ELLA FITZGERALD Is My Homegirl

Happy belated birthday to the "First Lady of Song" and enjoy your weekends.

The Pram In The Hall

The other day, Jezebel.com published an article criticising a piece on xoJane.com about a 30-something single man's experience with one of those “crazy” women who, like, tell guys that they're interested in them and reply to texts and stuff. Jenna took the opportunity to briefly explore the history of calling women crazy, and she made some interesting points which moved me to think of how this cultural framework has affected/is affecting women in music.

She writes, “As a term, 'crazy' is entirely of a piece with the long and nasty tradition of pathologizing female emotion (and particularly sexuality). Hysteria comes from hystera, the Greek word for uterus, after all: "crazy" has been a gendered trait in Western culture for thousands of years. The male gaze was for virtually all of human history synonymous with the medical gaze, and men assigned themselves the authority to determine which bodies are sick and which are hale. (In some U.S. states, they still arrogate that right.)” I would add that this “pathologizing (of) female emotion” applies particularly to creative women, and can do the most harm in this area.

I don't think I'd be reaching in saying that women who are especially atypical or outlandish in their art inspire a certain brand of dismissiveness which their male (or mainstream) counterparts do not. They're “crazy”, “eccentric” and rarely, if ever, exalted as musical geniuses the way men like Brian Eno, Thom Yorke or David Bowie are. Their music is almost never reviewed in a positive way without first being prefaced as something crazy, seemingly by virtue of it being strange and being created by a woman. Yoko Ono, Lydia Lunch and Nina Hagen come to mind.

A few years ago, not long after Björk's album Volta had been released, Luiza Sauma wrote a great article for the Independent about this phenomenon. She proposes (and I'm inclined to agree) that their lack of mainstream feminine indicators like diets and plastic surgery – à la Madonna or Dolly Parton – is off-putting to a lot of men. Sauma asks, “Why is it that one of the greatest musicians of the last 15 years is still pigeonholed as an elfish eccentric, when so many of her male peers (Oasis, Blur, Nirvana, Radiohead - the list goes on) are so readily accepted into the pantheon of musical immortality?” And then there's this: “Rowan Pelling - journalist and Kate Bush super-fan - has various theories on why brilliant female musicians never reach the god-like status of, say, Bob Dylan. 'Music critics are historically quite macho,' she explains. 'So that Dylan worship, for example, is a given... I'm a huge Kate Bush fan; she sings the interior landscape for women, just as Paula Rego paints it. I think it leaves men bewildered.'”

All good points, but a disheartening situation nonetheless. Is there something inherently threatening or ridiculous about a woman who makes experimental music and is asking to be taken seriously as an artist? A woman who isn't interested in denying or simplifying her gender? As Luiza Sauma points out, musicians like Björk and Kate Bush and, more recently, Joanna Newsom, are frequently burdened with adjectives like “pixie” and “elfin” as if they're mythical creatures from another universe. Apparently one where women can make creative music without being treated like medievil novelties.

But the thing is, they're actual humans with actual butt loads of talent. And if a music critic can't take these incredible artists seriously, then I think we all need to stop and think about who the crazy one is.

Cat Power Power!

"Chan Marshall (a.k.a Cat Power) announced on Twitter this weekend that her new album will be called Sun and will be out 9/11 on Matador Records." (via Minneapolis Fucking Rocks)



Talk about a beam of sunshine on this rainy London day. Thank you, Chan!

INTERVIEW: Kate Wilson

Kate plays the drums in two of Sydney's best loved bands - the Holy Soul and the Laurels. The former has played with such talents as the Drones, Mudhoney, David Thomas of Pere Ubu, and are sound carriers in Damo Suzuki's network. The latter has shared a stage with A Place To Bury Strangers, Swervedriver, Tame Impala and Surf City. When I met up with her back in December last year, the Holy Soul had recently arrived back in Australia from a European tour. We talked about the complications of playing in two bands, being casual with Damo motherfucking Suzuki and the declining state of local music in Sydney.

You guys recently got back from a European tour – where did you go, what did you get up to?

