DJ Moonlight

Wild Flag @ The Electric Ballroom London 1st Feb 2012

2012-02-05T08:39:00.000-08:00

It's fair to say I have been listening to Wild Flag's debut self titled album pretty much non stop since I bought it, and the more I listened to it the more I fell in love with their unique sound. It has the best album I have bought for quite some time. When I first read about them, and realised they were in essence a Riot Grrrl supergroup comprising of members of Sleater Kinney, Helium and The Minders (as well as the other bands they all had been part of too) and of course I had high expectations! I wasn't disappointed. As soon as I saw they had a gig in London, I had to witness it! I just hoped I wouldn't be let down when I saw them performing.

The support act was Peggy Sue who I had seen previously as a Ladyfest in their former carnation as Peggy Sue and the Pirates. Their music is very bluesy and folk influenced rock.

You could feel the anticipation in the packed out room as Peggy Sue finished their set and we waited for Wild Flag to emerge. When they did they did, they did in style starting off with 'Black Tile'. The set consisted of the entire album and a few new tracks. But Wild Flag don't just go through the motions of playing song after song, oh no, this is one band I highly recommend, in fact I COMMAND you go and see live as soon as you can, because even though the album is amazing, it really makes it special to hear it live. The band put so much energy into their performance, jumping around the stage, doing AC/DC style guitar moves. They also extended 'Racehorse' so it had a Jimi Hendrix style breakdown in the middle with a mass crowd clap along to the bridge "pony up pony up", ending with a very rock n roll finish.

They of course ended with single 'Romance' before they returned to do an encore that featured covers of Television's "See No Evil" and The Patti Smith Group's "Ask The Angels".

I left the venue feeling elated, feeling I had witnessed the evolution and resurrection of the Riot Grrrl Movement.

This Week's show- Listen now!

2012-02-04T10:56:00.001-08:00

Pigtails and Army Boots 31st January 2012 by Dj Moonlight on Mixcloud

This Week's show- Listen now!

2012-01-29T11:52:00.000-08:00

Pigtails and Army Boots 25th January 2012 by Dj Moonlight on Mixcloud

This week's show

2012-01-22T11:55:00.001-08:00

Pigtails and Army Boots 17th January 2012 by Dj Moonlight on Mixcloud

Projects you can be part of!

2012-01-22T07:27:00.000-08:00

First of all the lovely Sarah Rocks of Times Beach magazine wants to do an issue dedicated to women in the riot grrrl underground music scene, with interviews, photos and videos among other things. She's interested in hearing from Feminist groups as well.

if interested, send the following details to: Sarah@times-beach.com

Name/ Band Name:

Location:

A Link to your music:

musical influences

band bio (brief)

and if that's not enough Riot Grrrl Berlin are putting together their 2nd compilation and the deadline is

15th Feb

https://www.facebook.com/events/108199912626694/

if you haven't downloaded the first one yet, it's completely free and has TWO AND A HALF!! hours of great grrrl music on it

http://riotgrrrlberlin.tumblr.com/compilation01 it's really awesome so I highly recommend you get it :D

Last week's show

2012-01-19T12:11:00.001-08:00

Pigtails and Army Boots 10th January 2012 by Dj Moonlight on Mixcloud

Want to promote your music, feminist project or anything else grrrl friendly?

2012-01-15T06:45:00.000-08:00

If you're in a female fronted or all female band, or you are just doing something with a grrrl friendly or feminist vibe, I want to hear from you! Not only am I always on the look out for new inspiring music to play on the show, but for people that are happy to be interviewed, which can be in person or over Skype.

If you're interested, email me pigtailsandarmyboots@gmail.com with details

Thank you Riot Grrrl

2012-01-09T12:26:00.000-08:00

Riot grrrl means a lot to me- sadly I was old enough when the real riot grrrl movement started- I was in a haze of pop and the diluted feminism the spice girls advocated- but ultimately they sort of led the way to finding riot grrrl, as my music taste changed to more rock and alternative, and I wanted to find the females in the scene, I found more and more, from the bands that influenced riot grrrl and eventually riot grrrl itself which I now consider to be a big part of my musical tastes and also a big influence on my political opinions.

I wish I could pinpoint the precise moment that I found Riot Grrrl, but I really can't. I think the song that probably led me to it was 'Rebel Girl' by Bikini Kill. There was something about this song, that I had never heard before, that somehow spoke to me. It wasn't a song about love, and it wasn't a song about friendship in the way that Spice Girls used to sing it. This song was different, this song had power, this song had ATTITUDE. I have heard this song many, many times now and I can never get bored of it. I know it may be a bit of an obvious choice but it really sums up Riot Grrrl for me, and because of this song, I eventually discovered other bands that Kathleen Hanna was involved in like Le Tigre, and I realised more and more, how much I admired this woman. She sang songs about rebel girls, told you to 'suck her left one' was passionate about being pro choice and spoke about issues female musicians never used to dare mention.

Because of riot grrrl and Kathleen Hanna, I could finally understand that I definitely did identify as a feminist and why. It was because of Riot Grrrl that I understood the need to do a show like Pigtails and Army Boots. It was because of Riot Grrrl that I became an activist for causes I believe in. It was because of Riot Grrrl that I felt able to do Ladyfest last year. It was because of Riot Grrrl that I felt inspired to read zines and write my own.

So Thank you Riot Grrrl for making me who I am..

This Week's Show

2012-01-06T13:19:00.001-08:00

Pigtails and Army Boots 6th January 2012 by Dj Moonlight on Mixcloud

Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012

2012-01-01T08:24:00.000-08:00

Well I don't often write personal-ish blogs on here, but to be honest now my life is so integrated with both music and feminism, that it would be impossible not to have some personal angle on some of my blogs.

2011 was an okay year for me for the most part, I felt like I didn't have too much of a social life like I used to, and my best friend moved to another country, BUT I did have much more involvement with music and feminist politics and not just through my radio show.

I started doing lots of writing for music blogs including Wears The Trousers, thegirlsare, JoyZine, The F Word and also for the Le Monnier Fan Blog which resulted in lots of good writing practice as well as quite a bit of free music and a couple of free gigs!

I tried to set up my own feminist group but didn't have much luck

I saw MEN at the Lexington in Feburary

I released the first two issues of my zine 'Dancing Barefoot'

In March, I went to my second Million Women Rise March this time as a steward, also the first protest I went to alone.
I also went to see The Australian Pink Floyd and on the same day I met Dee Plume, of one of my favourite bands Robots in Disguise!

I went to my first Roller Derby bout, and I loved it!

I went to see Robots in Disguise (for the third time) in May and possibly one of my favourite gigs ever, as I was right at the front, I headbanged with Dee and managed to nab their set list :D

I organised and put on Ladyfest Essex, which was really exhausting and had lots of problems, but was a fun and satisfying thing to do. Sadly it clashed with the London SlutWalk although I did help them get a band to play at the event and then booked one of their books for their fundraiser in November.

For my 27th Birthday in June, I went to the British Music Experience and went to my first zine fest

In August I went to the Ladygarden fundraiser in Cambridge and discovered lots of awesome bands including We Rock Like Girls Don't

September was an active month, I saw Amanda Palmer for the third time, this time at Heaven (see the Joyzine link earlier in this post) I did the Adidas 5k Women's Challenge, (walking) and raised a further £100 for Refuge in addition to the £130 raised from Ladyfest Essex
I also saw Saint Jude and UT in this month

November was a very feminist month, as I went to FEM11 my first feminist conference and also to the Fawcett Society Don't Turn Back Time March, and then met Josie Long afterwards!

The final gig of the year was Gaggle, review to come soon on The F Word!

Lots of other things happened too-like finally having a tooth taken out, and having my xbox hacked...
but now it's gone and it's time to look forward to 2012, here is my resolutions for 2012:
To Start or Join a Feminist Group
To Volunteer at a women's shelter
to do more interviews on my show
to jog in the adidias 5k
organise another ladyfest/other charity events
-this is just a few, I have others but these are probably the most relevant to put here.
Happy New Year!

This Week's Playlists..

2011-12-29T12:14:00.000-08:00

End of year show-being aired this week

Wild Flag - Romance

Ten Tigers - Any Love is Good Love

MEN-Who Am I To Feel So Free

The Mummers - Call Me A Rainbow

Devilish Presley - Hammer Horror Glamour

Robots In Disguise - I'm Hit

Candy Panic Attack - What's He Got That I Haven't?

Death of the Elephant - 2N2222

Lady Earl and the Greys-- Heathen

We Rock Like Girls Don't – Something out of nothing

Amanda Palmer - Astronaunt

Saint Jude - Garden Of Eden

Ut - Wailhouse

Gaggle - I Hear Flies

EULA-Texas_Stampede

Le Monnier - Con Amor Siempre

Fight Like Apes - Jenny Kelly

The Slits - Newtown

PJ Harvey- Let England Shake

X Ray Spex - Oh Bondage Up Yours!

Bleech - Dancing Without You

Sassy!!! - Honey Bee

The Brownies - Cougar

The Fervour- Crazy For The Feeling

Carol Bui- MiraYou're Free With Me

Kate Crash - Generation of the Bored

The Coathangers - Hurricane

Secret Rivals - These Are The Only Obstacles

Riot Grrrl Anti Christmas Special (on Mixcloud for your pleasure)

Bikini Kill - Rebel Girl The Slits - Newtown X Ray Spex - Oh Bondage Up Yours! The Runaways - Cherry Bomb Siouxsie & The Banshees - Spellbound Bikini Kill - New Radio Bratmobile - Girl Germs Heavens To Betsy - Donating My Body To Science Babes In Toyland - Blood Sleater-Kinney - One Beat Bikini Kill - Don'T Need You Le Tigre - Deceptacon Julie Ruin - Radical Or Pro-Parental MEN- Off Our Backs Wild Flag - Romance Daisy Chainsaw - Love Your Money The Coathangers - Hurricane Secret Rivals - These Are The Only Obstacles Death of the Elephant - Locas Candy Panic Attack - What's He Got That I Haven't? Kate Crash - Generation of the Bored Comanechi - Naked Lunachicks - Binge And Purge L7 - Wargasm Hole - Violet The Gossip - Standing In The Way Of Control Jack Off Jill - My Cat Stella Zine - Freak Faggot Pagan Holiday - RIP Baby Need - Dark Sally Scarling - Band Aid Covers The Bullet Hole

A Riotous Christmas to you!

2011-12-25T07:40:00.000-08:00

Imagine this wrapped up in a bow..(maybe black with little skulls on it)! this is my gift to you dear listeners..
Anti Christmas Riot Grrrl Special

this weeks playlist

2011-12-22T11:27:00.000-08:00

Pink - Trouble

Shocking Blue - Gonna Sing Me A Song

Madonna - Secret

Deborah Harry - Deep End

The Long Blondes - Swallow Tattoo

Peaches - Boys Wanna Be Her

Sohodolls - Prince Harry

MEN - Rip Off

Ladytron - The Lovers

Candie Payne - Hey Goodbye

New Young Pony Club - The Get Go

Portishead - Plastic

Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts - Machismo

The Joy Formidable - Greyhounds In The Slips

Chrome Hoof - Symbolic 180

Girlschool - Take It All Away

PJ Harvey - This Wicked Tongue

Damone - On Your Speakers

Heart - Ring Them Bells

Veruca Salt - Seether

Lovely Eggs - Don't Look at me (I Don't Like it)

Art Gruppe - I Will Not Survive

Death of the Elephant - Locas

The Ting Tings - Great DJ

Kate Nash - Pumpkin Soup

Lily Allen - Knock 'Em Out

You Say Party! We Say Die! - Giant Hands

Thee Ultra Bimboos - We're Not Gonna Take It

My Gift to my listeners

2011-12-18T03:39:00.000-08:00

I'll have an extra bonus show for your listening pleasure this year, I'm recording a 2 hour anti christmas riot grrrl special today! The show will be uploaded to mixcloud on Christmas day and will also be broadcast on a few select stations, I'll post the times on here as soon as I have them. You can expect tracks from Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Sleater Kinney and more, some that you'll know and some maybe you won't know! As well as hearing some influences and learning a bit about how it started and the evolution of the riot grrrl movement.
Remember you can here all of my shows anytime on mixcloud!

this weeks playlist

2011-12-17T07:28:00.000-08:00

Kim Wilde - Kids In America
Sneaker Pimps - 6 Underground (Nellee Hooper Remix)
Goldfrapp - Strict Machine
Le Tigre - The The Empty
Shiny Toy Guns - Le Disko
Patrice Pike - Beautiful Thing
L7 - Diet Pill
Flyleaf - I'm So Sick
Guano Apes - Electric Nights
Scarling. - Crispin Glover
The Cranberries - Linger
Janis Joplin - Kozmic Blues
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Date With The Night
The Dresden Dolls - Night Reconnaissance
Natalie Imbruglia - Glorious
Suzanne Vega - New York Is A Woman
Fleetwood Mac - Little Lies
Within Temptation - What Have You Done (ft. Keith Caputo)
Pat Benatar - Treat Me Right
The Distillers - The Hunger
Le Monnier - Hidden Faces
Earth Prayer - Hallelujah
EULA-Oh_Lord
An Experiment On A Bird In The Air Pump - 100%
The Donnas - I Didn't Like You Anyway
Kittie - Charlotte
Patti Smith - Everybody Wants To Rule The World

New Discovery: Wild Flag

2011-12-11T09:48:00.000-08:00

I realise I might be a bit slow with this one, but I just recently discovered Wild Flag, for some reason I had heard the name but never realised they were a female fronted band or that two members of Sleater Kinney were in the band! It was only when I interviewed We Rock Like Girls Don't and they mentioned them that I decided to look them up and fell in love with their music. They have an awesome debut album out which if you liked Sleater Kinney, you will most certainly enjoy- I've heard good things about them live as well, and I'm going to see them on 1st Feb at the Electric Ballroom so I'll be sure to write a review!
In the meantime here's some of their music:

this weeks playlist

2011-12-08T11:07:00.000-08:00

Toyah - I Want To Be Free

Cyndi Lauper - She Bop

Salt'n Pepa - Push It

Propaganda - The Chase

No Doubt - Hey Baby

Cansei De Ser Sexy - Alala

Imelda May - Eternity

The Creepshow - Creatures Of The Night

Liz Phair - Supernova

Comanechi - Naked

Tori Amos - Upside Down

Hole - Hit So Hard

The Raveonettes - Black Satin

Garbage - You Look So Fine

Pretty Girls Make Graves - The Number

Alisha's Attic - Outta These Clouds

Feist - How My Heart Behaves

Lunachicks - Mr. Lady

Bikini Kill - Feels Blind

Tegan & Sara - Relief Next To Me

Remi Nicole - Right Side Of Me

Obsessive Compulsive - Perfect Wreck

Edge of Paradise - Falling Down

EULA-Wake_Up

Paramore - Born For This

HARRY - So Real

Wetdog - Zah Und Zaheet

The Pretenders - Thin Line Between Love And Hate

Gossip - Careless Whisper

A Riot Grrrl Sunday Service

2011-12-04T02:53:00.000-08:00

seeing I've recently wrote a piece on the re-emergence of riot grrrl for the f word (which should be up soon so look out for it...) and I'm intending to do an anti christmas riot grrrl special, let us worship at the altar of those inspire us to speak out and rock out...

