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 the beginning of his career as a music producer and songwriter in the 1960’s, Kim had a soft spot for girl groups (especially the jailbait set…) starting with the likes of The Murmaids, through to Althea and the Memories and leading up to the harder sounds of The Runaways and Venus and the Razor Blades in the 70s. Download here a mix of Kim Fowley’s travel through the girl group sound and see below for a clip from the eye candy experience of The Runways on film…
Track listing: Murmaids - Popsicles and Icicles
Althea and the Memories - Worst Record Ever Made
The Runaways - I Wanna Be Where the Boys Are (live in Japan)
The Runaways - Cherry Bomb (live in Japan)
The Runaways - American Nights (live in Japan)
Venus and the Razor Blades - I Wanna Be Where the Boys Are
Venus and the Razor Blades - Finer Things in Life
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 in the late 70s and early 80s started by Kiddy Citny of the band “Sprung Aus Den Wolken.” One of the bands, or at least a one-off musical project that the label promoted, was the Frau Siebenrock Combo. Cassettencombinat released their cassette “Zäh wie Gold” in 1981, of which three songs are ready for download below.
I haven’t found out much about them, except that Leffi Leffringhausen was somehow involved. Any further insights are most welcome! Until then enjoy these songs and see you in the new decade…
Sara Jaffe and Mia Clarke are best known as musicians performing with Erase Errata and Electrelane, respectively. With both bands currently on hiatus, Sara and Mia came together to reflect on a central element of band life - touring.
The result is a beautiful 7″ square book with accompanying DVD called The Art of Touring published by Yeti Publishers and featuring contributions from the likes of Emma Gaze, Elizabeth Sharp (Ill Ease), Johanna Fateman, Carla Bozulich, Jean Smith, Sara Marcus, Cynthia Nelson and many more. As a preview of the greatness within, here’s the charming contribution from Tara Jane ONeil as featured on the DVD:
I caught up with Sara recently and grilled her on band life. She started her illustrious punk rock musical career in 1997 with the The Cakecutters in Portland, Oregon followed by a stint with the Pyrodydacts in Middletown, Connecticut in ‘98 and ‘99. She formed Erase Errata in San Francisco in 1999 with Bianca Sparta, Ellie Erikson and Jenny Hoyston and played guitar with the foursome until 2004. Between 2001-2004 Erase Errata was on tour perhaps a quarter to a third of the year with the longest road trip in the fall of 2001 slouching across Europe for six weeks.
JW: What are some of the tactile memories you have of being on tour? Sounds, smells, sights or feelings that you’ve experienced on your road trips as part of Erase Errata?
SJ: Well, it’s been awhile now, but here’s some… The little sleeping pallet that we made between the two back seats in a rented Sprinter on one European tour. Some of the best naps of my life there. The little plastic-y cups you get hot chocolate dispensed into from machines in Italy. Opening a hotel room window in Paris and having rose petals floating down from above. A pug dog that spun around in circles as if it was possessed, in Denton, TX. Another dog peeing on my sleeping bag (while I was in it) in Indiana. Delicious Dutch-Indonesian-squatter fusion food prepared for us by our host in Amsterdam. Reckless drivers in Athens. Walking across the River Clyde at dawn in Glasgow. Seaweed fights on the beach on Victoria Island. How hot it was once at playing at the Unitarian Church in Philly that the Ex were shorting out their guitars from their own sweat.
JW: What promises/hopes/aspirations did you have as a band when you first started?
SJ: As cheesy as it sounds, I think we really just had fun playing music together and realized we’d hit some kind of “spark” with our sound, so we wanted to keep doing it. Put out a record? Sure! Go on tour? Yeah! Eventually, what one had to do to keep a band sustainable–constant touring, primarily–became a bit too much for me, which is when I left the band.
