BANG!

**UNDER COVER** HIGHWAY

***ONES TO WATCH***

The Japanese Voyeurs are one of the many bands that I've been obsessing about lately.

They are a ball of nineties, grunge, babydoll, riot grrl-esque punk and I love it. They sound like a cross between Babes in Toyland, Nirvana and a little bit of Mudhoney thrown in for good measure.

Japanese Voyeurs are the perfect band to scream along to when you're feeling really angry.

Here's one of their songs for you to listen to called Dumb.


Dumb by Japanese Voyeurs by stephanopolus

Kathleen Hanna Talks to GRITtv

Kathleen Hanna gave an interview to GRITtv this week where she talks about Bikini Kill, the early 90s and donating her zine collection to New York University.

The Only Three Female Musicians in History Revealed Here

Here's a very funny post over at The Awl about male journalists who think there really are only three female musicians in history.

Apparently they are Kate Bush, Tori Amos and Bjork.

Marina Diamandis likes diamonds, or else her last name just sounds like the word, which could be Greek for diamonds but I have too many browser tabs open right now to check. Diamandis’ strong debut features a flourish of vocals reminiscent of a very rare live Tori Amos track that only I own called “Braided a Dog’s Tail.” I highly doubt that Diamandis has heard this song, but the parallels between these two artists are undeniable. In fact, I would not be surprised if Tori Amos appeared to Diamandis in a dream while she was writing this album in order to pass a homemade and probably glittery torch off to her before floating away on a sleigh driven by flying wolves.

I think this is so true every new artist out there that sounds a little fantastical in her lyrics is compared to Kate Bush and any woman that likes to experiment with sound is like Bjork.

I feel like they left out a vital artist though.

Whenever there is a new girl with a guitar and soemthing to say she will always, till the end of time itself it seems, be compared to one PJ Harvey.

It's annoying for the artist to be labelled and also annoying for fans. I hate it when you're promised a PJ Harvey and really you get a Harvey-lite at best.

Click here to read more.

*MIXTAPE ALERT* Wordy Rappinghood

Here's my mixtape for my new blog Wordy Rappinghood. I made this because I've become obsessed with making mixtapes, I'm three simultaneously right now.

The dictionary corner mixtape features songs about the beauty of language, words, how they sound and how we write.

I hope you like it cuz you're not getting another one. This will become the theme tune for Wordy Rappinghood. Oh, by the way can you guess what the first track is?

Tracklisting:
Wordy Rappinghood- Tom Tom Club
Hubcap- Sleater-Kinney
Consequence of Sounds- Regina Spektor
Four Letter Word- Gossip
Word Up!- Cameo
A Little Word in Your Ear- Tom Vek
Losin' Ground- PJ Harvey & John Parish
1000 Words- Those Dancing Days
Words and Smiles- Tiger Trap
Word Up ft. Ghostface Killah- MSRTKRFT
Words and Guitars- Sleater-Kinney

EVENT: Scene Not Herd

Ladyfest Ten Logo Competition

* Taken from the Ladyfest Ten Website.

Preparations for Ladyfest Ten are well on their way but you may have noticed that we are mysteriously missing a logo. Well that's where you come in.

We are offering you the chance to become one of Ladyfest Ten team and design the official logo for the tenth anniversary of Ladyfest! Your design will be used on flyers, posters and everything Ladyfest related and you'll get a free pass + 1 to the festival.

Ladyfest Ten celebrates ten years of international diversity, support and discourse amongst feminist communities, comprising artists, musicians, creatives and activists.

If you think you have the creative know-how start whipping up a cracking logo with these requirements:
- Two versions of the logo: b/w + color (if needed)
- The logo should read 'LADYFEST TEN'

Submit a .jpg or .tiff file of your design to ladyfestten.logo@googlemail.com before 24th February with your name and contact details.

For more information about the competition and Ladyfest Ten in general click here.

Girl Germs Anti-Valentine Night

Girl Germs are a bi-monthly club night that caters to the never ending thirst that we all have for a bit of riot grrrl noise.

This Saturday will see an anti-valentine's theme with heartbreak tunes, broken heart cookies and zines.

An extra added bonus is that I'll be djing on the night, bringing my own take on the classic heartbreak tracks.

twitter.com/GirlGermsLondon
girlgermslondon@gmail.com

Bikini Kill Needs You

Being the dedicated Riot Grrls that I know you all are you've probably seen that Bikini Kill have put a call out to all of those who have a memory, thought or personal anecdote about Bikini Kill to send her your thoughts.

Please add your Bikini Kill story to this blog! It can be totally off the top of your head and doesn’t need to be fancy. Maybe it’s your reaction to a song we wrote, something weird that happened at one of our shows, a personal anecdote or just WHATEVER. Feel free to send images too!