this weeks playlist

2011-12-01T10:59:00.001-08:00

Annie Lennox - Walking On Broken Glass

Morcheeba - Shallow End

Regina Spektor - Edit

Björk - Jóga

Ladyhawke - Back Of The Van

Portishead - The Rip

Soho Dolls - trash the rental

Robots In Disguise - Argument

Sleater-Kinney - The Day I Went Away

Siouxsie & The Banshees - Arabian Knights

PJ Harvey - We Float

The Sounds - Song With A Mission

Evanescence - Like You

Alanis Morissette - Thank You

The Long Blondes - Here Comes The Serious Bit

Lacuna Coil - Daylight Dancer

Be Your Own Pet - Adventure

Thomas Tantrum - Swan Lake

Kate Nash - Merry Happy

Ministry Of Love - Life in Song

Lahannya - Adrenaline

EULA-Texas_Stampede

Letters To Cleo - Come On

Blood Red Shoes - Doesn't Matter Much

Heather Nova - Ruby Red

Heart - Rock And Roll (Live)

this weeks playlist

2011-11-25T11:09:00.001-08:00

Suzanne Vega - Solitude Standing
Amy MacDonald - A Wish For Something More
Blondie - Just Go Away
Texas - Say What You Want
- Pigtails Girls Rock 2
The Go! Team - Get It Together
Ladytron - Season Of Illusions
Santogold - Lights Out
Le Tigre- TKO
The Chalets - Sexy Mistake
Gaggle - I Hear Flies
Damone - Stabbed In The Heart
Guano Apes - Wash It Down
Queen Adreena - Sleepwalking
Bif Naked - The World Is Over
L7 - Scrap
Kittie - Flower Of Flesh And Blood
Snake River Conspiracy - Casualty
The Cardigans - Higher
Joni Mitchell - Big Yellow Taxi
Melissa Auf Der Maur - Taste You
Daisy Grenades - Dominate (Rob's Mix)
The Wendy Darlings - Enormous Pop
EULA-Dirty_Hands
Metric - Handshakes
Horrorpops - Walk Like A Zombie
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Black Tongue
Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - Ridin' With James Dean
You Say Party! We Say Die! - Opportunity
The Donnas - Too Fast For Love

Fawcett Society- Don't Turn back Time march

2011-11-20T11:16:00.000-08:00

Another Saturday in November, and another feminist event was happening- this time organised by The Fawcett Society in light of the impact that the government's cuts have had on women- there are 27 policies that affect women and currently female unemployment is at a 23 year high. Vital services such as abortion advice services and domestic abuse shelters are having their funds cut dramatically- and they were already struggling to survive.

There was a fifties theme- everyone was encouraged to come along in fifties fancy dress of some kind- I didn't on this occasion but many of the women (and men) that were on the march did- some in pretty vintage dresses, many with a head scarf and some with aprons, brooms and rubber gloves to give that real fifties housewife look!

The march met at 12pm outside of Temple tube station and there was apparently up to 2,500 people on the march at it's peak. The march set off around 12.30pm, and I was just behind some UNISON ladies, Million Women Rise and the London Feminist Network. The march went along the Embankment, and past Downing Street before finishing at Kings Charles Street, I felt in solidarity as I marched with the people around me, getting passed a song sheet- and we joined in singing together- one song in the tune of yellow submarine- "We won't take women's services away, services away, services away.." and other songs as well as simpler chants like "They say cutback! We Say fightback!"

The march seemed to be over really quickly as we all piled down Kings Charle's street to hear the rally. The started with Anna Bird and the chief director of the Fawcett Society, who then introduced us to a wide range of people with inspiring speeches. First up was the journalist Tanya Gold, choice quote-" no Mr Cameron. We will not calm down! Equality is a right not a luxury."

next up was Estelle Hart- the NUS Women's Officer, followed by comedian Kate Smurthwaithe who focused on abortion cutbacks, and the fact that Nadine Dorries wants to change sex education to abstinence education- ONLY FOR GIRLS...Heather Wakefield from UNISON was next discussing the strike on the 30th November.

There was Vivienne Hayes, the CEO of the Women's Resource Centre who took a more radical approach to her speech saying that she thought only women should be in government..then comedian Josie Long did an amazing (and funny speech) who spoke about her experiences of sexism as a female comedian and urged all to call out sexism everytime we hear it- to challenge it even if it's your friend's dad! There was also a speech from the Southall Bank Sisters and I think some others but I can't remember who they were!

Afterwards I went away feeling like I had been part of something good, and as I waited for the tube, I spotted Josie Long who then get on the same tube as me, so I worked up the nerve to actually speak to her and tell her how much I enjoyed her speech and she was lovely, she signed an autograph for me and seemed really touched that I had been nice about her speech! She told me about a project she had been doing with UKUncut and even showed me some photos on her phone! I wish I had of said something more to her really (like tell her to check out my radio show)! but you always think of it after don't you..

this weeks playlist

2011-11-18T12:22:00.000-08:00

Martha & The Muffins - Echo Beach

Heart - What About Love

Feist - The Park

Suzi Quatro - If You Can't Give Me Love

Shocking Blue - Shocking You

Salt-N-Pepa - Push It

Courtney Love - But Julian, I'm A Little Bit Older Than You

Patrice Pike - Ridiculous Mess

The Raveonettes - Hallucinations

Aretha Franklin - Walk On By

Sheryl Crow - Make It Go Away [Radiation Song]

Liz Phair - Never Said

The Go! Team - Friendship Update

Ut - Griller

Cat Power - Willie

Imelda May - Psycho

Wetdog - Alibi

Flyleaf - All Around Me

Paula Cole - Comin' Down

The Sibleys - I Don't Smile (If I Don't Want To)

Dirty Love - Forgive me

Bunty - Eyeless And Crawling

The Breeders - Divine Hammer

Deborah Harry - Love With A Vengeance

Daisy Chainsaw - Lovely Ugly Brutal World

Elastica - Never Here

Amanda Palmer- Idioteque

FEM11

2011-11-14T12:18:00.001-08:00

I was excited when I heard UK Feminista were holding a feminist conference in London, I made sure I could come by swapping my Saturday at work and bought a ticket as soon as I could.

FEM11 was my first ever feminist conference and certainly won't be my last!
I had to get up really early as I wanted to make sure I got there early to register (which was a good move as the event was sold out and soon after we had arrived there was a massive queue going outside the door)! The registers were set in alphabetical order by first name which caused some confusion for me as I paid with Paypal which is in my husband's name, so I was down with his name instead and for a tiny moment I thought I wouldn't be on the list!

There was a bit of time before the conference so I had a look around the stalls, most of them were charity and organisations so I picked up lots of leaflets including detailed booklets on the work of End Violence Against Women. I also spent lots of money on a stall but I won't say what as the things I got are Xmas presents :)

About 10am we made our way into the big hall which was packed solid with loads of people- of all genders, ages and backgrounds, it took us ages to find a seat! Kat Banyard of UK Feminsta then done a introduction to the event and we heard various speeches including an excellent and humorous one from Sandi Toksving including the epic line "If Rapunzel had hair long enough to let a man climb and rescue her, why didn't she make a rope and climb down herself?"

There was a short break and then it was time for the first seminar of the day. The one I picked for the morning session was a talk from The Fawcett Society about the impacts of the government cuts and promoting their Don't Turn Back time march which is happening next Saturday. It was quite a depressing talk highlighting the need for help for families, low income mothers, victims of violence and older women. The most distressing part was hearing about maternity discrimination in the work place from a speaker from Platform 51 including tales of women who were dismissed shortly after announcing their pregnancy.

Afterwards there was an hour for lunch, the cafe had a huge queue so Cara took me to a place nearby called Planet Organic which had an awesome range of vegan food- so I had a falafel wrap, some organic cola and a vegan muffin :) We also got to try some raw vegan chocolate which tasted AMAZING.

The afternoon seminar I picked was from the group Object who campaign against the objectification of women. The seminar was in the big hall again and this was very full up and for the most part I really enjoyed their talk, we got to see some videos of them in action including their Feminist Friday action in Tesco and challenging lad mags on the news. I mostly agreed with what they had to say, but find myself conflicted with their views on sex work. I don't agree with the idea of selling sex, but I do worry if we ban their advertising and so on, that we may make things worse for the women involved, and of course there is the whole issue of choice-if women want to sell their bodies this way- is that okay? I find the sex work issue a somewhat complex issue in regards to my feminist beliefs. I discussed it with Cara who was very much against sex work, and to my dismay this was when she also told me that she was against transgender people, I won't go into details here, but I was shocked and I really can't see her point of view at all, I could only agree to disagree, I thought of many things I could have said later on but it was too late :(

There was another short break and then back in the main hall all together for the final parts of the day "Feminist Question Time" where we had the opportunity to ask some select feminists questions on a variety of topics including politics and porn- there's a good blog about it here
and then the mayor candidate debate, which has also been blogged about better than I could here

Overall the day was very inspiring and gave me plenty of food for thought. It also made me realise more some of the conflicts in the feminism community (like the porn industry, working with men etc) which saddens me a little as even though we may have different views, we need to work together on the things we DO agree on to make a difference. I also thought the question and answer sessions weren't always as well organised as they could have been, but I could understand it must be difficult with a room filled with over a thousand rowdy feminists!

what you can hear this week

2011-11-11T10:26:00.001-08:00

Everything But The Girl - I Didn't Know I Was Looking For Love

The Pretenders - I'll Stand By You

The Duke Spirit - Dog Roses

Fleetwood Mac - The Chain

Dido - Don't Think Of Me

The Sundays - Here's Where The Story Ends

Moloko - The Time Is Now

Shiny Toy Guns - Le Disko

Peaches - Hit It Hard

Morcheeba - Love Sweet Love

The Joy Formidable - Austere

The Distillers - Beat Your Heart Out

Alanis Morissette - Straitjacket

The Runaways - Cherry Bomb

PJ Harvey - Fountain

Siouxsie - Here Comes That Day

Tegan & Sara - Knife Going In

The Dollyrots - My Best Friend's Hot

Little Fish - Morning Call (acoustic)

Blood Red Shoes - Try Harder

Wendy Solomon - Happy Hour Final Mix

Bunty - Feel Sicko

Be Your Own Pet - Bicycle, Bicycle, You Are My Bicycle

Bikini Kill - I Hate Danger

The Long Blondes - Big Infatuation

The Sounds - 24 Hours

Nina Hagen - My Way

this weeks playlist

2011-11-05T09:51:00.001-07:00

Cyndi Lauper - Girls Just Want To Have Fun

alannah myles - black velvet

Ladyhawke - Dusk Till Dawn

Chicks On Speed - Shooting From The Hip

Soho Dolls - my vampire

Robots In Disguise - We're In the Music Biz

Le Tigre- New Kicks

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps

Joan Jett - (I'm Gonna) Run Away

Thomas Tantrum - Pshandy

The Donnas - Rock 'n' Roll Machine

The Birthday Massacre - Neverland

Hole - Dying

KT Tunstall - Universe & U (Acoustic Extravaganza Version)

Damone - Out Here All Night

Queen Adreena - Sleepwalking

The Dresden Dolls - Dirty Business

Tori Amos - Dark Side of the Sun

Paramore - For A Pessimist I'm Pretty Optimistic

FireBug - Season For Change

Working Class Heroes - When You Finally Stop Prentending

Bunty - Are We Doomed

Skunk Anansie - Weak

Garbage - Push It

Jyl Millard - Ace Of Spades

this weeks playlist

2011-10-27T10:57:00.000-07:00

Madonna - Lucky Star

Texas - Inner Smile

Natalie Imbruglia - Glorious

Heart - These Dreams

The Go! Team - Bottle Rocket

MEN - Who Am I To Feel So Free

Remi Nicole - Rock N Roll

Scarling. - Alexander The Burn Victim

The Cardigans - Paralyzed

Lauren Harris - Hit Or Miss

The Ting Tings - Great DJ

Blonde Redhead - The Dress

No Doubt - Everything In Time (London)

Ut - Scrape

Cansei De Ser Sexy - Let's Make Love And Listen To Death From Above

Siouxsie & The Banshees - Night Shift

You Say Party! We Say Die! - Five Year Plan

Janis Joplin - Bye Bye Baby

If Not For Dreaming- Joyous Rush

586 - Out Of Control

Bunty - thats why Im crossing my legs

Julie Ruin - Stay Monkey

Kate Bush - Hounds Of Love

Slunt - Not About You

Guano Apes - Quietly

Fight Like Apes - Captain A-Bomb

Lily Allen - Don't Get Me Wrong

Part 10: 30 Day Song Challenge

2011-10-23T05:20:00.000-07:00

Song 28: A Song That Makes Me Feel Gulity
I picked a guilty pleasure for this

Song 29: A Song From My Childhood

Song 30: My Favourite Song Last year
ok this was released in 2009 but was one of my most listened to songs last year

that's the whole list done!
Just for a recap here is what I picked:
Favourite Song: The Runaways- Cherry Bomb
Least Favourite Song: Black Eyed Peas-My Humps
A Song That Makes Me Happy: MEN: Who Am I To Feel So Free
A Song That Makes Me Sad: Madonna-Power of Goodbye
A Song That reminds of friends: Amanda Palmer- Astronaut
A Song That Reminds me of somewhere: Nancy Sinatra- These Boots
A Song That Reminds me of an event: Robots in Disguise- Arguments
A Song I Know all the words to: Joan Jett- I Love Rock N Roll
A Song I can dance to: Goldfrapp- ooh la la
A Song I fall asleep to: Air- All I Need
A Song from my favourite band- Joan Jett and the blackhearts- AC/DC
A Song from a band I hate: Lady Gaga- Just Dance
Guilty Pleasure: Tiffany- I Think We're Alone Now
A Song No One would expect me to like: Dido-Here With Me
A Song that describes me: Tom Tom Club- Wordy Rappinghood
Song you used to love but now hate: Spice Girls- Wannabe
A Song you always hear on the radio: Adele- Rolling in the Deep
a song you wish you heard on the radio: Bikini Kill- Rebel Girl
a song from my favourite album: Robots in Disguise- GIRL
a song I listen to when I'm angry: PJ Harvey-Snake
a song I listen to when I'm happy: Le Tigre- Deceptacon
a song I listen to when I'm sad: Amanda Palmer- Strength through music
a song to play at my wedding: Cyndi Lauper- True Colours
a song to play at my funeral: Patti Smith- People Have the Power
a song that makes me laugh: Fight Like Apes- Hoo Ha Harry
a song I can play on an instrument: These Boots again! but to change it to something already not on the list I can also play The Ting Tings- That's Not My Name
a song I wish I could play: PJ Harvey-Dress
and the rest is above!

