This is not a politically correct opinion I’m proud to share, but I was listening to that Little Steven digital radio station now and then in the car we rented on our trip to New Mexico and just about every modern-day “bad girl” garage rock band that came up for play made me feel like I was watching the WNBA. Garage rock, to me, is such a dude’s domain. Hearing women try to cop that certain garage rock stance strikes me as highly awkward and lacking in…something. Likewise, I know the women who compete at the WNBA level could kick my ass on the hardwood, but there’s something unnatural about them playing basketball. There are other sports that women can play as naturally and gracefully as men, such as tennis (which I actually prefer to watch played by women thanks to their ability to maintain a volley), but women rarely have the natural motions that I come to expect from years of watching NBA games. Maybe it’s all the ponytails flopping around as they battle for a rebound and I’m simply a horrible person. (The Goldie and the Gingerbreads clip, on the other hand, is more like traditional girl group music, which I think fits women as well as tennis. This was one good band I heard on Little Steven’s show that I did not previously know about.)
More importantly, listening to that Little Steven station confirmed my belief that neo-garage is one of the hardest neo-genres to do well. The attitude copped by the original wave of garage bands is so outdated in this day and age. Hearing a modern crop of dumpy guys bitch about the fact that some girl won’t give them the time of day is played out, isn’t it? Why don’t these guys take up one of the new genres that invite dumpiness?
You HAVE been wearing a lot of cowboy hat lately, haven’t you? Trust me, the Dixie Chicks would NOT approve of this post!
Hey, I’m not trying to strike a cowboy pose. I’m serious, the garage genre seems so dude-centric to me that not only is it hard for dudes to do well, I think it’s really hard for women to do in a way that sounds natural to them. Too often it sounds like women acting the way garage dudes would have them act. As horrible as this opinion I’m expressing may read on the surface, I bet a fellow sensitive guy like Dr. John can see what I’m getting at.
What do YOU think, hrrundi? Do you ever listen to or watch a “girl” garage band and feel like the band has a natural way with the genre?
At first I was thinking “I can’t even think of any female garage rock bands.” Then I remembered the 5678’s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luV9HOmOAGc
Pretty groovy. And no WNBA vibe as far as I can tell.
not cool, man – this concept, not the 5678’s.
I think it’s more to do with Little Steven’s (or Kid Leo, probably) choices of bands to play. They rarely play The Gore Gore girls, and those ladies are sexy and bring plenty of swagger. If the requirements expand to include males, then there’s even more good bands that Steven ignores, like The Demolition Doll Rods or The Tough and Lovely. I think that station views girl bands as novelty acts.
Hey Moderator,
Remember your anaylsis of Stevie Wonder’s “Songs in the Key of Life”? That was given to me in private, which is where your thoughts regarding basketball for girls should have been spoken.
As far as neo garage by either girls or guys, you’re preaching to the choir. It’s an utterly pointless affair and extremely hard on the eyes if you’re unlucky enough to be in a club where those rejects are permitted to make noise.
E. Pluribus
Leaving the basketball metaphor aside (since I like the fundamental, 2-handed- set-shot ball I was taught), Girl Garage would be tough since it is such a teenage boy thing to come on like a swaggering rock star when you’re a pimply doof who can’t play. A female equivalent might be the Suicide Girls – the tattooed, pierced outsiders trying to reclaim their bit of the sex/fashion industry from the Playboy lookalikes.
Well, I don’t know about the larger issue here, but having watched that clip of Goldie and the Gingerbreads, I was wondering: were Herman’s Hermits just an all-boy, British knock-off of these ladies? Just a thought.