Riot Grrrl by Reed Terry

Survival Of The Feminist - Evolution Of The Riot Girl Scene

Riot Girl (officially known as “Riot Grrrl”) was an underground punk rock movement “of the girls, by the girls, and for the girls,” which was quite a rage among the new generation feminists in the 1990s. It started in 1991 as the voice of women in the male-dominated punk rock scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Not long after, it underwent a metamorphosis and became the harbinger of the so-called third wave feminism.

A Brief Outline Of The Evolution Of The Riot Girl Movement

The band’s popularity grew exponentially in the first four or five years. It began in the West Coast of the USA, spread to the other parts of the country, and then crossed the Atlantic to create waves in the UK. Before the accidental founders of the movement even realized it, this presence had spread to a number of countries including Brazil, Malaysia, and Australia.

However, members of the movement found the widespread media attention too uncomfortable to live with. There were differences of opinion about what paths they should take. The lead figures of the movement were frequently misquoted in the media. In fact, they became exactly the thing they had opposed all along: an object of public curiosity and sexual desire. The pungent sarcasm in their activities, lyrics, and writings failed to open the eyes of a society that is punch-drunk with male dominance.

The Riot Girl movement is still active but has lost the aura it once had. To use a metaphor straight from male-dominated jargon, it is a Lolita who has grown old.

History Of The Movement

Two punk rock bands acted as the pillars in the growth of the movement: Bikini Kill and Bratmobile. Bikini Kill is widely regarded as the first of the riot-girl band. Kathleen Hanna and her friends Kathi Wilcox and Billy Karren started this band as a response to the arrogant dominance of men in the Punk Rock Scene. They focused more on passion and performance than on instrumental perfection. They were amateurs and proud of it. Their songs were about issues that resulted from the perceived inequality of women: rape, physical submission, and the portrayal of women as sexual objects.

Their music attracted similarly-minded girls, and subsequently paved way for the International Pop Underground Convention in 1991, at Olympia Washington. It was then that Bratmobile and other similar bands joined the fray, and many other functions occurred later. These meetings triggered a do-it-yourself (DIY) frenzy of zine publishing.

Zine is the short form for magazines published informally. Write as much as desired on whatever form of paper available, take photocopies of it, and bundle it all together to create a zine ready and raring to be read.

These zines were memorably and provokingly titled, such as 7-year bitches, CWA (short form for Cunts with Attitude), the Phantom Pregnancies, and Pussycat Trash. Through these zines, the Riot Girls projected themselves as feminists, but not man-haters. They were sick of a world run by males and wanted a slice of the power pie.

The Riot Girl movement didn’t sustain its initial momentum. Internal conflicts came into the fore, and media attention and the rough attitude of male audiences proved stumbling blocks in the path of progress. It never achieved the girl revolution its founders had hoped for, but it remains a sparkling phase in the history of feminist movements.

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The Start

Info Courtesy of Wiki with the permission of the Start.

In January 2003, AFI invited theSTART to open up for them. Jeff Jaeger left the band in February and they brought in Sarah Saturday to play bass. theSTART continued to jump on tours, including Vaux, The Used and Coheed and Cambria. In May, Sarah and Brian were fired from the band because of conflicts. Having had a tour with Alkaline Trio still planned in June, theSTART borrowed friends Todd O'Keefe and Justin Rocherolle from The Green And Yellow TV to fill in.

Erick Sanger met theSTART when his previous band, Kissing Chaos, had played a show with them in Texas. He told Aimee he loved theSTART and would like to be in the band if they ever needed him. Bringing along friend Billy Brimblecom, Jr. to play drums, the lineup was finalized in July 2003. That summer they opened tours for Ozma, Onelinedrawing, and Taproot.

Nitro Records had been watching theSTART since they played with AFI. theSTART were signed in October 2003 and the Death Via Satellite EP was re-released with new artwork. They then joined the first Girlz Garage tour along with Lennon Murphy, Brassy and Lillix.

theSTART began to record their second full-length album Initiation in February 2004. In March, they embarked on another UK tour, this time with The Offspring. They continued to tour with The Offspring for North America, opening beside The (International) Noise Conspiracy and Auf Der Maur. They embarked on a co-headlining tour with The AKAs throughout July.On August 24, Initiation was released on Nitro Records.

Unfortunately it seems with good must come bad, as drummer Billy Brimblecom, Jr. announced the same day that he would be leaving the band. TheSTART took a month off then resumed headlining tours with new drummer Frank Zummo. For a few shows, Adrian Young of No Doubt filled in for drums.

In February 2005, Goldfinger asked theSTART to be on their animal rights tour, as both bands have vegetarian and vegan members. In the next few months, theSTART had another co-headlining tour, this time with Showbread.