what you can hear this week

2011-10-20T12:31:00.000-07:00

The Supremes - Baby Love
The Go-Go's - We Got The Beat (2011 - Remaster)
TLC - Creep
The Pretenders - Don't Get Me Wrong
An Experiment On A Bird In The Air Pump - Saints
Fleetwood Mac - Little Lies
Sneaker Pimps - 6 Underground (Nellee Hooper Remix)
Portishead - Theme From 'To Kill A Dead Man'
Tom Tom Club - Genius Of Love
Björk - Isobel
The Sounds - Tony The Beat
Joan Armatrading - A Woman In Love
Florence + The Machine - Drumming Song
Scarling. - Crispin Glover
Alanis Morissette - You Learn
Anna Calvi - Desire
Veruca Salt - Volcano Girls
Sleater-Kinney - Lora's Song
Elastica - 2:1
We Rock Like Girls Don't Interview Part 1
We Rock Like Girls Don't - Rock 'n' Roll Freak
PJ Harvey - Dress
Shocking Blue - Send Me A Postcard
The Brownies - Means To An End
We Rock Like Girls Don't Interview Part 2
The New Root - Same/Different
Rasputina - Wish You Were Here

Part 9: 30 Day Song Challenge

2011-10-16T10:45:00.000-07:00

Song 25: A Song That Makes Me Laugh

Song 26: A Song I Can Play on an Instrument n(on the uke)

Song 27: A Song I wish I could play

this weeks playlist

2011-10-13T11:37:00.001-07:00

he Go-Go's - Vacation

Ace Of Base - The Sign

New Young Pony Club - Talking, Talking

Chicks On Speed - Sell-Out

Soho Dolls - Trash The Rental

Gossip - Men In Love

Robots in disguise - D-I-Y

The Raveonettes - Aly, Walk With Me

The Donnas - What Do I Have To Do

Alisha's Attic - Going Down

The Dresden Dolls - Missed Me

Kate Crash - Ain't Got Much

Be Your Own Pet - Ouch

KT Tunstall - Under The Weather

Callers - Bloodless Ties

Sophie B. Hawkins - As I Lay Me Down

Joni Mitchell - Big Yellow Taxi

Imani Coppola - I'm A Pocket

Lana - Ruthless

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Isis

Jaggedy Ann- Tastes Like Gasoline

Alchemy Divine - I Just Can't Stop

We Rock Like Girls Don't - Queen Of Heavy Metal

HorrorPops - You Vs. Me

Hole - Celebrity Skin

The Distillers - Drain The Blood

The Birthday Massacre - Happy Birthday

Heather Nova - I Have The Touch

Part 8: 30 Day Song Challenge

2011-10-09T03:05:00.000-07:00

Song 22: a song I listen to when I'm sad- amazing song but so so sad.

Song 23: A Song to play at my wedding- well as I've had my wedding this was the song we FINALLY chose to have as our first dance (we had a huge list we had to narrow down)! although it started to skip towards the end, so it was this and Ozzy Osbourne's Mama I'm Coming Home :)

Song 24: A Song to play at my funeral
now this is hard, as the song I would like is Feeder: High but I said I would pick all female fronted bands this time round-
so on an optimistic note how about:

Review: Russian Doll Life/ Le Monnier, release date: October 3rd

2011-10-02T02:16:00.000-07:00

Rating: *****

Russian Doll Life is the second album from Hertfordshire female fronted rock band Le Monnier, the follow up to their exciting debut album Cynic Sister which has provided them with many positive reviews and headlining slots at various gigs across the country. Since the previous album, singer Alexandra Le Monnier and guitarist Matt Keill have recruited a new drummer Josh Williams.

In their bio on their official website they claim this album is the best thing they have ever done and they don't disappoint. There is still the trademark powerful vocals and epic guitar riffs but on Russian Doll Life, Le Monnier also experiment with some songs that sound different to anything else they have done, including the epic ballad 'Home' and the unusual but still ultimately satisfying 'The Moth'.

The songs demonstrate further the variety of influences the band have and the flexibility the band have as a whole which surely shows Le Monnier have massive potential ahead of them. Alexandra Le Monnier's voice is stunning and the guitar work, especially on stand out track 'Mediocre Me' are unforgettable.

Russian Doll Life is sure to appeal to a wide range of music fans and if this album is anything to go by, they can only get even better.

Le Monnier's next tour date is on October 14^th at Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire.

this weeks playlist

2011-09-29T10:53:00.001-07:00

Cyndi Lauper - I Drove All Night

Annie Lennox - No More I Love You's

Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way

Morcheeba - Be Yourself

Ladytron - Predict The Day

Le Tigre - My My Metrocard

Siouxsie - One Mile Below

Sleater-Kinney - Slow Song

Patti Smith - People Have The Power

Florence + The Machine - Between Two Lungs

Echobelly - Great Things

Portishead - Sheared Tmes

kate nash - foundations

Lily Allen - Shame For You

Blood Red Shoes - You Bring Me Down

Ut - Wailhouse

Imelda May - Proud and Humble

You Say Party! - Monster

Pretty Girls Make Graves - Pictures Of A Night Scene

- Flaming June- Nerves Of Steel

- Ideal Zero-Beneath the Sun

We Rock Like Girls Don't - Violence

PJ Harvey - Wang Dang Doodle

Scarling. - Baby Dracula

The Sounds - 24 Hours

Kristy Kruger - Little Pollyanna

Amanda Palmer- Fake Plastic Trees

Saint Jude @ The Hard Rock Cafe 21st Sept 11

2011-09-25T02:33:00.000-07:00

As my husband is a subscriber of Classic Rock magazine, we were lucky enough to win tickets for their first subscriber's only gig in the Hard Rock Cafe basement in London.

As the doors opened very early (6pm) it was a bit of a rush to get the train after I finished work, and as we were on the train there was a fault with the train so it actually stopped at Stratford instead of Liverpool Street, so we were delayed slightly further as we had to wait for another train to take us the last few stops. The tubes were predictably awful at that time of day but we managed to get to the venue before 7pm.

The email we had to take with us and had mentioned there would be free drinks but as it turned out it was merely a voucher to have one complimentary beer(only half a pint) or glass of wine, and I'm not really a drinker of either of those so it was bit rubbish!

Anyway, the venue itself was interesting, the entrance was just around the side of the cafe itself and the room was tiny and filled with some pretty cool music memorabilia like Iggy Pop's and Madonna's jackets and a few guitars including Steve Vai's. We didn't know how many people were able to win tickets but there was quite a few people already there when we arrived- I felt slightly out of place as it was mostly older men!

It wasn't a very aggressive crowd so we managed to find ourselves a nice place right in front of the stage (and there was no barrier so it was very close) There was no support act, so Saint Jude came on around 8pm ish. There were stools on the stage so there were all sitting through the performance and it was semi acoustic. They kicked off with one of my favourite tracks off the album 'Garden of Eden' and proceeded to play for around an hour. They played the majority of their debut album 'Diary of a Soul Fiend' as well as a couple of new songs.

What impresses me the most, and it was much more apparent when seeing them live rather than listening to the CD is just how impressive and powerful singer Lynne's voice. She could scream and hold notes for ages and didn't even lose her breath- it was absolutely stunning. The band itself has quite an unique sound compared to other female fronted rock bands at the moment, Saint Jude play a mix of blues and straight up rock n roll which would appeal to wide audience so I'm sure they will become a force to be reckoned with!

If you want to catch them, they are doing a tour in December.

This video someone posted of the gig can give you an idea of what they're like:

this weeks playlist

2011-09-22T11:27:00.001-07:00

Texas - I Don't Want A Lover

Kim Carnes - Bette Davis Eyes

Kate Bush - Rubberband Girl

Martha & The Muffins - Echo Beach

The Pretenders - I'll Stand By You

Shocking Blue - This America

Propaganda - The Chase

Donna Summer - I Feel Love

The Naked & Famous - Punching In A Dream Single Version

HARRY - I Do What I Do

No Doubt - Hella Good

Robots In Disguise - I'm Hit

Kate Crash - Sawago

The Gossip - Listen Up!

The Dollyrots - Dance With Me

Biork - Earth Intruders

Girlschool - Take It All Away

X Ray Spex - Oh Bondage Up Yours!

Erase Errata - Tax Dollar

Beverly Kills - Need You All The Time

Earth Prayer - I Can See the Second Sun

Decibelles - Sunday Feelings

Tsunami Bomb - Say It If You Mean It

Be Your Own Pet - Bicycle, Bicycle, You Are My Bicycle

Courtney Love - Mono

Saint Jude - Garden Of Eden

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Cheated Hearts

Lene Lovich - I Think We're Alone Now

Any Love is Good Love

2011-09-18T02:28:00.000-07:00

My friend Emma and the awesome Ste McCabe have been working on an awesome project the last few months and it's now nearing completion.
They have been working on 'Any Love is Good Love' a cd with loads of fantastic bands including Death of the Elephant, The Lovely Eggs and of course, Ten Tigers, to raise awareness of homophobia and transphobia, as well as to raise money for Lesbian and Gay Youth Manchester.
There isn't an official release date yet, but I have heard a promo copy and can confirm that is a great cd. You can keep up to date and become a fan on Facebook

this weeks playlist

2011-09-15T12:27:00.000-07:00

Blondie- Dreaming

Lita Ford- Playin' With Fire

Suzanne Vega- Solitude Standing

Madonna- Secret

New Young Pony Club- The Get Go

Ladyhawke- Magic

Peaches- You Love It

Sneaker Pimps- Six Underground

The Ting Tings- Shut Up and Let Me Go

The Go! Team- Everybody's a VIP To Someone

Little Fish- Hallelujah

The Joy Formidable- Austere

Go Betty Go- It's Too Bad

Bikini Kill- Jigsaw Youth

Alanis Morissette- Head Over Feet

Heart- Barracuda

Lauren Harris- See Through

Garbage- Why Do You Love Me

Dresden Dolls- Girl Anachronism

Lush- Ladykillers

Death of the Elephant- Locas

The Lovely Eggs- Don't Look At Me (I Don't Like It)

Decibelles- Bloody Bloody Whiffy Scuzzy

The Birthday Massacre- Blue

KT Tunstall- Black Horse and the Cherry Tree

Alisha's Attic- Do I Lie?

Heather Nova- Blood Of Me

Joan Jett- Dirty Deeds

30 Day Song Challenge Part 7

2011-09-11T11:33:00.000-07:00

Song 19: A Song From My Favourite Album (hard to choose, so many good albums)!

Song 20: A Song I listen to when I'm Angry

Song 21: A Song I Listen To When I'm Happy

this weeks playlist

2011-09-08T11:36:00.000-07:00

Chicks on Speed- Love Bite

The Cardigans- Marvel Hill

Patti Smith- Privilege (Set Me Free)

Thomas Tantrum- Zig a Zag

Siouxsie- Loveless

Babes in Toyland- Spun

Amanda Palmer- Astronaut

You Say Party- Poison

The Distillers- Drain the Blood

Natalie Imbruglia- Wishing I Was There

Moloko- The Time is Now

Scarling- Can't (Halloween Valentine)

The Donnas- Hyperactive

Joan Armatrading- There Ain't a Girl Alive

Santigold- My Superman

Bif Naked- Let Down

Nightwish- For the Heart I Once Had

The Raveonettes- Dead Sound

Hole – Dying

Imani Coppola- Springtime

Dana Jade- Little Sister

Maria and the Gay- Motherfolkers

Decibelles- Fur Love and Taxidermy

Tori Amos- Cornflake Girl

Chrome Hoof- Circus 9000

Flyleaf- Fully Alive

Nina Hagen- Spirit in the Sky

Ladygarden @ The Portland Arms, Cambridge 28/08/11

2011-09-04T03:20:00.000-07:00

Experimental noise makers Canaveral

Punk Rockers Beverly Kills

retro punk band Chapter 24

rock n rollers We Rock Like Girls Don't
I hadn't heard of the Ladygarden fundraiser before now, and this was their fourth year- this year I was lucky enough to be offered a lift down (as Cambridge is not too close to where I am)! by M of the fantastic band Ten Tigers.

As it wasn't advertised to start until 5.30pm, M came to pick up at about 3pm and we made our way down, getting ourselves in the mood for some female fronted music with a bit of Sneaker Pimps. We managed to find our way to Cambridge, and then got a bit confused where we had to go, but thanks to my recently bought smartphone and it's sat nav type function we managed to find ourselves there. We were still early anyway, so we quickly popped across the road to grab some chips.

When we finished and decided to venture into the venue, we got rather confused, as it was at a pub, that had many doors that seemed to lead to the same place- a room full of men watching football! Was this really the right place? Eventually we found ourselves in the beer garden, and thanks to someone who thought we were in one of the bands (well M could have been if her band was playing to be fair)! we finally realised there was another room, just outside and upstairs, almost like a secret bunker. Only, they were still sound checking at this point, so we decided to get a drink and spot the people that were in the bands- which wasn't hard! Anyone female and dressed vaguely alternative. It was quite an unusual mix of people in this pub- there was the stereotypical pub regulars, alternative crowd, old and young people, and even a couple of leather clad bikers drinking tea!

It took some time, but eventually at about 7pm, the room was finally ready for us. When we went inside, the room was incredibly tiny, and had very fancy looking patterned foam on the wall, which was in fact sound proofing. There wasn't too many of us in the room just yet for the first band, and there was two guys filming, that meant everyone was sort of standing towards the back of the room.

The first band Canaveral (sorry I can't find a link for the right band) weren't actually a female fronted band, although at least 3 of the members were. I wasn't quite sure what to make of this band to be honest, their entire set consisted of one over twenty minute long song- well I say song, it was more like a dark psychedelic experimental noise that consisted of some big drum beats and a guy making random noises into a loop machine, giving it a somewhat eerie effect. To be fair, I'm no expert on experimental music, and it wasn't unbearable, I was just a little dazed by it, which I'm sure is something they are used to!

There was a short break in between acts which gave us time to have a quick glance at the fundraising stall they had set up. It was a bit disappointing as both of us had brought things to donate, but the stall was actually very small and as it was the stuff on it was falling off! It had been advertised as having a BBQ, a record sale/cake stall, and although there was a few cds on the table and definitely some cakes, there was no bbq at all. Saying that, M mentioned there was a message about it on Facebook, which I no longer use so I didn't see it. It was probably a good thing as it was a really weird weather day, when it kept going sunny and raining intermittently.

The second band were a much more interesting prospect. They were called 'Chapter 24' and to begin with, I thought the lead singer kind of looked bored, but as the set went on, she looked more like she was into the spirit of it. Their music is described as 'tropical punk' which seems to fit the bill quite nicely. I would say they have a very retro feel to their music, which had some similarities to The Slits.

