"You Rock Like A Girl." - "Thank You."

Man...I wish I could have spent my formative and angst-ridden teenage years in the 90s. But noooo. I had to blossom in the gross '00s. Not important. Important is the fact that I spent an entire hour last night reading up on Kathleen Hanna. Important is the fact that she has become my Gloria Steinem.

Important is the fact that I spent two and a half hours listening to 90s riot grrrl rock music from the Muffs, the 5,6,7,8's, Free Kitten, Lunachicks, and Hole. Important is the fact that tonight, I bought my first Bikini Kill record.

Really important is that I found the video for this song (btw, one of my favorite songs in ever). I wish I had been a teen when grunge was in. I would get a pair of lace-up boots, patterned tights, and sundress, and put this song on whilst leaning over the bathtub to die my hair blue. Now enjoy.



Oh yeah, and important is the fact that once I go back to Atlanta and get to drum again, I will so totally be starting a garage band. It will so be awesomeplus.

Deuces,
Erika

This Time Just The Girls

Basically if I could form a perfect girl band it would be like the Coathangers. I would be Stephanie (the one with the bangs over her eyes). Only it would also involve sparkly ribbon headbands, 80s synth keyboards, glitter eyeshadow, and be called The Savage Ivories.

Sigh...it's finally Fall. Well, not here, in the volcano-temperature Valley where it still gets to the mid 90s during the week, but in general. And even though colder weather is my favorite, it usually sends me into some kind of temperature induced sadness, like when some people get depressed due to the fact that it's dark so much or whatever. So to combat the aforementioned sadness, I delve heavily into my music stash, putting together playlists and mix CDs that create a winter wonderland full of swirling ambiance and delicious memories. Normally, I would a throw playlist your way, but this is no ordinary winter. This is one of empowerment and feminism, so with that, I've compiled the Fall Fem Fierceness playlist: the best fall and winter tracks from the badassiest females in music. Which would you guys add? Feel oh so free to let me know.

Sara Lov: "New York"

Jenny Lewis: "Rise Up With Fists"

The Watson Twins: "How Am I To Be?"

Asobi Seksu: "Walk On The Moon"

Cat Power: "Lived In Bars"

The Breeders: "Doe"

Be Your Own Pet: "October, First Account"

Northern State: "Three Amigas"

Regina Spektor: "Better"

Magneta Lane: "Constant Lover"

Pony Up!: "Shut Up And Kiss Me"

Charlotte Gainsbourg: "The Songs That We Sing"

The Long Blondes: "You Could Have Both"

And there you have it. Plus a few personal all time favorite riot grrrl songs:

The Grown Ups: "Nick and Nick" (Ummm, a song written back in like '94 about how the dude this girl fell in love with fell in love with a boy, using the lyrics "suck it in the dick" and "which one is the chick" is like pure gold.)

The Cougars: "Brain Cactus" (Surriously. If you don't feel badass when you listen to this song, you never will. And I hurt for you.)

The Chubbies: "Didjahavtasaythat?" (We all know this feeling.)

I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker (With Flowers In My Hair)

Okay, someone out there had to get that Sandi Thom reference. No? Alright, alright, I'll stop. Because what this post is really about is my guitar! That I bought! Today! That's right!

And what you may not know about me (which is understandable, because even though I put most of my life out here on my baby of a blog, there are shitloads of things I've kept private, which probably doesn't make me the right kind of blog owner), is that I've forayed into the world of guitaristry before. Actually, I play a multitude of instruments: piano, flute, and the drums, my real musical passion. Instruments and music and writing are the only stress relievers I have. But back when my friends and I were in our seminal girl band, Russell Betty and the Corrigans (an obscure Great Gatsby reference and the fourth and final name we decided on), I was destined to learn all the instruments.

This was long before I ever saw or knew of the Coathangers or Grand Ole Party, and learned that the drummer and lead singer of a band could actually be one and the same, and at the time I thought the only way for me to sing the songs I wrote was to be a lead guitarist. So at it I went, borrowing my bandmate's acoustic and tab book, using a pink clothes button as a pick, and strumming away while holed up in my room for hours. From those weeks of musical encampment, I mastered only two chords: C and F and constructed sappy, whining folk songs from them.

And now, two years later, I am basically starting from scratch, having forgotten everything I ever learned. I held my guitar and it was almost like meeting an old friend with whom you used to do everything but whose name you seem to have misplaced, despite the many memories.

Hopefully these nine months I have left of school will provide me more than enough fodder to start creating some really good music and hopefully this guitar will bring me some much needed peace of mind.

I'm gonna be the next Beck! I'll be Becky!

Deuces,
Erika

Agent Ribbons

As I've said before, it's definitely summer. And unyieldingly so, since it's looking like temps in the 90s all week here in ATL. So while the hipsters and businesspeople spar it out with Starbucks in the hot summer sun, I'm gonna stay here in my nice, cool, ceiling fanned room and sort my earrings by color.

In between that, I guess I'll be listening to Agent Ribbons. The two piece combo of Californian retrophiles guitarist/vocalist Natalie Gordon and drummer/guitarist Lauren Hess, Agent Ribbons is like the soundtrack to a summer day in 40s era Brighton Beach or Coney Island. But hey, something else reminds me of Brighton Beach! The perfect combo!

Anyway, I have a hard time describing Agent Ribbons, mostly because while I did do some time as a music journalist, I'm certainly not a trained one. So I'll just say that their music is perfect summer fare. It sounds delicately vintage and shimmering, but at the same time modern. So it is almost the all female equivalent to Beirut (Ohhh Zach Condon, marry me pls). Agent Ribbons have played with Social Studies (my SF FAVES) and even opened for Cake. How boss is that?!