In July, they were very excited to begin a tour with Head Automatica but less than halfway through it, Daryl Palumbo (Head Automatica singer) got sick and was hopitalized. The rest of the tour was cancelled. So theSTART jumped on the Team Sleep tour for the rest of the month. Frank Zummo left the band to focus on his project Street Drum Corps and Ed Davis was brought in on drums.

In August, Garbage invited theSTART to be the only opener on their last North American tour. March of 2006 had theSTART joining The Birthday Massacre for a month long tour. They continued on touring until the summer when longtime bassist Erick Sanger was unexpectedly let go. Drummer Ed Davis also departed to join Juliette and the Licks.

They brought in friends Lance Webber (ex-The Art Of Safecracking) on bass and Colin Strahm (of The Johns) on drums. They resumed playing when they were invited to open for such bands as Rancid, The Living End, and Metal Skool later in the year. The band was once again without a label as they had parted ways with Nitro Records. Though on Halloween 2006, they announced their signing with Metropolis Records and began work on their new album.

Aimee and Jamie wrote and recorded the new songs entirely by themselves this time. The band began playing again in March, until Echo was asked by the Teddybears to do vocals on their tour in April, which included a stop at the Coachella festival. When she returned, they hit the road with Front Line Assembly. Drummer Frank Zummo had returned for a stint replacing Colin Strahm.

The new record Ciao, Baby was released on June 5th, 2007. They played the whole cd live at the record release show at Safari Sam's on June 14th. Singer/drummer Chelsea Davis of Digital Black joined the band on drums as they prepared to tour in support of the album.

In July of 2007, the band released on their Myspace page a cover of the song "Cities in Dust" by Siouxsie & the Banshees, one of the band's life-long musical inspirations. The song was intended to be featured in promotion on the third Resident Evil film.

Ciao, Baby track "Blood On My Hands" was released as a digital only single on October 16, 2007 and featured a remixed version of the song by Chris Vrenna of Nine Inch Nails. theSTART are spending the end of 2007 opening shows for She Wants Revenge. Ironically, founding drummer of theSTART and ex-Human Waste Project member, Scott Ellis, plays drums for She Wants Revenge, making it the first time the three founding members of theSTART have toured together since 2002.

Now after my long Wiki intro, I can give my opinion on this awesome band. Remember peeps, that I listen to all the tunes first and 90 percent of the time, I've been in contact with the artist and they've approved me putting their info on the site. All of them have been gracious enough to send me some mp3s of their wonderful creations. I was totally shocked and pleasantly surprised that the Start messaged me back. I couldn't believe it, you know how some bands are to hot that they don't feel a need to be on some little site like Crazy Indie Girl.

I first heard their music while watching the L Word season 5 episode 5 and I had to find out the goods on the music that was filling my ears. There are tons of fan websites and one in particular lists all the artists and track that are played on the show. There it was, " Ciao Baby" and " Surrender"! Please make sure you take time out to check out the links as well as listen to their album. It's so worth it! Also, make sure you check out my new radio station, UNUradio to hear all the tracks from the artists on my site.

" One Bitch Band"- Betty Dimo

Betty Dimo started making rock music when she was 11 years old, hammering out Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath riffs on a small ukulele and a broken-down acoustic guitar purchased at Sears. She realized she wanted to play rock music forever when she snapped her first B string playing Smells Like Teen Spirit alone in her bedroom late one night. In her teens Betty was introduced to the music of PJ Harvey, Kate Bush, Ani Difranco, Peaches and many other influential female musicians. She started writing her own brand of intense, dark alternative/rock music and began performing live in 2001. Since then she has had the opportunity to perform and record with many bands including Clara Engel, Tom Glenne 5.5, Theresa’s Sound-World, The Good Ideas, Aquamuffin and many more. Betty currently resides in Toronto and plays in local band, Secret Public. Her personal demo recordings are backed by members of Trucks Leaving (Todd Harrison, Dov Tiefenbach, Virginia Dimoglou) and Broadband (Virginia Dimoglou and Louise Simpson). The newest track, Ugly Beautiful, is by her current band, Secret Public, who Betty will be touring with in the very near future. More news and info on that coming soon…stay tuned.

This bio comes from her page on myspace, so I figured why change it! Betty was kind enough to send my favorite track, " Anna Despair". This song really tugs at the heart strings. One thing I try to do when reviewing music is to ask, does it tell a story? It's important to feel the artist mentally and Betty definitely captures my attention. We have to continue supporting great works. So if you want to know more information about Betty Dimo, email her at bettydimo@gmail.com.

Halifax

I first saw Halifax while watching The Real World:Austin. The cast members were covering South by Southwest which is a really awesome eventful series held at many venues in Austin of Indie music from bands all over the country. Currently, they're signed to Drive-Thru Records. I hope you like their music, because I sure do. They've been touring in the UK and some parts of the U.S. this year, so hopefully in '08, some fresh music will be released. Check out their myspace page.