The third band on the line up were 'Beverly Kills' who I had heard of before, and I was hugely impressed with their set. They are an all female band with their own unique form of punk rock you can dance to. They actually had extra time on their set as one of the bands had to pull out as they were stuck in traffic and couldn't make it in time (to be honest I was relieved as they were hardcore band and I'm really not into hardcore) and at the end they decided to play a song they played at a friend's wedding, saying that we were all either going to love it or hate it. They then launched into a cover of several Abba songs including 'Gimme Gimme Gimme' and 'Mama Mia' but not at all in a cheesy 80's way, instead making an excellent fast, punky megamix!

The final band were 'We Rock Like Girls Don't' who I have also heard of, and also received music from several years ago. They only consist of two members (both female), a singer/guitarist and a drummer, but the amount of sound the two of them can make is simply immense. Their sound is pure infectious rock n roll, that seemed to spread through the crowd like wildfire, giving this fundraiser an amazing rock star finish.

Overall, this little fundraiser in Cambridge which was raising money for the Cambridge Women's Resource Centre was very good indeed, with a good choice of bands. My main complaint would be the use of the two cameramen in such a tiny room, especially as they tended to get in the way, several times one of them would be right in front of us, blocking the view or stopping us getting any closer to the stage (especially as we kept being told to move forward, it was sometimes near on impossible) but other than that, it was well worth the little road trip! (oh and the deafness the following day :) )

You can check out a few short video clips I took on my youtube page

this weeks playlist

2011-09-01T12:25:00.001-07:00

Cyndi Lauper- All Through the Night

Belinda Carlisle- Leave a Light On

Fleetwood Mac- The Chain

Texas- Halo

The Pretenders- Hymn To Her

Deborah Harry- French Kissin' in the USA

Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Heads Will Roll

Shiny Toy Guns- Le Disko

Portishead- Sour Times

Le Tigre- Les and Ray

Paramore- Emergency

Guano Apes- Cream Over Moon

Kittie- Summer Dies

Skunk Anansie- It Takes Blood and Guts To Be This Cool

Marnie Stern- Every Single Line Means Something

PJ Harvey- Losing Ground

Land of Talk- Speak to Me Bones

Dead Weather- 3 Birds

Rock in Your Pocket- Doubtbox

Lindsay Ullmann- Bloodsucker

Decibelles- The End of a Reign

Sarah Fimm- Yellow

Nina Simone- To Love Somebody

Janis Joplin- Ball and Chain

No Doubt- Beauty Contest

Tegan and Sara- Dark Come Soon

Imelda May- Tainted Love

Interview: Lindsay Ullmann

2011-08-28T05:12:00.000-07:00

I interviewed upcoming artist Lindsay Ullmann, check out her music on her website

How would you describe your music?

I would say it’s full of passion and mainly quite rock felt, some of it is quite feisty, whereas other parts our slightly more vulnerable.

How long have you had an interest in music and when did you start taking it more seriously?

I’ve always been interested in music, ever since I can remember! I even use to sing myself to sleep at night! I started taking it more seriously in 2006 when I started doing a lot of karaoke and open mic nights, people kept telling me that I had a really good voice. I was always a writer so I started to focus more on my singing and writing then.

When did you start writing songs/playing instruments?

I started writing poetry at a very young age and it just developed from there really as I was able to turn my poetry into songs as well. I only just started writing songs on guitar this year after teaching myself the chords. Before I was writing them on keyboard but I’ve always preferred guitar. I’m no good at playing guitar live however, as I’m simply not strong enough in that sense - I merely use the guitar to write songs.

On your website, it suggests there is a spiritual edge to your lyrics, are you religious at all, or spiritually aware? Or is there another reason for this?

No I’m not religious. I feel religion and spirituality are two very different things. I’m spiritual in the sense that I feel in touch with the universe and have a very strong ability to feel, including other peoples’ emotions, which is why I write so much. I also do a lot of spiritual work and channel information so when I write songs this tends to happen in the same way. For example, sometimes I will write a set of lyrics, look back over them the next day and think “Where did that come from?” – It’s almost as if I am tuned into a higher force, and I think a lot of artists work that way, sometimes without even realising.

What inspires you to write?

Everything! I receive a lot of messages on a day to day basis from the outside world and also my inner world. If you are a “feeling person” and a “sensitive” then it’s very easy to express how you feel and also how you feel about the world. All that information received has to be let out in someway, and song writing is the perfect way to do it. I actually see it as a healing process much of the time. A lot of the songs I write are indeed about my feelings, but some of the songs I write are also about other people – sometimes there is no need to step in somebody else ‘s shoes because you are already in them! So again, I’m inspired by what other people go through.

What musicians inspire your music? Any particular idols?

I was hugely inspired by Nirvana as a teenager. I also love Cat Stevens, Billy Joel and a lot of folk music. I’ve also got all the Fall Out Boy albums – they are my favourite! I think Patrick Stump is a very, very talented man.

Tell us about the single 'Bloodsucker', what's it about, when is it released and where can people buy it from?

It’s actually a long story. I was having a bad time after a break up and came to the conclusion that all the bad guys – the ones that drain you emotionally - “Bloodsuckers”as I call them seem to be the only ones that can put real passion into a relationship, but they always seems to lack the emotional commitment, so although you get the passion you also end up feeling rather drained! So I’d been dating a guy you see that was perfectly lovely, but was just “too nice” and I was getting rather bored – so I decided to write the song “Bloodsucker” out of sheer frustration!

Bloodsucker will be available to download from all major download sites on 19^th September this year.

Any plans to release an album?

I would absolutely love to release an album! I have lots of material waiting to be recorded!

Where do you hope to be in five years time?

I would certainly like to think that I’d released a few albums!

My radio show focuses on female fronted bands and has a feminist stance, do you consider yourself to be a feminist? Why or why not? Any relevant experiences?
Thanks very much!!

Yes, I am indeed –I’ve always believed in equal rights and have been bought up in a household which is very “equal rights” so absolutely.

this weeks playlist

2011-08-26T11:19:00.000-07:00

The Go- Go’s- We Got The Beat
Bow Wow Wow- Go Wild in the Country
Blondie- I’m Gonna Love You Too
Soho Dolls- Bang Bang Bang
Peaches- Downtown
MEN- My Family
The Gossip- Dark Lines
Veruca Salt- Volcano Girls
The Runaways- Wait For Me
Girlschool- Take It All Away
Pat Benatar- Love is a Battlefield
The Creepshow- Candykiss
Evanescence- The Only One
An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump
X Ray Spex- Oh Bondage Up Yours!
Daisy Chainsaw- The Future Free

The Joy Formidable- Greyhounds in the Slips
Blood Red Shoes- Take the Weight
The Long Blondes- Weekend Without Make up
KT Tunstall- Hold On
Tilly and the Wall- Fell Down the Stairs
Le Monnier- Save Yourself
Dirty Love- Instant Gratification
Ten Tigers- 82
Wetdog- Alibi
Misnomer- Turn Away
The Go! Team- Ladyflash
Regina Spektor- Fidelity
Alisha’s Attic- Intense
Girls Girls Girls- Dr.Feelgood

Part 6: The 30 Day Song Challenge

2011-08-21T06:06:00.000-07:00

Song 16: A Song you Used to Love but now hate- was a big fan as a young teen, but wore off...

Song 17: A Song you always hear on the radio- the one Adele song I don't mind

Song 18: A Song you wish you heard on the radio- pretty much everything I listen to, that's why I started my radio show in the first place, but I don't think I've ever heard this on mainstream radio

Interview: Georgia of Bitter Ruin!

2011-08-15T09:24:00.000-07:00

I recently had the pleasure of speaking to Georgia, a member of the great band Bitter Ruin. We had a little chat about inspirations, feminism and the new single 'Trust' Here's what she said:

For readers that maybe unfamiliar with your music, how would you describe the sound of Bitter Ruin?

 Georgia: Elements of rock, musical theatre, classical and flamenco. We have found the best genre description to be 'contemporary expressionism' - meaning that the style, mood, instrumentation etc changes according to the message of the song.

  Have you had any classical music training or are you self taught?

  G: Both of us have been classically trained in Piano and we have degrees in music. But I always think there's a huge element of self tuition with anything your passionate about.

   Bitter Ruin are recommended to fans of Dresden Dolls and there are certainly similar elements to your music. What was it like touring with Amanda Palmer?

 G: Well, I think the core of the music is very different but there are similarities in the noir edge to the lyrics and the passionate delivery. Also, both bands are boy girl duos. Touring with Amanda is great fun, singin Delilah with the Dolls in Boston has to be one of the best moments of our career so far.(note- they are also supporting AFP on her London dates in September)

 Who are your idols and how have they influenced your life- whether it be by music or another area of your life?

Georgia and Ben: I (Georgia) Love Fiona Apple and also strong female performers like Beyonce, but I prefer the songwriting of people like Fiona or PJ Harvey. I (Ben) am really into Jeff Buckley and some heavier stuff too as well as the Flamenco greats, however, I have a soft spot for Stevie Wonder!

 My radio show focuses on female fronted and all female bands, and has a feminist stance. Do you consider yourself to be a feminist? And do you think women in music get the attention they deserve?

 G: Am I a feminist??? Have you HEARD our album?! Yes, hugely...all men are...no, just kidding! But, I don't think women are treated much differently to men in the industry these days, I know that I pretty much run this band and everything that goes on around it and I have never had to overcome any obstacles because of my sex. However, I purposefully try to look a little messy in videos and photos etc because I do worry that I'll look too glamorous (being young and blond and all) and that people will not take the music seriously. But I could never be bothered with make up anyway!

   What inspires Bitter Ruin's songwriting? Is it an easy process?

 G: I'd say that it could be easy...but we manage to make it as hard as possible! - The songs always come from real life experiences, I think good songs can ONLY come from real life. They tend to be written by me  and then we'll spend hours and hours on the harmonies and guitar parts...I'd say each song takes 30 hours of arrangement before we're ready to rehearse it!!!

 Tell us about your new single 'Trust' what's the song about, the story behind the video and when can people buy it?

 G: HAHA! Yes, well amazingly Stephen Fry just tweeted the video yesterday. It had 7500 views overnight! But the song is essentially an argument. It's a desperate rant and lull between two lovers who are in the turmoil of a vicious break up...screaming and slamming doors and all that drama!  Trust is available for 'official' download on the 3.10.11 - But if you join our twitter/facebook/mailing list at www.bitterruin.com, we'll remind you about that!

 Any tour dates coming up?

G: LOADS...we're doing a huge UK tour with the likes of Amanda Palmer and Duke Special, we're bound to be somewhere near you soon, wherever you live. All of the dates are on the website too.  Any bands you would like to recommend to my readers?  If you haven't heard of her, Fiona Apple and also Jack Weissman, he's supporting us on tour! He rocks!  When can fans expect a new album?  CRIKEY! Yes, erm, we have all of the songs ready to go, it's just a case of finding time to record...I hope we'll record in December and maybe have something out by May 2012 - but don't hold me to that!

Part 5: the 30 day song challenge

2011-08-14T06:12:00.000-07:00

Song 13: A Guilty Pleasure

Song 14: A Song That No One Would Expect Me To Like

Song 15: A Song That Describes Me

this weeks playlist

2011-08-11T10:10:00.000-07:00

Altered Images- I Could Be Happy

The Sundays- Here's Where The Story Ends

Sophie B Hawkins- As I Lay Me Down

Bjork- Earth Intruders

Morcheeba- Fragments of Freedom

Ladytron- CMYK

New Young Pony Club- The Get Go

Tori Amos- Professional Widow (Remix)

Lita Ford- Falling In and Out of Love

Dresden Dolls- The Kill

Damone- On Your Speakers

Snake River Conspiracy- Casualty

The Donnas- What Do I Have To Do

Scarling- Baby Dracula

Nightwish- Nemo

Lahannya- No Way Out

Chrome Hoof- Circus 9000

The Sounds- Much Too Long Now

Sarah Rocks- The Industrial Jist

Leftover Lucy- Sleep Talking

Ten Tigers- Super Lucky

The Cardigans- Nasty Sunny Beam

Girl in a Coma- Their Cell

Bif Naked- Abandoment

Cat Power- Hate

Ann Wilson- Isolation

Dancing Barefoot

2011-08-09T12:49:00.001-07:00

Issue Two of my per-zine 'Dancing Barefoot' is ready!
In this issue, I've wrote about being a loner and organising a Ladyfest!
If you want a copy for £1.75, please leave me a comment with your email address, or email me directly pigtailsandarmyboots@gmail.com

30 Day Song Challenge Part 4

2011-08-07T02:39:00.000-07:00

Song 10: A Song I Fall Asleep to
Air are not boring, but very relaxing and good to chill out to

Song 11: A Song from my favourite band
well I have more than one favourite band, both I've already included videos by, but here they are again:

Song 12: A Song from a band I hate
well my most hated bands aren't normally female (Oasis, Cradle of Filth, stuff like that) but for this one I choose someone that everyone seems to love, but I just don't "get it"

this week's playlist

2011-08-04T11:57:00.000-07:00

Fleetwood Mac- Little Lies

Tom Tom Club- Genius of Love

Propaganda- Frozen Faces

Salt N Pepa- Let's Talk About Sex

Ladyhawke- Dusk Till Dawn

Goldfrapp- Strict Machine

Chicks on Speed- Glamour Girl

Thomas Tantrum- Pshandy

Little Fish- Disco Feet

Garbage- Cherry Lips

Elastica- Smile

Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Honeybear

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts- Riddles

Hole- Heaven Tonight

Harry- Valley

Paramore- Born For This

Gaggle- I Like Cigarettes

Skunk Anansie- I Can Dream

Lacuna Coil- Humane

PJ Harvey- You Come Through

Sassy!!!- Blink Once

The Sibleys- Blue Eyed Bandit

Ten Tigers- 82

Joan Osborne- One of Us

Metric- Ending Start

Robots in Disguise- DIY

Jyl Millard- Ace of Spades

30 Day Song Challenge: Part 3

2011-07-31T02:21:00.000-07:00

Song 7: A Song That Reminds of an Event- reminds of the Robots gig I went to earlier this year, 4th time I've seen them and by far the best. This was an amazing encore!

Song 8: A Song that I know all the words to
there's many, but here's one

Song 9: A Song I can Dance to
I'll dance to most things if I like it but I love love love this song

this week's playlist

2011-07-28T10:54:00.001-07:00

The Go-Go's- We Got The Beat

Madonna- Into The Groove

Blondie- The Tide Is High

The Pretenders- Don't Get Me Wrong

Shocking Blue- Dream on Dreamer

Gossip- Keeping You Alive

Horrorpops- Who's Leading You Now

Soho Dolls- Weekender

MEN- Who Am I To Feel So Free

CSS- Art Bitch

Crystal Castles- Knights

Imelda May- Mayhem

Pat Benetar- Heartbreaker

Bikini Kill- For Tammy Rae

Evanescence- Lacrymosa

The Distillers- Love is Paranoid

The Birthday Massacre- Pins and Needles

Guano Apes- Innocent Greed

Metalchicks- We Are The Warriors

Babes in Toyland- Magic Flute

The Duel- The Duel

Lucid Nation- The World's Guiltiest Pleasure

Ten Tigers- Superlucky

Heather Nova- Make You Mine

Howling Bells- Low Happening

You Say Party- Monster

Kim Carnes- Bette Davis Eyes

Corinne Bailey Rae- Steady As She Goes

30 Day Song Challenge: Part 2

2011-07-24T12:17:00.000-07:00

4: A Song that Makes You Sad
Madonna- Power of Goodbye (clickable link as not able to embed)

5: A Song That Reminds You of Someone- Amanda Palmer makes me think of a lot of my friends!