JW: What does playing in a band mean to you? SJ: I think one way of thinking about it might be to think about what, specifically, I miss, after a few years of not really doing anything band-like on a regular basis. I miss the community that accrues from playing shows regularly, with like-minded (musically, politically, whatever) people. I miss the feeling of participating in a collaborative creative endeavor, where it felt like we were making up the rules together as we went along. I miss the public loudness.
JW: How did you discover punk rock? SJ: A combo of college radio, the Bennington College July program, zines, and my straight-edge hardcore friend in highschool.
JW: Who is a woman that has inspired you in your music, either as a band or personally? SJ: Can I make a list? So many! Most definitely incomplete, and drawing on various eras of my life… The Raincoats, The Slits, Delta 5, LiliPUT, Team Dresch, The Quails, PJ Harvey, Liz Phair, Talk Normal, Sleater Kinney, The Need, Yoko Ono, The Passions, all the women on No New York, Sandy Denny, my former bandmates, Sta-Prest, Mary Timony, Beth Ditto, Joni Mitchell, Alice Coltrane, and my longtime childhood piano teacher Irene Taylor.
I picked up this compilation Kopf: Hören! a few years back from a merch table laid out at concert in a squated house (Kalki in Zürich), where the beers where cheap (Sprint for 2CHF), the music loud (thanks Archie), the bands passionate and the audience loving and enthusiastic (all fifty of us).
The sampler was released sometime in 2002 on a German record label called frequenzpark, founded by Isabella Krebs. I haven’t seen it around anywhere before or since so I think it’s fallen the way of obscurity. It is a decent, honest and hard working little compilation worth a good listen.
Makes me wonder how many other great lost local samplers of women’s punk are out there just waiting to be rediscovered…
Side A:
Amtrak - 0-50m
Below - Dress the Fuzz
Brustkrebs - The Secret Sex of the Nuclear Bomb
Kochen mit Glas - Brütende Kälte
Side B:
Rhythm King and Her Friends - Copie-moi je veux voyager
Kokoshka Heroine - ∞ Planlos
Mahlzahn - Au-Pair
Schlampen Ficken Besser - 13
The Flamingo Massacres - Cowboy Angst
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 with a stellar appearance in Krems, Austria at the Donau Festival as part of the Chicks on Speed hosted Girlmonster programme.
The next date in the diary, at the end of September, is a live performance at London’s National Portrait Gallery as part of the Icon-i-coustic series in conjunction with the Gay Icons exhibition. The event is also a celebration of the upcoming Kill Rock Stars re-issue of their 1979 self-titled debut album. Following which the band will embark on a limited four city tour of the U.S. in mid October, including their first ever visit to the west coast.
Catch them if you can and treasure the opportunity to sing along with “Lola” at the top of your voice in the front row. Here’s the trailer of the Fairytales film from the LLGFF, to whet your appetite…
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 featured the following musicians, coming together in various formations during the two day event:
Maggie Nicols (voice)
Flora St. Loup (voice)
Annemarie Roelofs (trombone, violin)
Co Streiff (alto sax)
Mariette Rouppe van der Voort (alto sax)
Maud Sauer (oboe)
Lindsay Cooper (basoon, live-electronics)
Maarthe ten Hoorn (violin)
Elvira Plenar (piano)
Iréne Schweizer (piano, drums)
Joëlle Léandre (bass, voice)
Petra Ilyes (bass guitar)
Marilyn Mazur (percussion, piano)
The record is long out of print and has never been re-released on CD. Download it below and start to rediscover the hidden history of women’s improvised music…
DOWNLOAD: Canaille SIDE A
1. Gaat um Gang, Dames! (Streiff, Roelofs, Schweizer, Mazur)
2. Kromhout 2 Cyl. 80 Pk (Sauer, Cooper)
3. Vino Santo (St. Loup, Léandre, Mazur)
4. Hello (Nicols, Ten Hoorn, Roelofs, Plenar, Leandre)
5. Discovery (Streiff, Rouppe van der Voort, Sauer, Ilyes, Schweizer)
DOWNLOAD:Canaille SIDE B
1. Trutznachtigall II (Schweizer, Léandre, Mazur)
2. A) Nasty (Nicols, Cooper, Mazur)
