As you might’ve guessed, Fresh’s “Merch Girl” is the musings of someone who knows they could play guitar, sing and write songs as effectively as anyone who’s not been relegated to the supporting cast.
You don’t have to work the merch table or even be feminine presenting to relate to our defiant dreamer. After all, feminism should be about wanting a level playing field for everyone. London’s Fresh knows how to convey that message in a memorable, melodic, emo-influenced song. (And as a bonus, singer-guitarist Kathryn Woods and fellow guitar-slinger Joely Smith shred ’90s throwback riffs throughout).
The rest of the EP goes live on April 19. There’s two additional songs: Fresh original “Easy” and a cover of Linda Ronstadt’s “Long, Long Time.”
The Fauxs achieved peak budget rock last fall with Burn the City. Combustible elements of glam rock, year zero punk and the Stooges (via Vupless) drive songs ranging from the feminist declaration of personal independence “Madonna/Whore” to a cover of Penetration’s “Don’t Dictate.”
“Sinnin’ City’s” our pick for the sake of picking just one Song of the Day. The Portland quartet of singer-guitarist Melanie Hindman, guitarist Aliah O’Neill, bassist Tara Umesh and drummer Kara Lancaster nail driving yet melodic rock ‘n’ roll and master the harmonies we’re always praising. As the band’s bio accurately puts it, “they deliver a compact burst of feminist discontent with songs that bop heads and encourage singalongs.”
“Sinnin’ City” and other selections from the album could just as well have been lifted from a compilation of European punk obscurities (I assumed The Faux were from across the Atlantic on first listen, for whatever it’s worth). They fit the moment, too, especially for those of us who miss when way more garage-punk bands wanted to be like Radio Birdman.
How perfect would it be to find a brand-new Dolly Mixture cover by a youthful, woman-fronted punk band to follow up yesterday’s long and winding post about Rachel Love? After all, nothing would better punctuate our praise of the iconic trio than proof that they influence assumed zoomers.
That ideal discovery fell in our laps shortly after writing up Love’s “Without You.” Our corporate overlords made a Cootie Cuties radio playlist for us, and right there amid Itchy & the Nits, The Celebrities, L.A. Sagne and others overdue a Song of the Day write-up was the Liverpool-based trio Cola Cubes.
To point out the obvious, Cola Cubes sound way more like a ’77 UK punk or American KBD band (fuck yeah to both) than Dolly Mixture. However, the newcomers speed and scruff up “Dream Come True” while still nailing the harmonies at the heart of our shared shining lights’ magic.
When it comes to lo-fi, harmony-filled rock ‘n’ roll, few bands from any time frame compare to Dolly Mixture. More and more have learned that in recent years as vinyl reissues and streaming have made the hidden treasures on Demonstration Tapes readily accessible. It’s a near perfect album– though as the title suggests, it’s a collection of demos. Don’t stop there because the various singles, B-sides and Peel sessions from the group’s 1978-1984 run got reissued in recent years via compilations.
The music of Rachel Bor, Hester Smith and Debsey Wykes goes beyond the Dolly Mixture catalog and, more famously, their work as Captain Sensible’s backup singers. They teamed with Adrian Wykes, Debsey’s brother and a professional cricket player, on his Percy Pavilion project and (sans Smith) in the band Do It Now! Digging deeper, there’s Dolly Mixture involvement on at least one 7-inch by a bonkers (in the best way) new wave band called Fish Turned Human.
Since then, Smith joined Debsey in the short-lived and similar-sounding late ’80s act Coming Up Roses. Debsey worked with The Pogues in the ’90s (as a backup singer on a few songs and as a member of the Darryl Hunt side project Bish) and kept busy well into the 21st century with Birdie– a dreamy, St. Etienne-adjacent indie-pop act.
Bor has gifted us with her most compelling post-Dolly Mixture output –with all due respect to the obscure lo-fi ’90s band Sexlovebusterbaby— in the last 10 years. Aside from her collaboration with the late producer (and Julian Cope band leader) Steve Lovell as Spelt and her more recent partnership with Cleaners From Venus’ Martin Newell as The Light Music Company, she’s rode solo since at least 2021 under the name Rachel Love.
Which finally brings us to our Song of the Day. Love’s got a new solo album, Lyra, that’s slated for an April 26 release. There’s two songs currently streaming: the alluring and atmospheric “Without You” and the equally dreamy “Why.” Listen to both, please, but for the sake of our format, let’s throw in a YouTube link to “Without You.”
The temptation to toss around “lo-fi” some more persists, but really, the ace production work by Lovell and Love modernizes the timeless British indie-pop formula without stripping it of its punk-rooted, no-frills charm.