6: A Song That Reminds of Somewhere- This makes me think of the best night out I ever had in London

This Week's Playlist

2011-07-21T12:16:00.001-07:00

Siouxie- They Follow You

Peaches- You Love It

Patti Smith- People Have the Power

The Runaways- Dead End Justice

The Dollyrots- Because I'm Awesome

McQueen- Numb

Pretty Girls Make Graves- Domino

Kelly Osbourne- On Your Own

The Long Blondes- Weekend Without Make Up

Dresden Dolls- Modern Moonlight

New Young Pony Club- Jerk Me

Heart- Little Queen

Lita Ford- Playing With Fire

The Donnas- Searching the Streets

Santigold- Creator Vs Switch & Freq Nasty

The Cardigans- Laika

The Raveonettes- Hallucinations

Chrome Hoof- Pronoid

Alchemy Divine- I Just Can't Stop

Lady Earl and the Greys- Smiling Out of Key

Sophe Lux- Target Market

Obessive Compulsive- Perfect Wreck

Sarah Fimm- Soul Let Swim

Cyndi Lauper- Time After Time

Lizzyspit- Little Dan

Florence and the Machine- You've Got The Love

30 day song challenge- part 1

2011-07-18T11:40:00.000-07:00

I did this a while ago on Facebook, but as I'm not longer really using it, and not everyone that reads this blog would have seen it, and I'll pick different things this time (and all female fronted this time) so here's part 1

Day 1: My Favourite Song

Day 2: My Least Favourite Song - words can;t describe how angry this song makes me

Day 3: A Song that Makes Me Happy

this weeks playlist

2011-07-13T11:17:00.000-07:00

Amanda Palmer- Astronaunt

Goldfrapp- Number 1

Ladytron- Season of Illusions

The Distillers- The Gallows is God

Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Pin

Letters to Cleo- Let's Get High

Ladyhawke- Morning Dreams

Tori Amos- Cornflake Girl

Alisha's Attic- Air and Angels

Aretha Franklin- Walk on By

Lisa Loeb- Stay

No Doubt- Hey Baby

The Go! Team- Ladyflash

Gaggle- I Hear Flies

PJ Harvey- Down By The Water

Jack Off Jill- My Cat

Call the Doctor- Gregory, You're A Star

Garbage- Dumb

The Creepshow- Candykiss

Portishead- Glory Box

Texas- Say What You Want

Julia Free- Boo Hoo

Sassy!!- Keep it Comin'

Sophe Lux- God Doesn't Take American Express

Hole- Miss World

Kate Bush- Cloudbusting

Alanis Morissette- Crazy

Happiness V Sadness!

2011-07-10T11:40:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't wrote, I've been on holiday! I came back to this lovely surprise- my signed copy of Robots in Disguise new album Happiness V Sadness!
I've listened to it once so far, it's quite different from their other albums- probably some of it will be a grower, but there is some great rocky tracks on there too. I'll hopefully get to do a proper review of it soon, and I'll link to it if it's elsewhere.

Review of Ladyfest Essex

2011-06-26T11:35:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my lovely friend Rachel, for this great review!

Last Saturday brought Ladyfest Essex, the newest incarnation of the DIY festival celebrating women's creativity, art and music. This Ladyfest was being held in aid of Refuge, the domestic abuse charity, and had a very exciting line-up of local bands. My boyfriend and I took the train down from Cambridge and got to the Railway Hotel for about 4pm, a couple of hours into the all-day schedule.

In the upstairs room of the Railway, decorated with pink balloons and posters, stalls lined the walls. There were ceramics, knitting and zines on sale, as well as a craft table and hand-made upcycled clothing. I picked up a copy of Noisy with a free CD and issue 1 of Ste McCabe's Queers Make Music. The atmosphere was quiet but very friendly. We had arrived just in time to hear a quick talk by a Refuge representative, who told us about the work the charity does and mentioned that the women's sector is very underfunded. Next up were the three female poets of Sundown Arts. Jo Overfield's snappy delivery matched her funny, offbeat poems. Ray Morgan gave us wryly observed tales of commuter life and office temping, and Cherryl Scott recited from memory several moving pieces about surviving domestic abuse.

Things quietened down a little until the music began at 8pm. My boyfriend and I had delicious beanburgers downstairs, enjoying the fact that the Railway Hotel is the only completely vegetarian/vegan pub in Essex, so that we were completely refuelled when Ten Tigers came onstage. Ramshackle, charming and terribly catchy, Ten Tigers are one of my favourite live bands and they didn't disappoint, despite technical issues. They kickstarted the festival with 82, played a metal-sounding version of "our big feminist anthem" Superlucky and debuted a new song with the chorus, "She'll never love you as much as she loves Jesus!"

The next band were Candy Panic Attack, a three-piece who seem to make much more noise than three people should be able to. They rattled through their set of super-short punk-influenced tunes that ordered, not invited, dancing. After them were Calico, were a very different proposition. Playing without their drummer, they delivered a set of tight songs made striking by the almost spooky vocal harmonies of singers Shel and Lauren. They were hypnotic and marvellous.

The Scarlet Echo, next up, were sharp, stylish and electric. They were incredibly energetic onstage, playing ska-tinged rock enhanced by Hannah's unusual voice. Following them were Death of the Elephant, one of the bands I had been most keen to see. Unfortunately, because of the previous technical problems, they had to shorten their set, but what they fit in was fantastic, noisy but melodic riot grrl/garage band songs, including Trypticon, with its memorable intro: "She's got a new toy and she's scared she'll break it..."

The final group of the evening, Le Monnier, had been at the festival for the entire day (I know, because I had been admiring singer/bassist Alexandra's amazing dress for the entire day) and for a short, tense while it looked like the scheduling problems would deprive them of their slot! Luckily this didn't happen and the band rocked the stage with the heaviest sound of the day. The new single, Con Amor Siempre, sounded great: it's from the album Russian Doll Life, out in October, and I can't wait for it. Alexandra dedicated their last song, Kingyo, to the Ladyfest organiser Hayley Foster da Silva.

Ladyfest Essex was a great chance to celebrate both women in art and music, and the diversity of the Essex music scene. It was great fun and I'm really happy I could attend. Hopefully there will be many more in future years!

this weeks playlist

2011-06-23T10:36:00.000-07:00

Cutaways- Milo of Kroton

The Pretenders- My City Was Gone

The Joy Formidable- Greyhounds in the Slips

Within Temptation- All I Need

Metric- Poster of a Girl

Sohodolls- Prince Harry

Kate Nash- Skeleton Song

Kittie- Flower of Flesh and Blood

Elastica- All Nighter

Transvision Vamp- Baby I Don't Care

Lauren Harris- See Through

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts- Change the World

Le Tigre- Tell You Now

Blonde Redhead- Top Ranking

Flyleaf- Sorrow

Madonna- Like A Virgin

Candie Payne- By Tomorrow

Nina Hagen- Iki Maska

CSS- Music is My Hot Hot Sex

Helen's Evil Twin- Stop Talking

The Brownies- Violence

Dirty Love- What Do Ya Want

Guano Apes- Allies

The Ting Tings- Great DJ

Working Class Heroes- The End

Natalie Imbruglia- Big Mistake

Harry- Push It (Real Good)

New Music Wanted!

2011-06-19T08:46:00.000-07:00

Are you in a bloody fantastic female fronted or all female band that I should be listening to?
Then I need you!
I need fresh music to play on my show 'Pigtails and Army Boots'! You will be played on several stations including the fantastic ARFM! If you have music you think could fit in with the likes of Bikini Kill, Joan Jett, Robots in Disguise and others, then send me info on your band and a mp3 or two to moonlight.phoenix@gmail.com

*plus!* If you would like me to review your EP/Album on this blog, and if it really impresses me I may feature you as Artist of the Month, let me know if you would like to do this.
and also if you are able to travel to Southend on Sea, Essex (UK) there are also interview possibilities.

This Weeks Playlist

2011-06-16T10:33:00.000-07:00

The Donnas- Girl Talk

Dead Disco- Automatic

Tsunami Bomb- Say It If You Mean It

The Dresden Dolls- Girl Anachronism

Fleetwood Mac- Landslide

Suzanne Vega- Zephyr and I

Eurythmics- Thorn In My Side

Morcheeba- Shallow End

Wetdog- Jam Dodger B

Lily Allen- Shame For You

The Cardigans- Hanging Around

Gwen Stefani- What You Waiting For

Shonen Knife- I Am A Cat

The Birthday Massacre- The Dream

The Runaways- Is It Day Or Night?

Suzi Quatro- Devil Gate Drive

The Dollyrots- Nobody Else

The Raveonettes- Dead Sound

Siouxsie and The Banshees- Peek A Boo

Bikini Kill- Rebel Girl

Candy Panic Attack- Heartbreaker

Argon 40- Stay

Dirty Love- Trashed

Robots in Disguise- DJ's Got A Gun

Death of the Elephant- 2N222

Le Monnier- Con Amor Siempre

Scarling- Band Aid Covers The Bullet Hole

Florence and the Machine- Drumming Song

Patti Smith- Everybody Wants to Rule The World

Ladyfest Essex Videos and photos

2011-06-13T13:07:00.000-07:00

Ladyfest Essex- the aftermath!

2011-06-12T11:34:00.000-07:00

Finally after spending what seems to be forever, Ladyfest Essex is over and done with!
There was several logistic issues that I won't go into depth about that made the last week even more stressful but we got there in the end, I won't write a full on review as I was too busy trying to get everything to run smoothly but I will give some sort of report as to how it went!

I arrived at the venue at about 12.45pm and met one of my volunteers- Christine. We got ourselves upstairs and started setting up the room, putting the refuge posters up, and getting the huge Ladyfest Essex banner pinned up to the bar (it managed to last most of day but started falling down later in the evening)! Shortly Cara, another volunteer arrived and helped to get all the balloons up as well. I set up the door table and got tables ready for the people who couldn't bring their own. The people with the tables started arriving- we had Jessica from Refuge, Kelly who makes clothes, Debbie who could do energising massages, a craft area set up by my friend Diana and a stall for myself with my zines and some promotion for my show and the feminist group I want to set up.

Sadly it was pretty quiet during the day, I'm not sure if it was the rain, or the fact that the London Slutwalk Protest was also happening. Quite a few of my friends made an appearence though which was really nice.
Just about 4, I got Jessica to do her talk about Refuge, she told us how the women's sector is seriously underfunded and how important events like this were, and shocking statistics of just how many women suffer domestic abuse- one in four women will suffer domestic abuse in their lifetime and two women are killed each week.

Shortly after the talk, the Sundown Arts poetry ladies arrived, and we treated to some poems from all three, that were both funny and sad, they were great!

Luckily the Railway is a vegan/vegetarian pub now, so I went and grabbed myself a rather yummy vegan burger and potatoes before going back up and getting ready for the music, bands started arriving and the drumkit got set up.

Then more people started to turn up, some people I knew, some I didn't.
There was a delayed start thanks to a non working microphone, but first up were Ten Tigers, who played a great set as always even debuting a new song.
Candy Panic Attack blistered their way through an angsty, punky/riot grrrl set, Calico had to play acoustic as their drummer let them down at the last minute, but I loved them, the singers had amazing voices, I'd not seen them before, but I'm quite keen to see them in full band mode now :)
The Scarlet Echo were fun and energetic, it was kind of a shame, the audience seemed to be sitting and standing on the sides most of the time.
Death of the Elephant did as great as they always do.
Annoyingly, the sound guy started taking everything down as it was getting to 11pm and we were running behind so Le Monnier still hadn't played, I had to tell him I'd been told we could go till 11.3o especially as the band had travelled 2 hours to get here, but he hadn't been told and had to go and check, so by the time Le Monnier came on they had to play a really short set :( they were as amazing as I thought they would be though, and they dedicated 'Kingyo' to me :D

Overall it was a positive day and we made £130 for Refuge! If you want to donate some more just go to http://www.justgiving.com/ladyfestessex

I've got photos posted on my Facebook and Tumblr, and also some videos on Tumblr, I'll probably post them here and on all the Ladyfest pages over the next week, but for now I'm
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

Ladyfest Essex- less than a week to go!

2011-06-05T02:35:00.001-07:00

if you can't make it, you can still donate to Refuge! : http://www.justgiving.com/ladyfestessex

This Weeks playlist

2011-06-01T12:08:00.000-07:00

Santigold- Lights Out

Tegan and Sara- Call it Off

The Kills- Tape Song

Imelda May- Psycho

No Doubt- Full Circle

Propaganda- P Machinery

Scarling- Band Aid Covers The Bullet Hole

Be Your Own Pet- Bicycle Bicycle, You Are My Bicycle

Le Monnier- Con Amor Siempre

You Say Party- Moon

Heart- Secret

Peaches- The Inch

The Naked and Famous- Punching in a Dream

Alanis Morissette- Straitjacket

Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Gold Lion

Chrome Hoof- Symbolic 180

New Young Pony Club- Talking Talking

Florence and The Machine- Dog Days Are Over

Hole- Heaven Tonight

Mother Mother- Touch Up

Portishead- Wandering Star

Salt N Pepa- Push It

Driver- Change Your Ways

Hazard County Girls- Red Light

Dirty Love- I Believe in You

Martha and The Muffins- Echo Beach

Paramore- Let The Flames Begin

Garbage- Androgyny

Cyndi Lauper- What's Going On

Le Monnier release new single

2011-05-30T12:02:00.000-07:00

You may remember some time agao me writing about Le Monnier and you probably know as well that they are headlining Ladyfest Essex

well they are releasing a new single 'Con Amor Siempre' which in my opinion, is amazing, it has the same awesome epic feel of songs on 'Cynic Sister' and mulitplies the power by at least ten. It's songs like this which make me wonder why this band isn't more known yet! If you like rock with great grrrl vocals, good basslines and frankly fantastic metal tinged guitars, you will love this track.

The song is officially released on June 13th, but if you're attending Ladyfest Essex on June 11th, you will be able to get a limited edition of the single for a mere £2 with 25% of the money going to the charity Ladyfest Essex is supporting 'Refuge'

you can hear the track right here and on my show in the next few weeks- what do you think?

Con Amor
Siempre by Le Monnier

you can check out more info on the Hertfordshire based band on their website, their new album is released in September.

