Jenny Woolworth’s Women in Punk Blog

clockwise, from top left - Les Reines Prochaines, Gaggle, Disband, Pulsallama

Today I’m highlighting women’s collectives, specifically the whimsical, cunning sounds of arty female musical troops featuring the likes of Ann Magnuson, Barbara Ess, Dianne Torr, Barbara Krueger, Pipilotti Rist and Valie Export.
In New York City, between 1979 - 1982, artists such as Ilona Granet, Donna [...]

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top: Autoclave, bottom left: Ruby Falls, bottom right: Corndolly

Recently I was asked to submit a mixtape - an actual cassette -  for a an archive project at the Double Double Land Gallery in Toronto, Canada. I immediately pulled out my box of dusty tapes looking for one I might be able to dub over and [...]

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The Runaways film premiered last week at the Sundance film festival - it follows the titillating adventures of  teenagers Joan Jett, Lita Ford, Cherie Currie and Sandy West as they band together to form one of the greatest and sexiest heavy rock/punk/pop groups ever, all under the watchful eye of producer and svengali, Kim Fowley.
From [...]

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I thought it fitting to end the year - and the decade - with a riddle of a band. I hope Frau Siebenrock Combo will leave you pondering into the new year and inspire the continued search for obscure women’s music in all it’s forms…
Cassettencombinat was a West Berlin based cassette only record label active [...]

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(photo by Christa Holka)
There is a  flurry of activity surrounding The Raincoats right now, including rare live appearances, film projects and album re-issues.
The buzz began in March after a tantalizing preview screening for the band’s documentary/tour diary film, Fairytales, directed by Gina Birch at the BFI hosted 2009 London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival (LLGFF). 
In April they followed up [...]

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Canaille was a series of annual festivals of women’s improvised music which took place in various cities across Europe between 1985 and 1992. A recording of the second festival, at the Rote Fabrik in Zürich on the 17 and 18 October 1986, was released on the Swiss record label Intakt in 1988. The event [...]

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