Lead singer Annie Hyer’s chaotic yet controlled screams sound a lot like our lesbian godmotherAnna Joy Springer’s work with Blatz. The chant-along chorus might as well have been lifted from the flipside of that Filth record, as well. You could also compare the controlled chaos at hand to Raouul, the Lookout Records band that sarcastically (yet lovingly) sang about “Anna Joy.”
As for the sincere part, “Splash the Fash” is based on an incident that made headlines in the band’s home country of New Zealand. (Turns out there’s protesters elsewhere in the world who aren’t insecure straight men, spineless politicians or mediocre high school athletes! (Not that TERFs are any better.))
“‘Splash the Fash’ is a song of solidarity and love inspired by and for Eliana Rubushkyn and all transgender and wider umbrella of gender non-conforming people in Aoteroa and around the world,” reads the Cootie Cuties’ Bandcamp page for the song. “It is about coming together, standing up and fighting back against TERFS, transphobes and fascists. It is about loving our community fiercely.”
Song of the Day: “Rules and Regulations” [Live] by The Contractions
If you’ve read this site at any point over the last week and a half, you can probably guess that 1) I’m a record collector nerd, 2) I’m a middle-aged trans woman and 3) I’m drawn to punk and its many offshoots when the music’s made by women.
A few years back in Atlanta (2009, maybe?), I found a cheap copy of the then-unknown to me Contractions’ 1980 7-inch “Rules and Regulations” b/w “You Touched Me.” The usual drill followed: skim the a-side online if it’s on YouTube or elsewhere, question where these brilliant women have been my whole life and purchase a new treasure for my DJ sets (and at the time, my college radio show).
That version of “Rules and Regulations” is a punchy, fun tune that’s at the intersection of powerpop and new wave. And as the great ones tend to do, the trio of Mary Kelley (guitar), Kathy Peck (bass) and Debbie Hopkins (drums) knows how to incorporate arresting harmonies, regardless of a song’s means and message. (If women start a punk band together and there’s no arresting harmonies, what the fuck are they even doing?)
In March, a live 1980 compilation by the San Francisco punk legends got reissued with the addition of three studio-recorded rarities. The version of “Rules and Regulations” below mirrors my incredible discovery of yore’s same vibe but, naturally, with less polish and more raw emotion.
For whatever reason, I never dug deeper into The Contractions’ catalog. My loss (until now) because there’s songs that completely blow away “Rules and Regulations.” “Breaking Up is Not Hard to Do” sounds like the post-punk evolution of Penetration, while “Magazine Phobia” holds up against other socially-aware West Coast punk gems from the same time period (but with better musicianship than you’d get from many of the trio’s more lauded peers).
An informative interview with the band appears in Jen B. Larson’s book Hit Girls: Women of Punk in the USA- 1975-1983. Larson skillfully placed the trio in not just the lineage of women in punk but also the story of queer artists in the genre.
Clearly, we’ve got an affinity around here for inclusionary feminism in punk rock– and there’s no better place to find such music than the UK.
Self-described as “four shouty queers who write songs for right now,” Belfast’s Problem Patterns accomplished the mission in question on the album Blouse Club.
Typically, they’re not playing around, as heard on “A History of Bad Men Part II,” “Lesbo 3000” and personal favorite “TERFs Out.” Yet like their queer punk forebears, the four-piece (Beverley Boal, Bethany Crooks, Ciara King and Alanah Smith) excel at bringing a little levity to very crucial conversations.
“Pity Bra’s” a minute-and-a-half tale about frilly unmentionables getting tossed toward the stage at a Sleater-Kinney show and hitting Corin Tucker. In the process, Carrie Brownstein learns a valuable life lesson. It’s a delightful change in tone that doesn’t detract from the band’s deadly serious material. If anything, it’s a reminder of the release that comes from laughing with friends about silly circumstances, especially if we otherwise bond over sad realities.
Welsh trio Two Tonne Machete’s “ME” could just as well be labeled noise rock over punk (six to one, half dozen to the other) because it’s full fucking volume. Singer-guitarist Emily Hart and bassist Roland Johnson come in and stay white hot, with top-flight drummer Chris Heath shining brightest.
Best of all, there’s a message to the mayhem.
“Narcissism and [sexism] are something women have to face all the time,” Hart shared (via Bandcamp). “We’re constantly talked down to. We’re gaslit and patronised in order to inflate others’ egos. I find I’m constantly having to accommodate shitty behavior. It’s too common and it needs to be called out. Women can face such an uphill struggle and the song is about recognising the all too limited power we have to call out what we encounter.”
Also on Bandcamp, there’s a limited-run orange cassette release of the song.
![Song of the Day: “Rules and Regulations” [Live] by The Contractions](https://nospectatorszine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/a1042724517_16.jpg)