Robots in Disguise @ The Old Queens Head, London, 26 May 2011

2011-05-29T09:41:00.000-07:00

Rating: *****

Being a huge fan of Robots in Disguise, it's quite difficult for me to write an unbiased review of this gig. This was the fourth time I have seen the band live and was in a signifcantly different venue from all the other times. This time it was upstairs at The Old Queens Head in Islington, in a tiny crowded and warm room, with a tiny stage with no barriers.

We arrived fairly late on in the evening, so the only support act we managed to catch was Dimbleby and Capper. A solo artist with two dancers. The music was a mix of dreamy pop and electronic, making a beautiful noise you could happily dance to.

Robots in Disguise took to the stage shortly after 10pm, looking amazing in their almost identical outfits and making a fitting start with 'Wake Up'. They then proceeded to play a fairly short but fantastic set list. They played most of their most popular songs including 'Turn it Up', 'Girl' and 'The Sex Has Made Me Stupid' as well as playing a few tracks from their forthcoming album Happiness V Sadness including the title track and the new very catchy single' Chains'. The new songs sounded fresh and exciting, but still had the trademark Robots in Disguise sound.

After 'The DJ's Got A Gun' rather than actually going properly off the stage, they encouraged the audience to act like they had and give them a big cheer. This lead into a rather energetic performance of 'Arguements' which involved dancing on tables and pigbacking on audience members!

The whole gig had fantastic and fun energy to it, making everyone in the room feel involved. I think even if you weren't a fan, surely seeing them at this particular gig, you couldn't help but dance and fall in love with these fabulous girls.

Robots in Disguise's new album Happiness V Sadness is released on July 11th, with the new first single, the very catchy 'Chains' being released a few weeks earlier on June 27th.

Were you at the gig too? What did you think? Did you like the new songs?

This weeks playlist

2011-05-27T11:23:00.000-07:00

Kittie- Paperdoll
Bjork- Human Behaviour
PJ Harvey- A Place Called Home
Pink- The One That Got Away
Everything But The Girl- Missing
Thomas Tantrum- Trust Rhymes With Crust
Chicks on Speed – Sell Out
The Joy Formidable- Greyhounds in the Slips
The Birthday Massacre- Black
Melissa Nadler- Box of Cedar
Liz Phair- Never Said
Blondie- Rapture
Bat For Lashes- Seal Jubilee

Joan Jett- Victim of Circumstance
Damone- Wasted Years
TLC- Waterfalls
The Pretenders- Don't Get Me Wrong
Joan Osborne- One of Us
Kim Wilde- Kids in America
Sophe Lux- God Doesn't Take American Express
A Brokeheart Pro- Pink Mischief
Stephanie Schneiderman- Rubber Teardrop
Siouxsie and the Banshees- Monitor
Pat Benatar- Hit Me With Your Best Shot
Bikini Kill- Reject All American
KT Tunstall – Let's Stick Together

Let's Play a game..

2011-05-22T07:49:00.001-07:00

Can you guess the songs these first lines of songs come from? (no googling/other internet search things please)! Winner can get a random mix of great female fronted music on CD from me sent to them..

1. You can tell from the scars on my arms and the cracks on my hips..
2. The waves keep crashing on me for some reason
3. I've got a lot to say to you, I've got a lot to say
4. Calling me high on the telephone, came by plane all alone
5. we are young, heartache to heartache we stand
6. sometimes they'll want to cut you down
7. you pretend you're high
8. hold me, one time, one time only
9. I'm the little girl at the picnic
10. I never know how to treat you
11. creeping up the backstairs
12. midnight getting uptight, where are you?
13. I can see you stalking like a predator
14. colour me your colour baby
15. Your back's against the wall
16. you and me were cut from the same cloth
17. I'm a blond bombshell and I wear it well
18. tingling mind and too big a smile
19. hey, whats your name, hey where you from
20. I made a mistake
21. I see it all before me
22. I put your stuff out on the porch
23. I lost my heart under the bridge
24. you chat to me like we connect
25. come on everybody get on the dancefloor

this weeks playlist

2011-05-20T13:27:00.001-07:00

The Creepshow- Candykiss
Suzanne Vega- Tom's Diner
Madonna- Take a Bow
The Go Go's- Vacation
The Raveonettes- Blush
Daisy Chainsaw- Pink Flower
Inkubus Sukkubus- Call Out My Name
Janis Joplin- Summertime
Elastica- Vaseline
The Long Blondes- Century
Amanda Palmer- Guitar Hero
Horrorpops- Bring It On!
Lunachicks- Binge and Purge

Kenickie- I Would Fix You
Le Tigre- Slideshow at Free University
Fleetwood Mac- Everywhere
Deborah Harry- Naked Eye
Kate Nash- Mouthwash
The Cardigans- Country Hell
Grim Dylan- Kids Don't Sleep
Sarah Rocks- Blueblood
Stephanie Schneiderman- Anchor
L7- Scrap
Blood Red Shoes- Count Me Out
Gaggle- I Like Cigarettes
The Distillers- The Gallows is God
Thee Ultra Bimbos- We're Not Gonna Take It

Things of Interest

2011-05-15T02:54:00.000-07:00

Slutwalkinghttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

If you have somehow missed all the media covering Slutwalks (both positive and negative) they are basically a protest that originated in Canada, when a policeman said 'women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised' when talking to students about personal safety regarding rape etc. Quite rightly so, this has stirred quite a reaction, slutwalks have been happening worldwide with women (and men) protesting that the rapist is always to blame and not how they dress. Some people are using it also as a way of reclaiming the word 'Slut'. I was personally really hoping to get along to the London Slutwalk but the date has now changed to June 11th, the same day as Ladyfest Essex!

Womens Liberation Music Archive
I'm yet to have a good browse through this, but this website provides lots of information and links to music which was made during the 70s and 80s by feminist bands. It sounds fascinating.

Ellen Willis
good article on Alternet (very worth checking out) about a female music writer. A book is being released of her work.

This week's playlist

2011-05-12T12:29:00.000-07:00

Alanis Morissette- Sister Blister
Joan Armatrading- There Ain't A Girl Alive
Tori Amos- The Pool
Salt N Pepa- Let's Talk About Sex
Be Your Own Pet- We Will Vacation, You Can Be My Parasol
Wetdog- Steal A Car
Dead Disco- Too Late
Kelly Osbourne- Coolhead
Belinda Carlisle- Leave a Light On
Dido- Take My Hand
CSS- Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above
The Go! Team- Get it Together
Cyndi Lauper- When You Were Mine
The Breeders- Divine Hammer
Ladytron- High Rise (club mix)
Paramore- For a Pessimist I'm Pretty Optimistic
Hole- Reasons to be Beautiful
Nightwish- Dead To The World
Berlin Brides- Rejection Junkie
Ten Tigers- 82
Stephanie Scneiderman- River Stone
Lush- Ladykillers
The Sounds- Running Out of Turbo
Skunk Anansie- Weak
Bif Naked- Nothing Else Matters

Ladyfest Essex and my other projects

2011-05-08T08:33:00.000-07:00

If you read this blog regularly, you may remember at the beginning of the year about all the projects I was hoping to do. Well most of them are happening! Only one has not really taken off yet. I was hoping to set up a feminist group in Southend, sadly after several months trying I had to give up as no one was turning up to any meetings. I tried to arrange with people on the facebook group but no one would commit to a date so I had to just pick a date, advertise it and see what happened. Nothing happened. I haven't completely given up though. I've given it up as Southend Fawcett Society and later in the year I'm going to try a different approach and give it a go as Grrrl Virus Southend and do things differently. I really want to meet other grrrls in my area, I know they must be out there somewhere!

One of the things that has succeeded, although slowly, has been making my own zine. I wrote it back at the end of December, it's called 'Dancing Barefoot' and is a perzine. In the first issue I've wrote about growing up and friendships. It took me a while to get printed versions. The quotes I got were very expensive, so I decided to make it into a free PDF. and then in the last few weeks I found out that a local stationary shop does double sided photocpying pretty cheap, so I got some copies made there last week! They are A4 sized, and are £1.75 to buy which is to cover the cost of printing and postage. If you're interested in buying one, just email me- moonlight.phoenix@gmail.com and I'll send you details on how to buy it. Hopefully I can get started on the second issue soon!

Lastly but the biggest thing of all, is Ladyfest Essex is actually happening! andf I have been working super hard on it!
It's happening Saturday June 11th, upstairs at The Railway Hotel pub, Southend, it will be £3 to get in with all proceeds going to the charity Refuge
Basically it is an all dayer event (2pm-11pm) with the main focus on the music. There will also be spoken word from Sundown Multimedia as well as stalls selling cds, zines, crafts, and other feminist related goodies! I'm also lucky enough to have someone from Refuge actually attending the event, to do a stall and also do a short talk about the charity!
The band line up is:
Art Gruppe http://www.reverbnation.com/artgruppe
Ten Tigers http://www.tentigersmusic.co.uk/
Femmepop http://www.myspace.com/femmepop
Candy Panic Attack http://www.myspace.com/candypanicattack
Calico http://www.myspace.com/calicobanduk
Death of the Elephant http://www.myspace.com/deathoftheelephant
The Scarlet Echo http://www.myspace.com/thescarletechomusic
Le Monnier http://www.le-monnier.com/

The only problems I'm having at the moment is trying to sort out a drumkit that we can use for the whole day, and volunteers! so far, only myself and one other person are doing anything. I need 3 more for on the door (2 people for each shift) people who can collect donations with tins, a photographer (identifed as female would be prefable in the spirit of ladyfest) and general help with promoting (flyers up, handing out etc)!

This weeks Playlist

2011-05-06T12:55:00.001-07:00

Natalie Imbruglia- Big Mistake
Lauren Harris- Hit or Miss
Kate Bush- Hounds of Love
Candie Payne- All I Need To Hear
Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Kiss Kiss
Babes in Toyland- Flesh Crawl
Gossip- For Keeps
Blondie- Maria
Nina Simone- Ain't Got No, I Got Life
Altered Images- I Could Be Happy
Garbage- When I Grow Up
Joan Jett and The Blackhearts- You Want In, I Want Out
Heather Nova- Make You Mine
Portishead- Biscuit

Texas- When We Are Together
Everything But The Girl- We Walk The Same Line
Aretha Franklin- Chain of Fools
Grace Jones- Williams Blood
New Young Pony Club- Grey
Sleater Kinney- You're No Rock n Roll Fun
Shocking Blue- Rock in the Sea
The Wind Up Dolls- Angel
Dirtblonde- Brookyln
Stephanie Schneiderman- Hush
The Pretenders- I Go To Sleep
The Duke Spirit- Dog Roses
MEN- Who I Am To Feel So Free?
Ann Wilson- We Got Get Out Of This Place

RIP Poly-styrene

2011-05-01T02:53:00.000-07:00

I feel like I can't let this go without posting something.
Poly-styrene, lead singer of punk band X Ray Spex passed away this week after a battle with Cancer. She was only 53.
Poly has been an inspiration to many female musicians punk and non punk alike. She has been an inspiration to me and my show. She created one of my favourite songs of all time. How could I not be swayed by the line 'some say little girls should be seen and not heard, but I think...OH BONDAGE UP YOURS!'
It was only recently that she released her solo album 'Generation Indigo' with it's positive vibe.
Poly was also a vegan and stood up for things she believed in. I don't think there are any words I can really say that really sum up just how amazing she was, there are many blog posts and news items that share my sadness, I just couldn't NOT blog about it, even if Idon't actually have the right words to express how I feel.

This Week's Playlist

2011-04-28T12:08:00.001-07:00

Bananarama- Venus
PJ Harvey- Working For The Man
Melissa Auf Der Maur- Taste You
Daisy Chainsaw- I Feel Insane
Flyleaf- Breathe Today
The Donnas- You Make Me Hot
Echobelly- Great Things
Kim Wilde- Kids in America
Bjork- Earth Intruders
L7- Let's Lynch The Landlord
X Ray Spex- Oh Bondage Up Yours!
The Cardigans- Starter
Goldfrapp- Ooh La La
The Slits- New Town
Dream Aria- Labyrinth
ArtGruppe- Ugly Boy Ugly Girl
Sassy!!!- You Can Have Him
Thomas Tantrum- Shake It Shake It
Marnie Stern- Every Single Line Means Something
Dresden Dolls- Girl Anachronism
Patti Smith Group- Privilege (Set Me Free)
Candy Panic Attack- What's He Got That I Haven't?
Pat Benatar- Heartbreaker
Imelda May- Big Bad Handsome Man
Soho Dolls- Stripper
The Wendy Darlings- Enormous Pop
Republica- Drop Dead Gorgeous
Horrorpops- Walk Like A Zombie
The Runaways- Cherry Bomb
Guano Apes- Big in Japan (Space Jazz Dubmen Mix)

Bands you might not have heard of, but NEED to hear!

2011-04-24T02:21:00.000-07:00

I'm just as passionate about new, upcoming bands as well known classic bands, it's the ones that you don't hear that tend to really have something to say. It's the bands that really need the exposure through shows like mine and others, so we can make REAL music the norm and not the diluted pop crap that the mainstream media seems to think we want. In my time as a radio presenter, music fan, gig goer and writer I've discovered lots of amazing bands I really think you NEED to hear.

Death of the Elephant

Trash Monroe

Le Monnier

Catherine Elms
no videos as yet!

Ten Tigers

Candy Panic Attack

is there any bands you think everybody should know about, let me know in the comments! :)

This Weeks Playlist

2011-04-21T10:36:00.001-07:00

Hole- Heaven Tonight
An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump- The Past Between Us
Ladyhawke- From Dusk Till Dawn
Carol Bui- 'Geisha' Means Open Minded
Robots in Disguise- Can't Stop Getting Wasted
Call the Doctor- Little Bones
Bat For Lashes- Horse and I
Blood Red Shoes- ADHD
Tom Tom Club- Genius of Love
Ace of Base- The Sign
KT Tunstall- Boo Hoo (acoustic extravaganza version)
Kittie- Everything That Could Have Been
Alice in Videoland- We Are Rebels
Alanis Morissette- Eight Easy Steps
Be Your Own Pet- We Will Vacation, You Can Be My Parasol
Little Fish- Lord's Mistake (acoustic)
After School Sports- Almost Left My Boyfriend For His Casio
Babes in Toyland- Blood
586- We Got Bored
Cling- Groovyshoes
The Duel- Jump
Alchemy Divine- I Just Can't Stop
Sassy!!!- So Bad It's Good
A Brokeheart Pro- Pink Mischief
Propaganda- Duel
Siouxie- Heaven and Alchemy
Chicks on Speed- Plastic Surgery
The Breeders- Divine Hammer
Lily Allen- Oh My God

Buyers Guide: Kathleen Hanna

2011-04-17T02:13:00.000-07:00

Kathleen Hanna
Kathleen Hanna, whether she likes it or not, is the poster girl of riot grrrl and feminist flavoured music. Her bands have influenced many of the current wave of female fronted/all female bands.

She has inspired women in many ways, not just through music but also through being creative- for example with zines, and also inspired and continues to inspire women to be activists for women's rights and more.

