5/14/07 Show - Women

My first Monday show was dedicated to the women of the punk/post-punk world. To further honor their legacy - or should I say lega-SHE, Oprah - I will abandon the usual irreverence of my blog posts and speak seriously for a few seconds: As I said last night, women like the ones below are too few and far between. Most musicians are men. The women that are involved with music are, more often than not, singers. Few of them play instruments. Even fewer of them write the music they perform. Almost none of them produce or engineer their work. All of them operate within a much more constrained box than their male counterparts. To me, that all really sucks. And not because I'm Mr. Sensitive or anything, more because I'm Mr. Self-Indulgent Pleasure Seeker. Actually Mr. Self-Indulgent Pleasure Seeker was my father. You can call me Alex. But the point is, I just want more good music. I will never be able to get enough good music. If over half the population isn't contributing as much as they could, that sucks for me. For all of us, really, but especially me.

So why is this? Why haven't women been able to contribute musically as much as men? I may be wrong on this but I honestly think the answer right now, at least in our western society is: It doesn't matter. People can either let history hold them back or let go or maybe just eat a sandwich. As much as I love sandwiches and even more, eating them, I still say we go with letting go. Sure, it's easier said than done but if you're a woman and you want to make music, there's no reason you have to play bass or keyboards instead of guitar or drums. There's no reason you can't write songs and there's no reason that those songs have to be a certain way. If the music is good, they will like it. Even if it's not good, they may like it but it's probably better to be good. That's one of the many things I love about music in the first place. It's the bottom line. People are more willing to drop their prejudices and preconceptions when they hear a damn good song than in just about any other scenario. Rock 'N' Roll itself was pretty much founded on that principal.

Anyway, here's a link to the show's mp3: http://www.box.net/shared/static/g0qjbzm4b9.mp3 Give it a listen and let me know what you think. That's bloggery at its finest.

Thee playliste doth thusly:

My Mother, The War - 10,000 Maniacs
Kung Fu Girls - Blondie
C30 C60 C90 Go! - Bow Wow Wow
Typical Girls - The Slits
You - The Au Pairs
Dig Me Out - Sleater-Kinney
Generator - Elastica
Lust to Love - The Go Gos
Cherry-Coloured Funk - Cocteau Twins
Suspended in Gaffa - Kate Bush
Pleasure Victim - Berlin
Hybrid - Siouxsie and the Banshees
Frederick - Patti Smith
Nausea - X
Show Me - The Pretenders
Bonjour Baby - The Motels
I Love Playing With Fire - The Runaways
Epitaph of Ivy and Woe - Shellyhan Orphan
Don't Talk To Me About Love - Altered Images
Gigantic - Pixies
Kool Thing - Sonic Youth
Identity - X-Ray Spex
No One's Little Girl - The Raincoats
Hazy Shade of Winter - The Bangles
Girl Anachronism - The Dresden Dolls
You Suck - Yeastie Girlz with Consolidated