Nuggets 99 – Girls 3 (redux)

This mix lacked a bit of oomph, so I stripped out the yé-yé pop and some of the softer numbers, et voilà.

We don’t seem to have many all girl / woman rock bands in NZ, I mean 4 on the floor hard rock, as opposed to soft rock like When the Cats Away. Instead we blighted the world with the Popstars and, gulp, Truebliss (although a Kiwi was responsible for an all girl band that recorded as the New Runaways and I haven’t forgotten Look Blue Go Purple but they were more Cure than Ramones)

Anyways, I wonder why this is so in a country that promotes women so strongly. Perhaps its the lack of role models and hence why most of the rocky all girl bands are from the USA, home of The Runaways and Josie & The Pussycats (or better here)

Here is another girl / girl group focused mix.

The Runaways - Nuggets 99 - Girls 3

Nuggets 176 – Girls make noise

Nuggets 176 - Girls make Noise

 

What do Girls, Little Girls and Women have in common? Well, apart from being impossible to google, they are all bands with no female members. Mountain Men is a 4 piece female band that makes sweet Appalachian tunes. With this gender bending going down, its difficult to reliably put together a mix of female bands. Of course a mix focusing on bands with female members suggests that such bands have a sound that stands apart from bands with a gender mix. But what sound?

Weeeeeeeeeeeell that’s a difficult question that I can’t begin to answer. I can say that having a female singer is probably a good start, but then so do many bands. I also believe that I can generally tell that a band has a woman drummer , but that doesn’t always work, i.e. Comanechi whose Akiko Matsuura (more) moonlights as the drummer for Big Pink. I doubt that an all male band would sing about their pussy (as Comanechi did) or a song entitled Nestle in my Boobies (a great song from the Coathangers).

Without delving any deeper I present this mix of bands that seem to fit the bill.  The Screaming Females headline of course, Marissa Paternoster (more) is a force of nature, a 21st century Iggy Pop and a bloody brilliant guitarist. There is a Thunder Power track, I particularly like Kacynna Tompsett‘s voice, and tracks from Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast and Kristen Gundred aka Dee Dee of  Dum Dum Girls

First up, Chin Chin with a bangles-esque stomper.