Jenny Woolworth’s Women in Punk Blog

I give you Drunk Granny, two women, Sam and Debi, on the never ending search for the perfect power punk sound. They are UK based, but only until their feminist spaceship whisks them away to an as yet undiscovered territory. They have released an album, Postcards for Auntie Julie, an EP, Beddeath, and a split 7″ with the Husbands is coming out in Summer 2008 on Local Kid Records. The mp3 included here is a Jenny Woolworth exclusive, from the group’s secret second life as Lesbo Pig cover band. It’s called ‘Boys With Vaginas’. Read more about it in our interview…

JW: What is one of your favorite sounds and what does it mean to you?
Debi: It has to be the sound of the kettle boiling which assures me that warm, wet happiness is just around the corner. Steaming!
Sam: The sound of Patti (my cat) chatting to the birds because it fascinates me: does he think he is a bird or is he just communicating with them? (and it’s a really sweet sound)

JW: Tell me about one of your most cherished records and why it is so important to you.
Debi: Well, this week I’ve been listening alot to the Throwing Muses album The Real Ramona, which has blown me away with perfect pop punk psychosis. It’s one of those records where I can’t understand how it has physically happened, been committed to the machine, frozen with all that witchy magic, those harmonies weaving between the unit of that band, captured in a time I can’t imagine ever happened. no matter how many times I hear it (which is a shed load) it still feels new to me, it feels like dying, waking up, being distilled in sunlight and torn apart forever. But you can dance to it too, which is a bonus.
Sam: Patti Smith’s Horses. I don’t feel really qualified to comment on it as an album because it’s too good, but “Free Money” excites me and makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up - that ecstasy feeling. The fact that Patti Smith is one of the greatest with her words of wisdom, an inspiration to us all - it gives me strength that she is trampin’ on this earth at the same time as I am and she’s still rocking as 63 - go grandma!
The Grannies (collective voice): Probably the biggest influence on our band was the album At Home with Lesbo Pig. When we heard it in the burgeoning spring of 2004 it touched our hearts, souls (& pants!) and really showed us how to realise our dreams and write irreverent queer, pop hits! They were awesome in the way they wrote shrewd political songs that were funny and sweet but with a punk heart as well!
It wasn’t just the ‘pig’ either but that whole bunch of queer punk geeks who got together at the beginning of this century, artists like Truly Kaput were also really important and the first Irrk compilation will always hold a special place in our hearts. That energy was just shocking and a relief to encounter as we were so locked in our bedrooms and our heads, to find a way to be angry and queer and laugh as well. Now that’s the revolution baby!
So what we’re telling you is we have a secret second life as a lesbo pig cover band. to give you a window to this part of granny history, we are sending you a slightly embarrassing, if beautiful, song from the extensive ‘granny vault’ from the early days. It was recorded in Sam’s bedroom where we used to practice (we still practise in Sam’s bedroom, but it’s a different one). Its called ‘Boys With Vaginas’ and its a TOTAL Lesbo Pig rip off. enjoy.

JW: What is the stupidest comment/joke you have heard about women in the music business?
The Grannies: Any time we play outside of queer/ feminist friendly spaces we always get shitty comments from male sound engineers. we always wear earplugs ‘cos although we are drunk grannies we don’t want to be deaf grannies! But this male sound engineer was like ‘oh that’s why you are so loud’ (implying that we can’t hear) and then they were like, ‘maybe you should be gardeners instead of playing music.’ It was like an alien conversation. we were like FUCK YOU you SEXIST PRICK, and played even LOUDER. It is astonishing how much resistance girls/ queers get when playing music which is in anyway confrontational, ie LOUD, outside a context where they are not supported. There is so much work to do. Die patriarchy, die!

Download: Drunk Granny - Boys With Vaginas