We started in France so we kind of went 'round, did our first show in Paris and went up 'round Brittany. We've got a guy in Reims who runs a label called Beast Records – I hope I got that right, it'd be so embarrassing if I didn't – and he kind of, I think he had a part in the reason we went to the north of France for a while. It was great, then Germany we did. We were a few days there... it's becoming hazier and hazier, I've been writing it all up for this blog thing and uh... I have extensive notes. So yea, a few shows in Germany, we did three in Berlin all up, Mannhiem, Hamburg, um, then we had one day in the Netherlands, then back to France and we finished off in Spain.

I was talking to Sol from the Walk On By a while ago, and he said people in Spain just go nuts at live shows.

We had a really huge one in Tarragona, that was unreal. I think we combined with somebody's birthday party so there were quite a few people and it was going a bit crazy. I guess, well I got the impression, that everything seems to start a bit later over there... I wish we had stayed a bit longer, I'd love to go back there. I ended up getting sick just before the last show, that was a real pain in the bum. I didn't get to see any of the awesome Gaudi stuff in Barcelona.

Was that the first time you guys had toured Europe?

Yea, the last time would have been about five years ago but I wasn't in the band at the time. I think they kind of hooked up with Mudhoney for a few shows and did a few of their own. I think they did about thirteen dates last time and this time it was about eighteen.

And last year you guys did the collaboration with Damo Suzuki, how was that?

That was nuts. We did it in Berlin as well. I don't know, now it's like we're used to it because we've done it so many times and there's lots of that like, being really freaked out by this amazing dude whose records we've loved forever. And now it's just like, 'Heeyy, Damo', it's just like seeing an old friend again. Whereas before, like the first time, I was actually losing my shit. It's always awesome but it's gotten a lot easier.

But do you still get that thrill like, 'Myeah, just hanging with Damo Suzuki. No biggy, we're friends.'

Yea, absolutely! Absolutely. He's a really cool dude.

How did that come about, did he just email you guys?

It's a pretty good story, Sam hates telling it. He gets asked all the time, it's just one of those stupid things. So you know Lyndal, his girlfriend? She's a massive fan of Can and Damo Suzuki, and Sam thought it'd be a really cool present if he could get him to sign a birthday card for Lyndal. So he emailed him just like, sorry, this is a bit weird, but would you mind signing a birthday card for my girlfriend? And he obliged and Lyndal got this awesome card like, happy birthday Lyndal from Damo Suzuki. How cool is that? So a couple of years later, Damo had been booked by those Lilypad people who put on that stage at the Big Day Out and Damo had kept Sam's email and just said hey, guy I know in Sydney, do you know of any bands that want to back me? Sam was like, oh actually, I know a really great band... so that's how it all came about. It was all just purely... so chancey. It seemed to go well, obviously.

You play in the Laurels as well, how do you find that, playing in two different bands? Does it get difficult or has it been all right so far?

Um, sometimes, like the nightmare thing is a clash, when you have two gigs on the one night. And yea, I've had some pretty funny ones. I think the last one was a few months ago, it happens a couple of times a year. The last one was just nuts cause we were playing – both were really great shows – the Holy Soul had this show with Kim Salmon, which we had booked first. And then the Laurels had a show with Seekae at the Metro and obviously, you know, we love those guys. And what ended up happening was the dudes who manage the Laurels were waiting outside with this car running. It was just so like, bank robber. And I basically just had to run on to stage and just play straight away. It was pretty funny.

I always have visions of you like, going between songs. Like play one song and then quickly drive to the other gig, play another song. Getting changed in the car, like that 27 Dresses movie.

Oh man, I don't think I ever... like there was only half an hour between having to get to the Sando from the Metro. So it was pretty hectic and I don't wish to repeat it. Stylistically it's not really a big deal 'cause I don't know, maybe I just play the same thing all the time. It's not like I really get confused.

So do you think there'll come a point where you have to choose a band, or you happy to just -

I try not to think about it, 'cause I love both of them. But yea, there's always a bit of it, like I totally freak out thinking about it because I really don't want to. So hopefully they can happily coexist. Everyone's mates with each other so there's no weird...

No competition or anything.

Nah. It's still kind of a shitty and weird position though.

How did it come about, you playing in two bands?

