...I don't think there's no finer sight than a chick holding a guitar, a bass or a microphone, standing on a stage, in front of a band and belting out the tunes like she owns the place...another great thrill is switching on the tube and falling ass-backwards into the top of a sweet music documentary, you know the feeling, there's that voice-over-dub of someone who's recalling whatever scene they're focusing on was really like as the music intro fades in as album covers and concert footage rolls across the screen-- whenever this happens, I get a case of "*tharn*":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tharn like a rabbit in Richard Adams' Watership Down...I freeze in my tracks and am glued, yo......the above happened to me at a friend's house when I got snagged by the documentary "Punk Years: Typical Girls" -- I even liked the title which comes from a tune by the Slits...I tells you, I was cutting through my homebiscuit's bedroom to "go shake hands with the man" (not to be confused with "polishing the rocket") and I never made it to the can...below is one of three installments of what I watched that night while I forgot all about the party I was at..."*continued here*":http://chronicridicule.blogspot.com/2007/03/so-many-dynamos-punk-years-typical.html
Neill says
The Slits where the most dirty, chaotic, horny, fucked up girl band every. You have never seen so many confused people walking out of gigs as you did with the Slits.
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....and now my favourite woman with a guitar;
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.
PJ Harvey - Losing Ground (Reading 2001)
Iren says
Nice... it's good to see a first step in the coverage of women in punk.....that said this doc committed the 3 great sins that almost every punk doc makes....
1) focusing on NYC/UK... yes I know that this was a uk produced program, however there were a lot of women involved in the West Coast punk scene. I could go on and on about how two women (fronting the Avengers and The Nuns) blew the Sex Pistols off the stage at their last gig in 1978... blah blah blah
2) reggae.. yes I am aware that reggae what a hug influence on punk... but so was a lot of other music that never gets even a nod in these docs.... that said this one wasn't the worst offender for this sin
3) skipping from 1980 to 1991.... no mention of all the stuff that happened during the 80's... there were plenty of women playing punk in this era.... in fact more than a few were part of that ignored west coast us scene... but really skipping from X-Ray Specs to the riot gurls is a slap in the face to women who were in bands like..... X, Legal Weapon, The Screamin' Sirens, 45 Grave, Vice Squad, The Violators, Blood on the Saddle and countless others....
CrashPryor says
@Neill: that's probably true, I never got to see 'em...having stated that, a grip of male punkers could be described the same way (just take out the girl band part)...good choice with PJ, btw...
@Iren: I don't know if you checked it, but this was a doc from Britain with a focuse on the scene over there in the UK (note the people who spoke on the voice overs, including Beki Bondage from Vice Squad)...as a lover of music, of course it could've been a little more expansive, but given the time constraints, I think they covered a lot of ground in the alotted 30 minutes..that you mentioned all those other acts, speaks of what you've discovered but I think the goal here was to pique the interest of someone who didn't know all of that...which is cool in my book..
Iren says
Crash: Yeah, I did watch it and I did catch that it was an UK production, and that time was limited.. and I understand what you are saying about getting people interested in what they don't know about... however a 30 second montage of photos or video clips saying, 'through the 80's women like...... who ever... were around and then in the 1990's' and then go into the riot gulrs thing.. and I note Beki Bondage and you are right it's a solid doc. It's something that I wish we would see more of, and hope that VH1 or BBC America would pick this up for broadcast in the USA... in fact to me these kinds of programs are what a real music TV station should be showing..
CrashPryor says
I hear you, Iren.. bless the free-ness of YouTube (while it lasts)...I was looking at Tom Tomorrow's blog and there's a guy on there who started to broadcast comedy/ news with YouTube footage...hmmm...I wonder how shitty the licensing would be to do something like that as TV's gotten played (which is why I stop to check out good docus when I can)...speakind from some personal encounters in trying to do something similar to this, there's so many hoops you got to jump through to get shit like that done...that unless you're born-again-hard about finishing, the ardor cools and it goes away...too bad..
Rawkkiddoh says
Ah yes, the site of a girl with a musical instrument. I do not know why this hold such a special place in most guys hearts, but I do not question it. Watching documentaries like that, are almost as addictive as watching the old football videos that Harry Kalas and the famous John Facenda narrarated for NFL Films.
Mike the Knife says
Crazy/cool doc, C.P. Ideal for giving context to my current fixation on Charlotte Hatherley - in some ways, the 21st century offspring of those rock matriarchs and punkettes.
Cody B says
To a huge fan of any genre or movement in music, is there ever a doc that really gets it done? In my case:No (Ken Burns-Jazz, Anything on Hip Hop,that damn Blues thing on PBS) If you are really into something it is hard, at least for me, to watch, objectively, with so many preconceptions, memories, and strong feelings in ones head, That being said, for a doc like this, where I'm not even close to knowing what went on, it would be a good primer. Thank You Crash.
...I don't think there's no finer sight than a chick holding a guitar, a bass or a microphone, standing on a stage, in front of a band and belting out the tunes like she owns the place...another great thrill is switching on the tube and falling ass-backwards into the top of a sweet music documentary, you know the feeling, there's that voice-over-dub of someone who's recalling whatever scene they're focusing on was really like as the music intro fades in as album covers and concert footage rolls across the screen-- whenever this happens, I get a case of "*tharn*":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tharn like a rabbit in Richard Adams' Watership Down...I freeze in my tracks and am glued, yo......the above happened to me at a friend's house when I got snagged by the documentary "Punk Years: Typical Girls" -- I even liked the title which comes from a tune by the Slits...I tells you, I was cutting through my homebiscuit's bedroom to "go shake hands with the man" (not to be confused with "polishing the rocket") and I never made it to the can...below is one of three installments of what I watched that night while I forgot all about the party I was at..."*continued here*":http://chronicridicule.blogspot.com/2007/03/so-many-dynamos-punk-years-typical.html
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