With many zines and feminist related flyers, you will find iconic images of Kathleen Hanna and her lyrics are used often on feminist blogs.

For any person first getting into female music, finding Kathleen Hanna's music tends to be life changing. For myself, it was hearing 'Rebel Girl' that first led me on the road to feminism and ultimately what got me to explore this kind of music more, scratching below the surface of what the mainstream music world had to offer.

So here's a guide to help you with the albums you should listen to involving the feminist icon.

Essential Classics

Bikini Kill- The C.D version of the first two records
Bikini Kill is where it all started and this compilation album has all the classic tracks on it, that make them such essential listening. It's shouty, angry, feminist lyrics may not be like anything you've heard before if you're new to the genre, but trust me, with a few listens you'll grow to love it.

Le Tigre- self titled
Kathleen Hanna's second band, now with a more tuneful, electro fused sound that you can dance to. This album contains some of the best tracks and was even listed as one of the songs in the 1001 albums you must hear before you die book.

Good- Worth Exploring

Julie Ruin
Julie Ruin was Kathleen Hanna's solo project which she has now reserected so hopefully we might hear more of this kind of music soon. It's also electro flavoured, but slightly more downbeat than Le Tigre.

Le Tigre- This Island
more fun electro with a feminist flavour!

Essential Playlist- the songs

Bikini Kill- Rebel Girl

Julie Ruin- Radical or Pro Parental

Le Tigre- TKO

Bikini Kill- Jigsaw Youth

Le Tigre- Deceptacon

Bikini Kill- Distinct Complicity

Le Tigre- I'm So Excited

Le Tigre- On The Verge

Bikini Kill- New Radio

Bikini Kill- Suck My Left One

This week's playlist

2011-04-14T10:44:00.000-07:00

Bif Naked- Let Down
The Fervour- Crazy for the Feeling
The Gossip- Listen Up!
The Joy Formidable- Greyhounds in The Slips
Tiny Masters of Today- Hologram World
Martha Reeves and the Vandellas- Dancing in The Street
MEN- Off Our Backs
CSS- Let's Make Love and Listen To Death From Above
Metric- Gimme Sympathy
Cyndi Lauper- All Through The Night
Bikini Kill- Star Fish
Crystal Castles- Alice Practice
Feist- The Park
Alisha's Attic- The Golden Rule
The Brownies- Stuck on You
Yeah Yeah Yeahs- No No No
Koogaphone- White Trash
Heather Nova- Valley of Sound
Ladytron- Runaway
The Lovecats- Tainted Red
Exotica- Oceans
Sassy!!!- Wild Summer
Blondie- Atomic
Annie Lennox- Walking on Broken Glass
Paramore- Crush Crush Crush
X Ray Spex- Oh Bondage Up Yours!
New Young Pony Club- Get Dancey
Sixpence None The Richer- There She Goes

Heavy Rotation-what I've been listening to

2011-04-10T07:05:00.000-07:00

24 Songs that I currently think are awesome:

01 Off Our Backs- MEN
I know I've been going on and on about this band, but honestly they are amazing!Not only do they have the awesome JD Samson (of Le Tigre fame) on vocals, but their songs are amazingly catchy and feminist. I defy you not to get this song stuck in your head!

02 Crazy For The Feeling- The Fervour
A band I discovered thanks to Wears The Trousers, this band has a really unique sound that I love.

03 You Can Have Him- Sassy!!!
a really fun rolicking pure rock n roll all female band that mixes heavy rock with 60's style all girl band vocals.

04 Drowning- Catherine Elms
unsigned but wonderful, I especially love the dramatic edge of this song, very powerful

05 Cups- Lulu and the Lampshades
cute and quirky, sweet fairytale like folk music, not my usual taste but I love this.

06 Carol Bui-Mira, You're Free With Me
Another discovery thanks to thegirlsare, Carol Bui mixes eastern dance with indie rock to an exciting, unique sound. This is a definite stand out track on her album 'Red Ship'

07 Isa and The Filthy Tongues- Big Star
dirty rock n roll indie at it's finest

08 The Naked and Famous- Punching in a Dream
indie that makes me want to dance..

09 The Tiny Masters of Today- Hologram World

10 Le Monnier- Save Yourself

11 Skunk Anansie- Weak
a classic old track but I still love it.

12 Klaxons- Gravity's Rainbow

13 Kasabian- Fire
the schizophrenicness off this song never gets old!

14 The Kabeedies-Lovers Ought To

15 Rilo Kiley- The Moneymaker

16 Call the Doctor- For Your Leisure

17 Suzanne Vega- Blood Makes Noise

18 The Joy Formidable- Greyhounds in the Slips

19 Plasticines- I could rob you

20 Lissy Trullie- Ready for the floor
awesome hot chip cover

21 Die Mannequin- Hand in Hand

22 Scanners- Low Life

23 Slant 6- Soda Rip Off

24- My Gold Mask- All Up in the Air

This week's playlist

2011-04-07T10:30:00.000-07:00

Mother Mother- Body of Years (album version)
Working Class Heroes- When You Finally Stop Pretending
Thomas Tantrum- Mum's The Word
Howling Bells- Into the Chaos
PJ Harvey- I Think I'm A Mother
The Vincent Black Shadow- Control
Skunk Anansie- All in the Name of Pity
Isa and The Filthy Tongues- Big Star
Elastica- Hold Me Now
Daisy Chainsaw- Love Your Money
Meredith Brooks- Bitch
Guano Apes- Ain't Got Time
Flyleaf- Breathe Today
Horrorpops- Crawl Straight Home
Massive Attack- Tear drop
Roxette- It Must Have Been Love
Joan Jett and The Blackhearts- A.C.D.C
Jessica Allyn- Mother Goddamn
Dead Weather- Treat Me Like Your Mother
The Bird and The Bee- Again and Again
If Not For Dreaming- Joyous Rush
Sour Apple- Eileen Mac
Sassy!!- Honey Bee
You Say Party- Downtown Mayors Goodnight, Alley Kids rule!
Patti Smith Group- 25th Floor
Jennifer Justice and the Trilogy Sun- The Final Stand
Rasputina- Tourniquet

The Australian Pink Floyd @ Hammersmith Apollo, 20th March 2011

2011-04-03T12:04:00.000-07:00

Rating: *****

I had higher than normal expectations for this gig, more so than any other tribute act I've seen. Because they were playing somewhere as large as the Hammersmith Apollo, prices were higher than the average tribute act ticket and I had heard nothing but positive things about them. In fact, I had read that they were probably the closest thing to the actual Pink Floyd. I've not been lucky enough in my lifetime to see the real thing, but my husband Miguel has, and for them to be described like that, is rating them very highly.

When we arrived at our seats, there were 3D glasses waiting for us, and a sign on stage saying that we would be needing them in the second part of the show. There was no support act, as like the real band, the show was set to be a long one.

They started off with the stunning 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' complete with images of the band on the screen on stage, and of course a large focus on original band member and creative genius Syd Barrett (RIP)

The Aussie Pink Floyd continued to amaze with their accurate portrayal of Pink Floyd's music, even as far as to having many of the original videos from the concerts used in their own tv screen.

The first part of the set was very much focused on the older songs of Pink Floyd, and some not so well known tracks like 'Sorrow' from the album Momentary Lapse of Reason I would say the first half of the show was more dedicated to hard core fans.

After a short interval, we came back and put on our 3D glasses. 3D images started to appear on the screen and we were treated to several Dark Side of The Moon tracks- 'Speak to Me', 'On the Run', 'Time', 'Breathe' and 'The Great Gig in the Sky' all back to back.

The second half was much more well known Pink Floyd tracks, as well as the songs from Dark Side, there was also songs from The Wall and of course 'Wish You Were Here' Every song was musically spot on. The 3D imagery was an interesting feature, although possibly something they need to work on a bit more, as sometimes I didn't really feel it looked that 3D, also at times there was 3D and laser lights going at the same time, which was a bit unpleasant on the eyes. I loved the inflatable teacher during 'Another Brick in The Wall'

There was an encore as well, there was a brief soundtrack of Australian related sound bytes including Skippy and Neighbours, before a giant inflatable pink kangaroo (the band's logo) appeared on stage, jumping up and down to final song 'Run Like Hell'

Overall, a fantastic gig and certainly lived up to the expectations I had about them. My only complaint would be the choice of songs in the first half, but the second half was a lot better.

The Australian Pink Floyd are currently still touring all over the world. Their next gig is tomorrow at the Salle Erasme in France.

This week's playlist

2011-03-31T11:32:00.001-07:00

Garbage- When I Grow Up
The Pretenders- Back on the Chain Gang
Grace Jones- Pull Up To The Bumper
Pink- Trouble
Jefferson Airplane- White Rabbit
Alanis Morissette- Eight Easy Steps
Gwen Stefani- What You Waiting For?
Le Tigre- On The Verge
Heart- Crazy On You
The Go! Team- The Power is On
Remi Nicole- Go Mr Sunshine
Robots in Disguise- Hot Gossip
Santigold- I'm a Lady
Suzanne Vega- Blood Makes Noise
Deborah Harry- Heat of the Moment
Tori Amos- Big Wheel
Lucid Nation- Kindred
Goldfrapp- Some People
Zero 7- In The Waiting Line
Heather Nova- London Rain (Nothing Heals Me Like You Do)
La Roux- Bulletproof
Grim Dylan- Kids Don't Sleep
Berlin Brides- Scooter Boy
Hole- Doll Parts
The Kills- Tape Song
The Ting Tings- That's Not My Name
Operator Please- Crash Tragic
KT Tunstall- Let's Stick Together

Devilish Presley @ Chinnerys, 13 March 2011

2011-03-27T11:09:00.000-07:00

Rating: ****

Arriving a little late, we missed most of the first support act- Hollywood Doll what we did see was their last song, which involved the female singer jumping off stage into the audience and then rolling around on the floor while she sung/screamed. She appeared to be going for a Courtney Love vibe, but it didn't really work for me, although that was only a small part of their set, so the rest of it may have been better.

Second support act was The Optic Nerves who we'd since once before, and this time they had gained an extra member, in the form of a keyboard player. Their music is psychobilly infused rock n roll, so is a bit of an acquired taste, not really the type of music I usually listen to, but they are certainly good at what they do, and seem to have a good following.

Headliners Devilish Presley as usual managed to pull off a great set, with a good mix of new and old tracks, including the undeniably catchy 'Hammer Horror Glamour' You could label them with psychobilly to a certain extent, but in my own opinion it's a much more accessible type, with a somewhat gothic undertone. The only real downfall was the quality of the sound, as at times it was difficult to hear the vocals but otherwise it was a good set, even getting an encore performance in.

Devilish Presley are continuing their tour across the UK, the next date is Saturday 2nd April at The Railway Inn in Winchester. They also have a new album The Dark Triad which is released on May 9th.

This week's playlist

2011-03-24T12:47:00.001-07:00

The Donnas- Wanna Get Some Stuff
The Gossip- Listen Up!
The Joy Formidable- Greyhounds in the Slips
The Naked and Famous- Punching in a Dream
Be Your Own Pet- Adventure
Liz Phair- Never Said
Ladytron- Sugar
Transvision Vamp- Baby I Don't Care
Blondie- Atomic
Tiny Masters of Today- Hologram World
Patrice Pike- Beautiful Thing
Bjork- Human Behaviour
Juliette and the Licks- Shelter Your Needs
Karen O- Save The Seeds
McQueen- Don't Know How To Break It To You
Evanescence- All That I'm Living For
The Runaways- Dead End Justice
Venom Seeds- On Time
The Hot Puppies- Green Eyeliner
Little Boots- Remedy
Chasing Ora- Penniless
Fire Bug- Season For Change
Berlin Brides- Rejection Junkie
The Hedrons- I Need You
New Young Pony Club- Get Dancey
Catherine Elms- Drowning
Le Monnier- Save Yourself
Ann Wilson- Bad Moon Rising

This week's playlist

2011-03-19T10:05:00.000-07:00

MEN - Off Our Backs
Ida Maria - Oh My God
Kate Bush - Babooshka
The Birthday Massacre - Play Dead
femmepop - medication
The Dead Weather - Hang You From The Heavens
Bananarama - Cruel Summer
Hey Gravity! - Risen (She Said)
Daisy Chainsaw - The Future Free
Guano Apes - Scratch The Pitch
Madonna - Lucky Star
Pj Harvey - Dress
Melissa Auf Der Maur - My Foggy Notion
Dead Disco - Automatic
Siouxsie And The Banshees - Happy House
Skunk Anansie - Weak
The Dresden Dolls - Girl Anachronism
Helen's Evil Twin - Stop Talking
Sohodolls - Stripper
The Slits - Newtown
Call The Doctor - For Your Leisure
Candy Panic Attack- Heartbreaker
Berlin Brides - Off The Rack
Css - Alcohol
Regina Spektor - Edit
Feist - Mushaboom
Howling Bells - Low Happening
Joan Jett And The Blackhearts - I Wanna Be Your Dog

Female Music at Festivals

2011-03-13T07:49:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I mention bands or singers that have been added to festival line ups on my show and usually I also mention if any other all female/female fronted bands/singers are also playing and I felt quite disheartened this week when doing my prep to see that the two festivals I mentioned had very few female fronted/female bands in their line up. So I thought I would explore this further, let's start with the big ones.

READING/LEEDS
Line up not offically confirmed yet but according to efestivals
Crystal Castles are a rumour
Noisettes are a rumour
There are no female fronted bands listed as a strong rumour.

DOWNLOAD
Skunk Anansie
Straight Line Stitch
The Pretty Reckless
VersaEmerge

GLASTONBURY
Anna Calvi
Annie Mac (to be confirmed)
Bex Marshall (to be confirmed)
Beyonce
Caitlin Rose (to be confirmed)
Claire Nicolson (to be confirmed)
Clara Sanabras (tbc)
Clare Maguire (strong rumour)
Connie Lush (tbc)
Crystal Castles
Ellen and the Escapades (strong rumour)
Janelle Monae
Jessie J (tbc)
katy B (tbc)
Kylie (rumour)
Laura Marling
MIA (tbc)
Noisettes (rumour)
Sandi Thom (tbc)
The Joy Formidable (strong rumour)
Warpaint

V Festival
Rihanna
Ellie Goulding
Jessie J
Katy B
KT Tunstall
The Saturdays
Eliza Dolittle
Imelda May
Clare Maguire

T in the Park
Jessie J
KT Tunstall
Blondie
Crystal Castles
The Saturdays
Imelda May
Eliza Dolittle

isle of wight
Alexandra Burke
Diana Vickers
Eliza Dolittle
Imelda May
Joan Jett
Lissie
Pixie Lott
The Like

That's the main festivals, with the exception of Glastonbury (which is huge) there are very few acts out of the line ups that are female fronted/all female. What else did I notice? The majority (certainly not all) of the female acts in the line ups are pop acts.With the exception of a few acts, there are not many that break the traditional female singer mould. They are singers and bands that don't necessarily play instruments and their look is a large part of their appeal rather than their talent. Is this really the true face of female music today?

