Fanny Pack club night

FANNY PACK: An evening of 90s music and culture

DJs from Ladyfest Ten, Girl Germs and the girls are unite for a one-off evening of pure nostalgic indulgence.

We'll be bringing you all the best tunes from the 90s, including the finest of guilty pleasures, dance-routine classics and songs you never realised you knew all the words to.

Put on your smartest shellsuit and shake your fanny pack to:

Pulp - Arrested Development - Sonic Youth - Elastica - Hole - L7 - Radiohead - PJ Harvey - Nirvana - Blur - Suede - Bikini Kill - Smashing Pumpkins - Placebo - Breeders - Prodigy - Garbage - No Doubt - Lush - Salt N Pepa - Luniz - Michael Jackson - Coolio - Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince - MC Hammer - 2 Unlimited - Ace of Base - House of Pain - Aqua - Babylon Zoo - The Shamen - Scatman John - Baby D - TLC - Snap! - Vanilla Ice

Plus there’ll be:
TUCK SHOP
GLOWSTICKS
CLASSIC FILMS & TV
GUEST DJS
PRIZE FOR BEST-DRESSED 90s-THEMED OUTFIT

Get your requests in now, the more obscure/embarrassing the better!


SATURDAY 26th FEBRUARY
9pm – 2am
The Horatia
98-102 Holloway Road
London N7 8JE
(nearest tubes: Highbury & Islington, Holloway Road)

£4 entry all night

'A Woman Picking Up A Guitar Is A Radical Act'

Radical Act is a documentary film made way back in 1995 by film maker Tex Clark. Although it was made 15 years ago it has only just seen the light of day thanks to Million Movies A Minute.

Featuring interviews with Kathleen Hanna, Gretchen Phillips, Melissa York and Toshi Reagon to name a few Radical Act explores how sexual and gender identity impacted and informed the work of female musicians.

You can download the movie via YouTube or do it the old fashioned way and order the dvd either way you have to see it.

Homance Is For Lovers

Homance - \hō-ˈman(t)s
noun/intransitive verb

- Describing a strong, vibrant, non-sexual friendship between two women.

So me and a bunch of well cool girls are putting on a film night about girl friendships called, wait for it, True Homance. Now after I laughed for about 45 minutes at the word homance I actually realised it's a idea that does not get widely acknowledged. Women are set up against each other whether it's at school, at work or for men. If we are taught to believe that other women are the enemy and will take away your man  (like your man's so good I'm gonna go outta my way to get him please) then we will never know the benefits of a true, close female friendship.

The films we chose to screen are Romy and Michele's High School Reunion and Ghost World. Since this is a music blog I'm not going to write about a bunch of films. Mainly because that is not my talent; I find it hard to put into words what I'm seeing and feeling and I'm gonna be a mess when I will someday have to describe my film choices at CdF. I'm going to be djing at the event so I thought I would share with you some of my favourite girl buddy songs and give you a sneak peek at my setlist.

True Homance
20 February 2011 @ The Horatia
98-102 Holloway Road
London N7 8JE
(Nearest tubes: Highbury & Islington, Holloway Road)
Doors 17:00. First film at 18:00. Entry £4.

I May Be Bad But I'm Perfectly Good At It...

If some artists released a highly sexualised song and called it 'S&M' they probably would have shied away from any more double entendres, PVC references or phallic metaphors in their video but not Rihanna.

The lady of the leather whip has wriggled into her PVC pink dress and tied and gagged up her minions and made them dance around in her Cbeebies version of a porn film. It's all a bit colourful really. I don't know many brothels and sex parlours but I would assume they didn't take decorating advice from a Smarties tube.

Perez Hilton makes a guest appearance but for no real reason it seems. It's not really as shocking as the angry parents groups would have you believe but it's still a damn good song.

Introducing SPF 5000

Originally published at The Girls Are

“It’s hot in herrre” as the plaster-wearing rapper Nelly would say. But it’s not his motley crew of rappers and big-butted girls turning up the heat – it’s Boston based duo SPF 5000 that are making us all sweaty.

Made up of vocalist/songwriter Amy Douglas and producer Rob Phillips, SPF 5000 stands for “scuzzy, pop, fulfilment” and that is certainly what they make. Debut single ‘White Hot Fantasy’ is pure filth, writhing around in your head creating sick little fantasies as it goes.

The band state that they are inspired by what they describe as “triple threat juggernauts” such as Chic, The Eurythmics and The Neptunes. The band have even made a DJ mix to keep their songs in context, framed around their contemporaries and influences.
Click here to read the rest of the article

**MIXTAPE ALERT** Don't You Wish You Never Met Her

Yes February is the month when everyone truly loses their minds and starts humping the nearest lamppost confusing the soulless act with love (I'm bitter).

Since this month will be filled with sickly sweet valentines mixtapes, eurgggh (I'm VERY bitter), I thought I'd give my own take on love and offer up a mixtape of what I believe to be the most creepy, obsessive love songs around.

This really is an excuse for me to play loads of PJ Harvey and 60s girl groups since they were the ones who did crazy, obsessive love songs best.

Some songs may not seem that strange at first but sometimes you have to use your imagination a little for example if you imagine that Mary Wells' 'guy' doesn't actually know she exists then the song starts to sound proper creepy.

Don't You Wish You Never Met Her Mixtape
1. Rid Of Me- PJ Harvey
2. My Guy- Mary Wells
3. You Keep Me Hangin' On- The Supremes
4. Golden Thing- Throwing Muses
5. A Fool In Love- Ike and Tina Turner
6. He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)- The Crystals
7. Legs- PJ Harvey
8. Me & Her- Heavens To Betsy
9. P.R.D.C.T- Bratmobile
10. Nowhere To Run- Martha and the Vandellas
11. Some Unholy War- Amy Winehouse
12. I Just Love You More- Kate Nash

**SONG OF THE MONTH**

I've started reliving my teenage years and have begun listening to early Sugababes again. After the numerous lineup changes, fights, bitching and bullying the Sugababes are only a shadow of their former selves. In my opinion they lost it when Mutya left, she definitely was the spark that made the band.

'Freak Like Me' has been on rotation on my iTunes and it looks like it's gonna stay there for a while. Adrina Howard's hypersexual lyrics, an 'Are Friends Electric' remix, Richard X production and the girls husky vocals. It's a perfect pop song and a shining example to wannabe girl bands (and the current state of the Sugababes), they don't have to be flat, lifeless vessels with even flatter more lifeless songs for record companies to make money. You can be good, you can be amazing, you can be like Sugababes version 2.

Also it takes me back to simpler, more innocent times and it was only eight years ago. Look at their performance on Top of the Pops. There were singing a song about sex and the passionate female sexuality and look at them. Not a PVC outfit in sight, just jeans and cute tops. And their dance moves consist of simple girl groups formations rather than the booty shaking that the current Sugababes line up indulge in.

Mutya recently joked that all the orignial members should regroup. I think we all know that for the sake of pop music they should.