All this month The Frisky is serving up holiday gift guides to help you pick presents for everyone on your list. First up, we’ve got gifts for the punk rock fanatic in your life… Keep reading »
Tag Archives: punk rock
Must Watch: Laura Jane Grace Of Against Me! Talks About Her Transgender Coming Out
Earlier this year, Laura Jane Grace of the band Against Me! came out as transgender in a revealing interview with Rolling Stone. Since then, Grace (formerly known as Tom Gabel) and the band have been touring the country — with Grace’s wife Heather and daughter Evelyn in tow. MTV caught up with Grace on the status of her transition and how life is different — and better — since she made her trans struggle public. Keep reading »
“From The Back Of The Room”: New Documentary On Women In Punk Music
It’s been a kickass couple of years for women in music alternative scenes. Last year two books that dealt heavily with the Riot Grrl movement were published — Girls To The Front by Sara Marcus and Girl Power: The ’90s Revolution In Music by Marisa Meltzer — and a tour documentary about the band Le Tigre called “Who Took The Bomp? Le Tigre On Tour” debuted this spring. And there’s more kickass-ness where that came from, ladies and gents! Check out “From The Back Of The Room,” a new documentary about women in the DIY punk scene which is currently doing screenings up and down the East Coast. The punk scene is super-embracing of people who want an alternative from mainstream culture. Yet the scene is not always the sexism- and racism-free haven you think it is going to be, says one woman in the film. I would love to see a screening of “From The Back Of The Room,” especially since Kathleen Hanna from Bikini Kill and Le Tigre appears in it. [Pitchfork] Keep reading »
My Love Letter To Fanzines
Before the Internet took over our lives and blogs and Tumblrs were the common parlance for self-indulgent self-expression, there were fanzines. And I had one. Actually, a few.
It’s hard to imagine a time before the Internet was able to connect people with like-minded obsessions so quickly and easily, but 20 years ago, when dial-up was the only way to get online, blogs weren’t an option. Instead, creative types — social misfits and weirdos, artists and writers — made hand-crafted magazines, called fanzines, relying on scammed photocopies and cut-and-paste aesthetics to express themselves. Keep reading »
RIP: Legendary Feminist Punk Singer Poly Styrene Dies
This morning, we were sad to learn of the death of Poly Styrene, the infamous singer of ’70s punk band X-Ray Spex. Styrene — born Marian Joan Elliott-Said — passed away yesterday at the age of 53 after battling an aggressive form of breast cancer. Her vocal stylings as the frontwoman and songwriter for the Spex had a profound effect on punk music and the waves of girl-fronted bands that would follow. Latter day feminist musicians like Sleater Kinney’s Corin Tucker and Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna looked to Styrene for inspiration; at the beginning of the Spex’s breakthrough track, “Oh Bondage, Up Yours” (above), Styrene sweetly snarls, “Some people believe little girls should be seen and not heard. Oh bondage, up yours!”, encapsulating, no doubt, her marginalized position as a woman in British society, and in male-dominated punk rock specifically. Styrene’s free spirit was reflected even in her approach to the news of her terminal illness. “You remember that old song ‘Que Sera Sera, Whatever will be, will be, the future’s not ours to see’?” she told a reporter in March. “I’ve always felt that. It’s been a rollercoaster ride, but I wouldn’t change a thing.” As one fan wrote of her passing, “RIP Poly nothing plastic about her…” We couldn’t agree more. [The Guardian] Keep reading »