A lot of the smaller festivals have more female fronted acts, from past experience I know Offset festival seems to have an abundance of them.But the problem is as nice as that is, we need more female acts at the big festivals, and not just on the upcoming band stages, or as the pop acts that are pretty to look at. WE NEED HEADLINE ACTS! Very few of the bands I've mentioned are headlining with the exception of Beyonce, a pop star which just reiterates my point.

Even looking at festivals abroad, there are few female acts. Even ROCK IN RIO has Katy Perry and Rihanna as their female acts!

This is why we have Ladyfests. The mainstream is so far behind with the times it's unbelievable. There are so many talented females out there making music. Girls, let's make a noise! Play your music and play it loud, if you can't play, organise gigs in your area with local female talent even if it's only a small event rather than a ladyfest, every bit counts! We need to get this riot started!

This week's playlist

2011-03-10T12:15:00.000-08:00

Martha Reeves and The Vandellas- Dancing In The Street
Yeah Yeah Yeahs- No No No
The Duke Spirit- Everybody's Under Your Spell
Zero 7- In The Waiting Line
Penny Broadhurst- Chemist Goods
Courtney Love- Mono
Cutaways- Milo of Kroton
Robots in Disguise- 50 Minutes
586- We Got Bored
Babes in Toyland- Jungle Train
Suzi Quatro- Devil Gate Drive
Blood Red Shoes- You Bring Me Down
Long Blondes- Only Lovers Left Alive
The Ropes- Water and Headphones
Kittie- Paperdoll
Chasing Ora- Penniless
Garbage- Shut Your Mouth
Damone- On Your Speakers
Jesca Hoop- Summertime
Flyleaf- Breathe Today
Scarling- The Last Day I Was Happy
Working Class Heroes- The End
Yes Miss No Miss- Taking Over
Berlin Brides- Ballad for the Touch Deprived
Metric- Patriarch On A Vespa
Bis- Kandy Pop
Heart- Rock And Roll (Live)

Sassy!- Diggin' Deep

2011-03-06T11:40:00.000-08:00

I got sent this album by one of the promotion companies that email me from time to time. A lot of it doesn't interest me this much, but this email compared Sassy! to The Donnas, Gossip and The Slits amongst others, so it certainly caught my attention. I had a look at the press link they sent me and I wasn't disappointed with what I heard.

Sassy! are a two member band consisting of Lynda Mandolyn (formerly of Fabulous Disaster amongst others)and Christa DiBiase of San Francisco. They don't sound like a two member band at all though. They sound very much like a full four member band, as their sound is very full and more importantly LOUD!

The album Diggin' Deep is all about straight up rock n roll that should be played at eleven. The guitar riffs are driving melodies that will stick in your head, especially on my personal favourite track 'You Can Have Him'. There is also an element of 60's girl groups for instance on 'So Bad, It's Good' with their harmonious vocals and happy clapping.

The band certainly does remind me of The Donnas, but The Donnas on speed! Everything is louder, faster and reeks of cool.

The band have a myspace and are also on facebook

This week's playlist

2011-03-04T11:49:00.000-08:00

Jefferson Airplane- White Rabbit
Tilly and the Wall- Fell Down The Stairs
The Noisettes- Don't Give Up
Horrorpops- Caught in a Blonde
Gossip- Yr Mangled Heart
Tiny Masters of Today- Hologram World
Santigold- You'll Find A Way
The Ting Tings- We Walk
Meredith Brooks- Bitch
Sassy!!- You Can Have Him
Candy Panic Attack- What's He Got That I Haven't?
The Runaways- Dead End Justice
Little Fish- Die Young
X Ray Spex- Oh Bondage Up Yours!
The Pretenders- Human
Garbage- You Look So Fine
Comanechi- Naked
Bjork- Declare Independence
The Kills- Tape Song
The Kabeedies- Lovers Ought To
Hole- Celebrity Skin
Natalie Imbruglia- Impressed
Whiskey Blu- Colour Me Blu
Wendy Solomon- Happy Hour
The Sibleys- Angel Dreams
Le Monnier- Kingyo
The Brownies- Cougar
Suzanne Vega- Blood Makes Noise
Florence and The Machine- You've Got The Love

More great new music

2011-02-27T09:35:00.000-08:00

I've been discovering so much more great new music recently, thanks to doing reviews for Wears The Trousers, Last FM and being sent the odd gem, that I thought I would share with you.

I have Wears The Trousers to thank for these discoveries (expect reviews up very soon)!

Last FM for these..

and finally this band, who I had emailed to me, they haven't got any youtube videos so here is the link to their myspace I'll be writing a review of their album very soon!

This week's playlist

2011-02-24T11:10:00.000-08:00

The Cardigans- (If You Were) Less Like Me
The Sundays- Here's Where The Story Ends
Electrelane- To The East
Guano Apes- Pretty in Scarlet
Portishead- Nylon Smile
Nina Hagen and Lene Lovich- Don't Kill The Animals
Howling Bells- Low Happening
Lily Allen- Friday Night
Siouxie- About To Happen
'Til Tuesday- Voices Carry
Imelda May- Big Bad Handsome Man
Sandi Thom- Saturday Night
McQueen- Don't Know How To Break It To You
Bleech- Mondays
Remi Nicole- Dates From Hell
Skunk Anansie- Charity
PJ Harvey- Sheela-Na-Nig
Bif Naked- Abandonment
Harry- 10 Things
Blondie- (I'm Always Touched) By Your Presence, Dear
Trash Monroe- Idoll
The Wendy Darlings- Enormous Pop
The Sibleys- I Don't Smile (If I Don't Want To)
Paramore- Crush Crush Crush
Le Tigre- On The Verge
The Go! Team- Doing It Right
The Ladybirds- (I'm Gonna) Spin Those Reels
Amanda Palmer- Exit Music (For A Film)

The Soundtrack To My Life

2011-02-23T12:04:00.000-08:00

Recently one of my friends on Facebook made a group on there called 'The Soundtrack of My Life' as a space where he could post up music from his life, and others could share their memories too. I do wonder though whether everyone is telling the complete truth about what they listened to as children, as it's all so cool- Johnny Cash, X Ray Spex, Nirvana etc etc and not one embarrassing song on there, my childhood listening wasn't like that! My music taste didn't really get good until I hit 16, so I went ahead and posted my memories of songs that I used to like, and mine are the only embarrassing ones admitted so far!
Anyway, I thought it would be fun to post (or torment)? the songs of my life into a blog post, so you can enjoy/endure too!

Madonna! no real Madonna videos allow embedding, so this is just the song really. I always say I was probably listening to Madonna in the womb, as I grew up with her music from a baby and still like most of her music (not the last few years though- everything since Ray of Light sucked)!

Kylie! I remember having a record player and playing her albums on it, and even dressing one of my barbie dolls to look like her!

Spice Girls! First band I got REALLY into. My favourite was Geri, I was very sad when she left! They were my first ever gig

The Offspring- the first rock band I got into, my first rock gig as well. I will never tire of them and 'Smash' will always hold special memories for me!

Greenday soon followed suit..

Before I had my 'Ozzy/Black Sabbath' phase..

Led Zep

Bikini Kill, the first riot grrrl song I ever heard..

and of course, bringing you bang up to date with these last few (though I could post so much more)

This week's playlist

2011-02-17T10:54:00.000-08:00

Evanescence- Bring Me To Life
New Young Pony Club- Grey
Fleetwood Mac- Go Your Own Way
Siouxie and the Banshees- Happy House
The Kills- Black Balloon
Lauren Harris- Steal Your Fire
Robots in Disguise- The Sex Has Made Me Stupid
Daisy Chainsaw- Dog With Sharper Teeth
Heather Nova- I'm Alive
The Bangles- Eternal Flame
KT Tunstall- Hold On
Ladytron- Destroy Everything You Touch
Janis Joplin- Piece of My Heart
Alisha's Attic- The Incidentals
Morcheeba- A Well Deserved Break
Paloma Faith- Do You Want The Truth or Something Beautiful?
Sixpence None The Richer- Kiss Me
Dead Weather- Treat Me Like Your Mother
Ipso Facto- Six and Three Quarters
The Space Between- I Need You More
The Voronas- You Ain't No Hero
The Sibleys- Dancin' on Delany Street
Little Boots- Meddle
Rilo Kiley- The Moneymaker
Crystal Castles- Air War
The Slits- Typical Girls
Joan Jett and The Blackhearts- I Wanna Be Your Dog

Pigtails Playlist for this week

2011-02-12T08:59:00.001-08:00

The Waitresses- I Know What Boys Like
Kittie- Everything That Could Have Been
Florence and The Machine- Drumming Song
Scarling- Alexander The Burn Victim
The Flying Lizards- Money (That's What I Want)
Peaches- Get It
Nancy Sinatra- These Boots Are Made For Walkin'
Drive It Like You Stole It- Annie Oakley
We Start Fires- Strut
Pat Benatar- Treat Me Right
The Pretenders- I'll Stand By You
Fire Bug- Breakdown
Martha and The Muffins- Echo Beach
Elastica- 2:1
Annie Lennox- Walking on Broken Glass
Driver- Change Your Ways
Atomic Blonde- Babydoll(censored)
L7- Pretend We're Dead
Candy Panic Attack- What's He Got That I Haven't
The Ladybirds- (I'm Gonna) Spin Those Reels
The Ropes- Kill Her Off
The Sibleys- Blue Eyed Bandit
Gabby Young- In This Together
DJ Sunderland- Control the 80's
The Donnas- Get Outta My Room
The Creepshow- Candy Kiss
The Dollyrots- Because I'm Awesome
Scarlet- Independent Love Song
Jyl Millard- Ace of Spades

MEN @ The Lexington 8 Feb 2011

2011-02-10T11:09:00.000-08:00

Walking into The Lexington, my ears were immediately satisfied, as I waited in line in the pub to get into the main venue area because a whole PJ Harvey album was being played- not a usual occurrence, well at least not in the pubs near me in any case. The queue of people was diverse, a mix of male and female, of all possible sexual orientations, and some people I assumed may have travelled to England especially for the gig as I heard did hear some French conversations.

When we got to the front, our hands were stamped with a motif of a little snail and we went up some stairs and into the main venue- which was crowded and intimate.

The supporting act were a band called Plug, sadly I can't find anything about this band on the internet, although if I do I will certainly post something up. They consisted of just two girls, one on drums and vocals, and the other on keyboard vocals. Despite the minimal band members, they had the sound of a whole band.

MEN with a slight line up change for the show (Ginger was not present for this gig) they kicked the set off with first album track 'Life's Half Price' which managed to get everyone moving and things did not slow down in the slightest as they worked their way through what must have been every song on their upcoming album.

Third song in, a link up of first two singles 'Off Our Backs' and 'Credit Card Babies' even invoked a small stage invasion from several members of the audience, who just jumped up and started dancing, MEN happily went with it, even passing the microphone for the fans to join in with their performance.

Upcoming single 'Who I Am To Feel So Free' was already being sung along to in a big way, indicating this may potentially be a future anthem for MEN. It was as they started this song, they revealed their big banner with the title written on, and potraits of fans that had sent their photos in, along with reasons why they feel so free to the band.

When they announced their final song, they were greeted with sighs from the audience, which prompted JD Samson to say that the only left for them to do would be to play a cover, and not even leave the stage, but just stand quietly for a few minutes while the crowd cheered them on. Sadly though, The Lexington must have strict rules, as when they finished the last song, JD Samson announced they had gone over their time and apologised. The band didn't return. But that was the only disappointment of the gig.

MEN have another gig supporting Sleigh Bells next week at Heaven nightclub in London along with electro noise outfit Teeth on Monday 14th February, their debut album Talk About Body is released on the same day.

Rating: 5/5

Ten Tigers @ Bar Lambs, 4 Feb 2011

2011-02-09T11:51:00.000-08:00

It's been a while, since I last saw Ten Tigers, they recently took a bit of a break while bass player Amanda was rather busy having a baby! But they have just started to do some gigs again, and work on new material, starting with a rather aptly named Tiger Tour!

This particular part of the Tiger Tour happened to fall on Chinese New Year, the very end of the year of the Tiger! To mark the occasion, Bar Lambs was made into a Chinese/tiger haven, with Chinese lanterns hanging, candles lit, pictures of tigers and Chinese symbols adorning the walls. There were even 'Tiger Activity' crosswords and word searches placed on the tables and free fortune cookies given out.

The first band to grace the stage was 'ArtGruppe' a 4 piece local indie band comprising of two females and two males. They play dreamy indie pop, with a mixture of male and female vocals. Highlight of their set was the upbeat 'Ugly Boy, Ugly Girl'

To help concrete the 'tiger' theme, next band up was 'Tiger MCS who hail from Norwich, but for this occasion were one member short of their usual four, which made some of their songs difficult to pull off, but they managed to pull their set of acoustic indie pop with ease.

Ten Tigers, literally started off with a bang, as singer and multi instrumentalist, Emma, performed a somewhat tribal dance with a tiger mask covering her face as a short introduction before launching into a rousing rendition of one of their best songs 'Superlucky.' The band continued on to play a blinding set of their well known tracks and newer songs. '82' was performed with extra effects, which although sounded good, did overshadow the vocals at times.
We were even treated to a saxophone playing from Emma, and a lovely version of 'Tiger Who Came To Tea' with steel drum and added Tiger hand puppet!

Yet again, Ten Tigers continue to impress with their self acclaimed 'crayon rock', a blur between indie, riot grrrl and punk. A band who don't realise how good they are, they probably made a few more fans this night, as they no doubt will with every consequent performance.

Ten Tigers next gig in on 10h March, at The Cornerhouse in Cambridge.

Rating: 5/5

This week's playlist

2011-02-05T08:43:00.001-08:00

Meredith Brooks- Bitch
PJ Harvey- Send His Love To Me
Tori Amos- Teenage Hustling
Le Tigre- My My Metrocard
Call the Doctor- For Your Leisure
The Birthday Massacre- Lover's End
Amy Macdonald- Run
4 Non Blondes- What's Up
Tiny Masters of Today- Hologram World
Imelda May- Big Bad Handsome Man
Jefferson Airplane- White Rabbit
Spinnerette- The Walking Dead
Pink- Trouble
Soho Dolls- Trash the Rental
Alisha's Attic- I Am, I Feel
Madonna- Lucky Star
Veruca Salt- So Weird
Patti Smith- Gloria
Alanis Morissette- Thank You
Roxette- It Must Have Been Love
Lady Earl and the Greys- Heathen
The Go Sheilas- Holiday
Metric- Monster Hospital
Suzie Quatro- Can the Can
Hole- Doll Parts
Shonen Knife- Top of the World

Cookie Party review

2011-02-02T11:59:00.000-08:00

My review of a really brilliant riot grrrl inspired gig I went to last November is finally up on The F Word- go check it out here