Their debut album, On Time Travel and Romance, is an amazing album, full of light guitars, bells, horns, and happiness. And while I'm aware that happiness isn't an instrument, it's all you can feel when you listen to this album. My absolute favorite song is "Obituary." I'm not sure what it's about exactly, but it's the cutest, nicest song I've heard in a very long time.

Luckily, I found some mp3s for download, but you can actually download a lot of their songs off their myspace. Also luckily, they tour a lot in CA, so when they come back from their UK tour in October, I'll be able to see them live. So suck it GA!!

Unfortunately, there's no really great live video or imeem track to put here, so you'll sort of have to just go listen for yourself, but please do, because these girls are amazing!

Agent Ribbons: "Obituary"
Agent Ribbons: "Birds and Bees"

I guess you can expect a lot more posts on awesome female songwriters/bands because all of a sudden everyone got really good!

Deuces,
Erika

Nothing's Easy When It's Wrong

Minty Fresh Records has been putting out some kind of delicious musical goodness recently. First it was Ezra Furman and The Harpoons, then White Shoes and Couples Company, and then Prototypes, and finally Beangrowers.

I have been harboring a small personal obsession with Beangrowers lately. Alison Galea, the lead vocalist, has an amazing voice, both haunting and heavy, and she plays guitar, which is bitchin'. Not to mention that while their music sounds as if it could be pulled straight from any episode of a British Masterpiece Theatre Mystery, all three of band members hail from Malta. Gorgeous!

Their new album, Not In A Million Lovers is crazy amazing, but I'm currently in love with this song, "Quaint Affair." It's about a woman cheating on her narcissistic, oblivious husband, and has some of the best lyrics I've heard in a long time.

My favorite line? "But nothing's easy/nothing's easy when it's wrong/it's hard enough to never never ever have to love."

"Quaint Affair"

Why I Hate Rock Band

Everyone I know is aware that I hate Rock Band. I do. I kind of really mind Guitar Hero too, but that's more like karoake and Pump to me, so it doesn't really get under my skin. But for some reason, Rock Band really gets me going. First off, I hate those commercials. They try to be funny and sarcastic and clever and all that, but they're lost on me. I know what they're about, but they're stupid.

But I won't continue to talk about adverts forever.

My boyfriend thinks my hate of RB is elitist. Fuck that. You know what, I probably am. When I was in 10th grade, all I wanted was a drum kit. I'd played the flute in MS band for three years (but never got any better) and then took piano lessons under this strict and stringent teacher who never let me paint or grow out my nails. It was boring, but I am an ace pianist.

Anyway, I bought my first drums from Goodwill. It was $25 for four drums that were missing a lot of parts and were pretty crappy, but I sat on my floor and learned them. I bought a ten dollar TEACH YOURSELF DRUMS book. My first pair of sticks were the shittiest ones ever and only cost about three bucks. But day in and day out, I sat in front of those drums and practiced.

Cut to about six months later. My friends and I think it would be cool to start an all girl band. We have two garage sales and raise around $120. With the money we buy an amp, a guitar, and a mic. Then we try to build me a complete drum kit. It's hella expensive. I plead to my mother and she finally buys me a kit about two months later. It becomes my pride and joy. Continuous trips to Guitar Center ensue. I feel empowered when I buy my sticks. I ogle hot boy drummers.

A year and two defunct riot grrrl bands later, I still practice the drums everyday. I am sad to put them in storage when I go to LA. The most wonderful thing that has happened in my drumming career is when I saw this man drumming on an upside down bucket on the street in Atlanta. He was amazing.

I approached him and asked him how long he was playing. He said, "For a really long time." I said, "I've been playing for about a year and I feel like I'm not getting any better."

He said to me, "Keep going. I'm sure you'll get really good."

You don't get that kind of organic, interesting, awesome story from asking your mom to go to Target and buy you Rock Band. You don't get this feeling of accomplishment of learning an instrument from square one and then getting really good at it. You feel like you can conquer the fucking world with that feeling. I don't dismiss the fact that Rock Band gives a lot of people the chance to come out of their shells. I just wonder why people can't just buy a real instrument and do that.

I guess the world likes the instant gratification. Bleh, that's why I hate Rock Band.

Deuces,
Erika

Pieces

Okay I'm currently in love with this song. Like, for seriously. Can't get it out of my head, wake up singing it, put it on as soon as I get in the car kind of infatuation. Normally I'm not a big fan of country/indie pop/rock girl groups with a twang-ish guitar and harmonic vocals. I usually leave those sorts of bands to the girls who like Liz Phair.

But this time they trapped me. I swear I listened to shit just like this when I was in like 10th grade. Why am I musically devolving?! It's good stuff nonetheless.

I saw the Bridges live once, when they came up to Atlanta to perform for National Record Store Day. I wrote a little bit about it here. I thought they were great. You'll probably think that too, unless you have no heart.

If that's true, you don't deserve good music. So there.

The Bridges: "Pieces"

Deuces,
Erika

Things Courtney Love Says

Quotes that require me to respect her steez like whoa:

"The best stuff is free. And for free stuff you have to be skinny. You can't be a fat rock star."

And this gem:

"I have to leave my guts on the stage. When I do it, I do it. And for anyone to have the fucking balls to think I'm not there 100%...I'm giving it my heart, my soul, my pussy, my dick, whatever else I've got."

Goddammit. Why couldn't she be my mother?

Deuces,
Erika

They Gave Women The Right To Vote???

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