Send yr story to bkillarchive@gmail.com and we will post it or just leave a comment somewhere on the site. Thanks!

She's also looking for videos and photos of old Bikini Kill shows so hopefully this online project will turn into a documentary of some sort, so it looks like we have something to look forward to.

For more info: bikinikillarchive.wordpress.com

GIG REVIEW: She Keeps Bees @ Black Heart

I had been dying to see She Keeps Bees live for about 5 months so when I found out they were being put on by The Allotment, a lovely group that bring a friendly home grown vibe to every gig they put on, at the Black Heart in Camden I jumped at it.

I was also really excited about this gig because Lulu and the Lampshades were playing. I had the chance to see them when I went to see Peggy Sue but was too late and missed them. Well guess what happened this time. Yep, I missed them again. I caught the last few seconds of their last song and they were off.

Next on were Peggy Sue. This was a nice little surprise because I had no idea they would be playing.  They played favourites such as 'The Sea' and 'Yo Mama' and also treated the crowd to some tidbits from their upcoming album which will be released on Wichita later in the year.

She Keeps Bees were amazing. It's strange how effective bands can be with such a simple format. drums, guitar, and mind-meltingly delicious vocals.  Jess really is an true front woman and had the crowd in the palm of her hand from the get go. She talked between songs about her friends in London, her dodgy guitar and, memorably, her mother's present to her of anti-wrinkle cream. She must be only 27 surely.

I can't get enough of Jess' voice, it has that shaky, soulful aspect to it that you don't hear very often. Their set seemed short but that's probably because I didn't want them to stop.

What can I say the bands were amazing, the venue was great and there were a mountain of free cakes on offer. I can't get any better can it.

For more photos see Anika In London.

**SONG OF THE MONTH**

Oops I've neglected this feature slightly over the last couple of months.

Anyway here's the February edition of Song of the Month and it's Push It by Salt-N-Pepa.

I love this song more at the moment than any time in my life mostly because I'm going through an 80s rap phase and what says 80s rap more than Salt-N-Pepa.

I have dreams of meeting like minded 80s fanatics and forming a hip hop, dance based band that wear Lycra in rainbow colours and the biggest gold necklaces known to man.

This song makes me happy.

GIG REVIEW: Vivian Girls @ Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen 26/01/2010

I think everyone in the London blogosphere was at this gig but oh well here's my version.

The Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen was the scene where I witnessed probably the best gig of my life. To reach this high level of regard in my eyes you have to done these three things:
1. Shown me something new
2. Made me want to dance
3. Made me want to cry (In a I'm glad to be alive way not I want to die way that would be awful)

This gig had all three. Blue on Blue, D-Bird from An Experiment On A Bird In The Air Pump's side project, kicked things off and despite their guitarist going AWOL they were still amazing.  It really made me wish I had found An Experiment on A Bird In The Air Pump before they broke up. Although it was pretty funny that while Dee was singing the drummer was just on his phone, chatting away. Occasionally he'd hit a cymbal or bang the snare but nothing else. I recommend checking this band out even if you haven't listened to An Experiment on A Bird In The Air Pump you'll still be blown away.

Veronica Falls were on next. They're a band that I've heard about non-stop which is both a good thing and a bad thing.  I'll leave it to you to work out why.  Veronica Falls were completely different to how I expected them to be. I thought they would be all about dark clothing, big fringes and singing about death but it was really more dreamy boy/girl vox which is cool but not what I expected.

Then came the Brooklyn noise pop darlings the Vivian Girls. By the time they walked on stage the crowd was tightly packed and a hoard of photographers crawled out of the depths of Shoreditch to snap the trio.  Seemingly unaware of the throngs of screaming fans around them the girls casually walked through the crowd put down their bags and coats and played an amazing set.

While old material such as 'Tell The World' and 'Wild Eyes' still sounded as urgent and brilliant as ever the band went out on a limb and performed new material such as the brilliant 'Other Girl'. The band also played a lot from their second album 'Everything Goes Wrong' which I thought was great because it gave me the chance to love some of the songs on the album that I previously didn't dedicate that much time to.

The highlight of the night was their acapella cover of The Chantels 'He's Gone'. Everyone went crazy over it and rightly so because it was so dreamily sung it almost took me to another place.  Just because I love you, and the Vivian Girls, here's a video of the band singing 'He's Gone' on the night so you can see what I saw and why I love them so much.

Setlist:
Walking Alone at Night
Surfin' Away
I Have No Fun
Can't Get Over You
Tension
Wild Eyes
He's Gone Acapella (The Chantels Cover)
Other Girl (New Song)
I Believe In Nothing
Never See Me Again
The End
Second Date
Death??
Vanish??
Before I Start To Cry
When I'm Gone
Tell The World