy "Jem" Cohen, a trio of New Yorkers who became Los Angelenos. The band formed in 2004 and soon won a following for its mix of Nancy Sinatra style, Patsy Cline twang, and Stonesy rock. Radio airplay and live shows contributed to the Ettes' buzz, which eventually led to the group signing with Sympathy for the Record Industry. Along with the Dead and Gone single and From the Songbook of Greg Cartwright, a split with the likeminded Fondas, the label released the Ettes' first full-length, Shake the Dust, which the band recorded with London garage rock producer extraordinaire Liam Watson. For the follow-up, the band headed back to London to record with Watson again. The resulting album, Look at Life Again Soon, was issued by Take Root in September of 2008. Heather Pares (All Music Guide)

01 Reputation

02 Dead and Gone

03 Alley Cat

04 Spend My Money

05 All Right

06 No More Surprises

07 We Repel Each Other

08 It Ain't You

09 Gimme

10 Dirty

11 Soft Focus

12 Ghosts

13 Beggars

14 I Wanna Go Home

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