All-Female Bands

How much do all-female bands rock?
Recently I was chatting with a friend and the topic of all-female bands came up. We both started talking excitedly about how much we love ladies with guitars and particularly, all-female bands... before you could say 'can you believe that in this day and age that females are still disgracefully treated like second class citizens?!' we started rattling off a list of all-girl bands that we loved! Upon returning home, I thought 'I have to blog about this and share the love!!'

So here are a few of the great all-female bands that had come up in our conversation:



The Spazzys

The Shambelles

Electrelane- 'To the east'


Shonen Knife

The Runaways

The Slits- 'Typical girls'



Chicks on speed

The Raincoats

The 5, 6, 7, 8's- 'I'm Blue' (from the film kill Bill Vol 1)


Sleater-Kinney

L7

Ummm, did someone say all-female Chinese punk rock? If so then you will LOVE:
Hang on the box - 'Now I wanna say apology to you'



The Donna's

Stonefield


Luscious Jackson- 'Lady fingers'





Now, this is very cheeky I know, but here are a couple of almost all-female bands (does a male drummer really count?):

that dog- 'never say never'


The Breeders- 'Divine hammer' (as a friend and I were listening to this track on a road trip, my friend  said '"I love this song, but what the hell is a 'divine hammer?".. I replied "no idea, but who cares? this song is cool". My friend agreed and we kept singing lines like:

"I'm just looking for one divine hammer
I'd bang it all day
Oh the carpenter goes bang
Bang bang
I'm just looking for one divine hammer
one divine hammer"

The Breeders- 'Divine hammer'



If you have a favourite all-female band that isn't mentioned.. then please comment and mention away!

Life a new

It has been a while since I have been inspired to write anything 'humorous'. Through a series of events, to which there is no blame to attribute, I am now unemployed and living below the poverty line. This is not a cry for help, sympathy or alms, merely a statement.

In order to obtain financial assistance from the government, I have engaged with services and had all dignity stripped away by the people who were there to help me. I have to participate in 'job club' on  a weekly basis. 'What is job club?' I hear you ask, it is where a large group of us unemployed sit in a room looking for and applying for jobs, all under the close watch of case workers. Apparently they need to make sure that we 'do the right thing' and as such we can't be trusted to look for work from outside their offices (a case worker told me this). I can't help but wonder what type of a society treats it's less fortunate and unemployed like criminals.

My case worker treated me contemptuously from the moment we met...well, all up until the moment she realised I had supervised her in a previous role. Then she was sympathetic to my situation. This disappointed me greatly. All who walk through their doors should be treated with dignity and respect. 

This isn't a rant, I am simply sharing my experience. I am over feeling angry at how I have been treated. I am ready instead to live life a new. I am ready once more to live in hope.  Strangely, my creative side has blossomed since my circumstances have changed and I am making hand made photo-cards. I have some photos hanging in a gallery and I am playing and writing music again. Due to these experiences I have discovered a depth to my inner strength and resolve which I did not know existed. In an odd way, I am more confidant in myself. I am also getting better at putting my fear and anxiety to the side. Though my income barely covers my mortgage repayments, I am more accepting of where I am at, as I also accept that I am where I need to be, for what ever reason.  As I apply for work and live life a new, I am finding my happiness again. Everyday I am finding something to smile about.


Speaking of smiling, here is something beautiful and life affirming.....
It is a new track from  Bjork called 'moon'. It is off her new LP 'Biophilia', which has specially built apps for Apple's 'i' products (i-pads etc). According to Wikipedia there will be "around ten separate apps, all housed within one "mother" app. Each of the smaller apps will relate to a different track from the album, allowing people to explore and interact with the song's themes or even make a completely new version of them. It will also be an evolving entity that will grow as and when the album's release schedule dictates, with new elements added. Every app includes a game related to the song, the score of the song created by Björk and Jónas Sen, animations and a musical essay written by Nikki Dibben".
How exciting and how very Bjork!!! When I do start a new job, buying this album will be high on my 'to do list'!

Bjork- 'moon'.

The race that stops a nation.

I was thinking about the ‘race that stops a nation’- The Melbourne Cup. It brings punters out from everywhere to place their yearly bet, to hold Bar-b-ques, it’s an opportunity for men and women to dress up 'all nice' and attend the Race, hopefully invited to a marquee, to drink too much, and as is the sad case, be seen to leave –staggering about with shoes in hand, and much worse for wear. This one day creates jobs, milliners create hats, outfitters create outfits and sales of booze skyrocket…  Horses have names such as ‘So you think’, ‘Profound beauty’, Precedence’ and ‘Shocking’. The Age newspaper reports that one betting agency is expecting to turn over about 100 million dollars today. This is just one betting agency. I can’t help but feel uncomfortable with all of this. Sure we need fun, revelry, Bar-b-ques, hats, fashion and booze, but why does the word ‘excess’ spring to mind?

I work with people for who just a few extra dollars, would make a world of difference to them. The Main race today, race seven- ‘the Melbourne cup’, has a prize pool of 6 million dollars, this is just one of ten races. I can’t help but wonder how we might still have fun, enjoy life, laugh, have a drink, a bar-b-que, dress up, look great and channel some of this money to those who really need it. The 100 million dollars that just one of the betting companies is expecting to turn over… well…lets be honest, how many of us place a bet and win? If just half of this money went to those in need, how much better would cup day be for all of us? 50 Million dollars, WOW!!! How much good could be done with that? How much happiness, joy and hope could it bring to others less fortunate and in need, and we could still place our losing bets at the race track and have some fun.  Every one’s a winner! 

It’s a fact that when it comes to fund raising and charities, children’s charities capture more hearts, and do much better than fundraising for homeless alcoholics or drug users. Even saying that, The Royal Children’s Hospital ‘Good Friday Appeal’ this year raised a record 14.4 Million Dollars!!!. When we compare that amount to all the money that will be spent today on the ‘race that stops a nation’ I wonder what this says about us as a nation and our priorities.  

 

The C word.

It is a word that makes people cringe, but why? Men, especially heterosexual men are prone to use it to insult others. Yet, while they use it as a put down, heterosexual men spend almost all of their lives trying to get close to, and inside of it. Most of us have come from it- of course we have, our mothers have one, as do our grandmothers and all the women in our family that have been and will be! The word is spat out as if it was a vile thing, not the soft and warm mound of living flesh that it is. Unsurprisingly it multi-tasks, well…as a defining part of the female of our species, one would expect no less!  It gets rid of liquid waste from the body, it can give intimate and erotic pleasure, it is part of the process of creating life and also in delivering it into the world. So why is the word seen and used as an offensive term?  I know people who double over cringing at the mention of it. Being who I am, I take great pleasure in using the word often around these people!! I see it as a way of reclaiming the word.  As an opportunity for us to examine why we react to it in the way that we do. Is it the pronunciation of the word? The imagery it creates? The socially constructed definition? Shouldn’t it be seen as a compliment? – ‘I love you, you are a c…’. Meaning -You give me pleasure; your life giving/ life creating; you’re a multitasker. This word has been twisted and used as a weapon against women, to make them feel ashamed of something that is an integral part of themselves. An integral part of our species, for without it we would not be here. Let’s reclaim it. Let us mention it often and do away with the harsh pronunciation, that hard ‘T’ sound, let’s pronounce it lovingly. Let’s have a ‘Love the cunt’ day, but most importantly, let’s do away with the shame.