B) Eine Kleine Drum-Musik (Schweizer, Mazur)
3. Metal Nuit (St. Loup, Roelofs, Sauer, Ten Hoorn, Leandre)
4. Sweethearts of Rhythm (Rouppe van der Voort, Ten Hoorn, Plenar, Ilyes, Mazur)
…
Original liner notes, written by Rosmarie A. Meier, translated by Susan Kaufmann and transcribed by Nicole Emmenegger
In it’s article on the two day Women’s Music Festival Canaille, which took place on October 17 and 18, 1986, at the Rote Fabrik (a cultural center located in an old red-brick factory), Zurich’s largest daily newspaper called it “one of the most exciting jazz events to happen in Zurich.” During the two evenings 13 female musicians from the current European improvised music scene could be heard in different group formations. Invited were some of the central figures and founders of women’s jazz in Europe: the pianist and drummer Iréne Schweizer, the singer Maggie Nicols, the bassoonist and composer Lindsay Cooper, as well as the trombonist and violinist Annemarie Roelofs. All four of them were part of the legendary “Feminist Improvising Group” (FIG), an ensemble that wrote music history.
In the meantime, many years have passed and the sphere of activities of these musicians has spread: Lindsay Cooper, for example, gathered together numerous musicians like Sally Potter, Georgie Born and Kate Westrook for her feminist film projects (The Gold Diggers, Rags). In 1983, Iréne Schweizer founded the “European Women’s Improvising Group” (EWIG), which included among others the bass-player Joëlle Léandre from Franc and Annemarie Roelofs from Holland. Today she also works with a young saxophonist form Zurich, Co Streiff.
The British singer Maggie Nicols, certainly one of the female musicians, who has most clearly pursued the idea of connecting music and politics, has started several of her own groups. She has always done this with the intention of expanding the narrow professional scene and thus setting new musical standards. Not only technical brilliance and professionalism should have their place, but also a spirit of inventiveness, enthusiasm and fantasy. Art on the other hand, everyday life on the other – this division should be lifted.
Annemarie Roelofs, violinist and composer with classical training, co-founder of the Canaille Festival in Frankfurt in 1986, plays the trombone, an instrument that is considered by no means a classical “instrument for girls.” As recently as the thirties and forties it was questioned whether women could even handle this instrument. Annemarie Roelofs did not let this daunt her and is today one of the only female trombonists in Europe. Nowadays, she also plays together with the Yugoslavian pianist Elvira Plenar, who got her training as a classical pianist in Zagreb and Graz.
Marilyn Mazur, former dancer with the Creative Dance Theatre, pianist, composer and graduate of the Royal Danish Music Conservatory, is today one of the few women drummers to make an international breakthrough on this – usually considered masculine – instrument. She works with Miles Davis and Wayne Shorter.
The French bass-player Joëlle Léandre belongs to the new generation of musicians (both male and female) who are not restrained by questions of style and – having been trained by John Cage – has at her fingertips a wide repertoire of the 20th century music. In any case, the music played at Canaille no longer has anything to do with what is commonly called jazz. It can most easily be characterized with the term used by the jazz journalist Bert Noglik: “jazz dissidence.” The diverse social and cultural backgrounds of the musicians are also reflected in various ways in their music. The musicians bring in experiences which range from classical music, from the folk-music tradition across pop and rock music to the techniques of modern composed music.
Also exciting at the Canaille Festival was the encounter between the “founding generation” and a second generation of younger musicians like the pianist Elvira Plenar or the saxophonist and flute-player Co Streiff from Switzerland. In contrast to, say, Iréne Schweizer or Maggie Nicols, many of these younger musicians have their roots in classical music.
