1991

Thank you, Jesus! We finally have a release date for Azealia Banks' EP, and it's out in two weeks! Titled 1991, it will be available online on the 29th of May (and in three dimensions on the 12th  of June). I have a feeling this'll be one for weekday mornings or Friday night - something to get you pumped the hell up. A couple of hours ago, Banks tweeted "#1991EP on May 29th then my birthday  on May 31st! YAY!" DOUBLE YAY!

Gtting major shades of Grace Jones/Legend of Zorro from the cover.

While you're sitting chewing your nails, anxiously glancing at the clock and waiting for the 29th to arrive, go listen to 'Jumanji', produced by Hudson Mohawke and Nick Hook, off her forthcoming mixtape, Fantastic.

JOAN JETT Is My Homegirl

Go out and raise hell! Have a bitchin' weekend!

Oh, Ugh

Allow me to preface this post with the assertion that I do not read Rolling Stone and am more or less of the belief that it stopped being culturally relevant before I was even born. But I do read Blood Blister Sisters, and wehavethingstolookforwardto wrote something interesting today about the above headline from this month's issue, 'The Secret Life of the Rock Star Who Became a Woman.' My general response to Laura Jane Grace's announcement was some mélange of 'good for her' and 'meh.' I've never been an Against Me! fan, so I'm not awfully familiar with their music or the people in the band. I wish her all the best, but that's pretty much as far as my thoughts on the matter go.

Anyway, this headline is kind of messed up on a couple of different levels. Women can't be rock stars? She's going to stop being a rock star once she starts the transition process? As whttlft puts it, its 'internal logic assumes that “rock star” = “not a woman”. As if we can’t start off imagining a rock star who is a woman. If we did consider women in our definition of “rock star” this headline wouldn’t make any sense... I don’t mean to derail the conversation about Laura Jane Grace’s transition and the rhetoric used to talk about trans folks in the media. I definitely don’t think “rock star” should stop at “man or woman.” Instead I want to say HEY ROLLING STONE A LOT OF PEOPLE OF A LOT OF GENDERS MAKE MUSIC AND THEY ARE ROCK STARS. I know you are trying to be progressive but think a little harder, please. This stuff matters a lot. >:('

Yes! I mostly try to steer clear of getting too deep into issues of semantics because I often feel like sexism can be one of those things where the more you look for it, the more you see it, and you start to see it in places where it really isn't. Or you start seeing mountains which are actually small piles of common irrelevance. But this nonsense on Rolling Stone's cover is a good example of language betraying prejudicial thoughts. As the quote from BBS makes clear, the statement is based on the fact that "a Woman" is not a "Rock Star". If "Rock Star" wasn't a gendered term, the headline would lose its meaning. And yes, this stuff does matter. Language is a person's way of seeing the world, and when a person's way of seeing women is that they're somehow antithetic to "Rock Star" that's just fucking stupid.

Nite Jewel / Computer World

I'm turning green over here, Los Angeles! Nite Jewel - a.k.a Ramona Gonzalez - is going to be performing Kraftwerk's Computer World on the first of June as part of an event called Kraftwerk classics, at the Ford Amphitheatre. She'll be joined on stage by Peanut Butter Wolf, Secret Circuit, Nedelle Torrisi and Sun Araw. Computer World is an amazing album, I love Kraftwerk, I love Nite Jewel, I love pretty much everyone on this line up. If you're able to go and don't get a ticket, I will make my way to California and strangle you with my bare hands. God help me, I'll do it.

MCA

By now we've all heard that Adam Yauch has passed away, which is a terrible loss and while this is a site dedicated to women in music, I wanted to take some time to talk about the Beastie Boys' path to feminism and what it meant for their music, particularly their genre.

Their early albums, such as Licensed to Ill, are fairly misogynistic – like most hip-hop, the songs make various references to date rape, “bitches” and what a total drag chicks are in general. Though in fairness, even in the 'Hey Ladies'/'To All The Girls'/on-stage cage dancers days, they were speaking against domestic violence - “Why you gotta treat your girl like that?” True, this isn't exactly a strong anti-violence against women line to take but it was certainly more than a lot of rappers at the time were saying on the issue. And they did make genuine steps to correcting, and apologising for, their formerly held views.

At the 1998 Reading Festival, the band asked Prodigy not to sing 'Smack My Bitch Up' as it “clearly promotes violence against women”. Howlett responded with “they should respect other people's freedom to express themselves” (and went home feeling terribly accomplished, I'm sure). Then just over a year later, in December 1999, they wrote an open letter to Time Out New York, apologising for their “stupidity” and the “shitty... and ignorant things” directed at homosexuals and women in their earlier work. They wrote, “There are no excuses, but time has healed our stupidity... We have learned and sincerely changed since the 80s. We hope that you'll accept this long overdue apology.” Not to mention that for a long time now, they've refused to play or talk about their older songs like 'Girls' and 'Brass Monkey'.

Performing a complete one eighty like that, especially in the public eye, is something that takes a whole heap of courage and conviction, and deserves so much respect. Particularly in the world of hip-hop, coming out against sexism and homophobia is not expected of you. Unlike other musical genres, when a rapper states publicly that they support the rights of women and homosexuals – and actually follows through on that statement – it's (unfortunately) kind of a big deal. As was written on Philolzophy this time last year, “They may not use the word ‘androcentric’ or know what a ‘cis male’ is but they seem to have taken an earnest and personal journey to thinking that respecting women is important. I like this a lot more than douchey self-identifying feminists that know the right words because it’s cool in their social circle. For Beastie Boys, feminism is not the path of least resistance. They exist in a world where no one gives a shit if they are self-aware or culturally conscious.”

I think this is an important point – MCA wasn't a Women's Studies major, he didn't write songs about Gertrude Stein or Julia Kristeva. What he, and the Beastie Boys, did was recognise the flaws in their way of thinking and made an unaffected move to change, without pretension or entitlement. Which is worthy of recognition, whatever side of the fence you sit on. Plus Ad-Rock is married to Kathleen Hanna.

Anyway, let's all pour one out as we listen to 'Sure Shot' and know that Yauch is surely sitting easy in the big skate park in the sky.

My Country

tUnE-yArDs again! Her latest video clip has been released for her track 'My Country', which the director  Mimi Cave says was inspired by the video to 'Bizness'. They are both quite similar, though this one seems a bit more oppressive as opposed to the abundant joy which was on display in 'Bizness'.

The clip also has a message: "In recent years, many arts programs in public schools have suffered major cuts in funding, so when it came time to make a video for the politically charged w h o k i l l track 'My Country', frontwoman Merrill Garbus and director Mimi Cave wanted to make something visceral that also raised awareness. "Merrill's voice tends to hit people pretty hard in the gut," Cave says. "All I can try to do is represent that visually." (There's also a Kickstarter campaign associated with the video that's trying to raise money for Rock Project.)" (via Pitchfork).

Annie Clark & tUnE-yArDs Back & Forth