The French singer and composer Flora St. Loup attended music conservatories in Paris, Vienna and Salzburg. She has written the music for numerous plays and films. Also working “across borders” are the Dutch musicians Maartje ten Hoorn (violin), Maud Sauer (oboe) and Mariëtte Rouppe van der Voort (flute and saxophone), all with classical training and a the same time long “at home” in free improvised music (together with Guus Janssen, Maarteen Altena etc.). Only the German bass guitar player Petra Ilyes comes from the rock and punk tradition and has no trouble finding her way in free improvised music. On the contrary, with her funky and jazz-rock like interludes she supplements and broadens the musical diversity of the “Canailles.”
“What is really so different when women make music?” is a question that arises time and again. If the still relatively recent history of the European women’s free improvised scene is considered, from the “Feminist Improvising Group” across the “European Women Improvising Group” to the women’s music scene which started primarily in Great Britain and Holland, and finally the Canaille Festivals, the musicians are certainly not concerned with “feminine” aesthetics, but rather – if anything – with “feminist” aesthetics. This claim is especially strong with the “first” generation around the FIG and EWIG. The younger musicians, who have built upon the social and musical achievements of the pioneer generation, have in the meantime developed a new understanding of themselves: They have become more self-confident. For the “first” generation, the time spent playing only with other women was an important step in finding their identity. The common experiences in the struggle for emancipation in private as well as public life, especially as musicians, was the departing point and the heart of what they did: “We improvised our lives, our biographies… our situation at the moment was the basis of what we did” (Maggie Nicols, 1986).
The means of musical expression – and here it is not by chance that the first and second generation come together again – is free improvised music. For it offers the musicians that free room to develop individual styles and to express what they themselves are or want to become. The question of “Feminist Aesthetics” cannot be seen as much in the way the music – for example that of the “Canailles” – “sounds” as in the way they appear on stage and how they deal with each other. Here is where their circumstance and their strategies for getting by in life (even surviving) are reflected most clearly: solidarity, wealth of imagination, self-irony, passion, humor and seriousness. These elements could all be clearly felt during the performances at the Canaille Festival. And also in how the 13 musicians came to an agreement without any one leading figures on both afternoons before the Festival and put together the individual formations (altogether there were 24 different groups, from duo-appearances to entire formations).
The other outstanding moment of the Canaille Festival: Every time there is a festival, it is a women musician who initiates (at least co-initiates) it. The first Canaille Festival was organized by the Dutch trombonist and violinist Annemarie Roelofs (together with Christiane Spieler and Kathi Goth) in Frankfurt. The second Canaille, from which this recording was made, was realized through the efforts of Iréne Schweizer and the group “Fabrikjazz” (Factory Jazz” in Zurich. The third Canaille took place in November 1987 under the aegis of Flora St. Loup in Vienna and the fourth in December in Amsterdam (organized by Maartje ten Hoorn). In the meantime Canaille has become an institution. The musicians have taken their affairs into their own hands, for in these times it is not a matter of course that these musicians get invited to the important festivals of the free improvised music.
This recording of the Canaille Festival in Zurich in 1986 is intended to give the broad public a survey of the musical diversity of the current women’s improvising scene in Europe. For financial reasons alone, we were forced to compress the excellent musical material from more than 9 hours to two short record sides. At the same time we wanted to give not only an impression of the musical breadth of these musicians and a taste of the what was at times almost euphoric, certainly exciting and varied performances, but also to represent all 13 musicians. This record has an important documentary value. Especially because I suspect that the emergence of a broad scene of free improvising women musicians is the most exceptional and innovative moment of the 80s as regards the history of free improvisation. However, this recent history of free improvisers can only be found on a small number of records. There are no recordings of the “Feminist Improvising Group” (FIG) or the “European Women’s Improvising Group” (EWIG) available to the public.
This Canaille record was realized thanks to the work and support of a team of enthusiasts called “Fabrikjazz” and other groups in the alternative cultural center “Rote Fabrik.” In the end, it was the various groups of the IGRF (a collective body of groups around the “Rote Fabrik”) that decided at short notice to support the record projects both with infrastructure and financially. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who were involved.