Well I think... it's a bit blurry. I was kind of jamming with the Laurels and then the Holy Soul, like I knew Jon and it was kind of funny. I didn't really know them that well though, I knew Jon through his ex partner, and they invited me to dinner and I swear they were grooming me or something, like 'ha ha, the whole band's here!' Like going to Lyndal's house which is this secluded farm house out in Cattai. But no, it was all cool we just got really drunk and watched Father Ted the next day and then they asked me to join. Maybe, I don't know, the reckon they weren't scoping me out but I don't really know.

So it was never like, 'I can't join this band, I'm already with these other guys'?

No not really, 'cause the Laurels weren't doing much. I'd just had this other band break up, so I wasn't really doing anything so it was kind of like, yea I may as well play with a bunch of dudes. It was all pretty casual.

But it seems like the Laurels have really blown up lately. You guys played with Swervedriver -

Yea, they're like my favourite band ever. So that was a total dream. But yea, it's pretty weird. It's pretty funny. It's really weird, now we're getting good shows and I'm used to playing shit ones. I mean, not with the Holy Soul, just in general. Like, I expected to be slogging it out at hotels for the rest of my life.

This is probably a really dumb question, but there's that cliché of drummers being frustrated song writers. Do you have any thoughts about that?

It's pretty creative, I'm not at all dissatisfied. I guess for me it's just a time thing. I mean, yea, I am pretty frustrated, I've got this piano and this guitar in my room but I just haven't really had time to play them. Or do anything. I'm not by any means a song writer or, you know, an under utilised song writing talent. But yea, it would be fun to do more of that.

Do you have any opinions or thoughts on the way the local music scene is going in Sydney? I guess playing in two fairly big bands, you're kind of exposed to what's going on.

Yea it's weird, I think about it a lot. We were lucky enough to kind of play heaps of shows at say, the Hoey for example, it was my favourite venue in Sydney, I thought it was so awesome. And they really liked having both of us there, so it was always a rad night and we would always get awesome crowds and so on. So when it closed I guess we were kind of in a position where, you know, we have a bit of notoriety, we weren't just a band that was starting out. So people would ask us to be their support bands and stuff. I guess, we haven't been directly – like, it would have been a lot worse an impact with all these venues closing if we hadn't already been established. Yea, it really fucking sucks.

Does the Laurels have a release coming out? I saw you guys were recording some stuff.

Yea, we're going to go back and record some more, hopefully at the end of January. We've done like two songs but we're gonna do an album so we've got to do another eight to ten.

Is it the same sort of direction as your first couple of singles?

It's a bit different, it's probably like, shorter songs and a bit heavier. Luke's got more pedals so it's louder and shittier now. Which is pretty awesome. I don't know, it's always been loud and shitty though. It's pretty cool, we've had these songs for ages but we never really learned them properly so we've been having all these practices like, oh shit we've actually got to learn these songs properly, we suck. But yea, hopefully it'll be decent.

You Have The Right To Get Strangled By A Bra Strap

I'm going to the beach / Gonna eat some eggs / I don't give a fuck if that didn't rhyme / I don't give a fuck if that didn't rhyme

I have spent the last ten or eleven hours schooling myself on Amber Tamblyn and have come to the conclusion that she is possibly the second coming of Wonder Woman. I mean, I had a previous foggy notion that she was an actress or something (she is an actress) but she's also a writer, rapper and recent collaborator with Dan the Automator. And she's funny as all get out, as proven in these awareness raps which she wrote because Tyrese is a nosy nelly and thought her email address - which he saw cc'd on someone else's email - was that of Amber Rose and contacted her about making some music together.

This all happened a little while ago and you can read about it on her website, but the songs are finally available for download and all proceeds go to the Write Now Poetry Society, which funds creative writing workshops for women and girls and other organisations working to end violence against women. Everything about this makes me so happy. My favourite is 'All In Favour', about the recent bat shit actually insane woman hating birth control legislation that's going on in the US right now:

You think sanctioning my ovaries won't bring me to violence? / How about I tell you what to do with your caucus? / It is now illegal to think about me topless / To keep your lotion where your socks is / To refer to powerful women as monsters / Like those jocks at Fox did / I am not afraid to cock block dick / To sew an instructional video of rape kits to your eyelids and make you watch it

The song manages to simultaneously make me want to dance and grind and also go get on a plane, fly to D.C. and knee these douche nozzle policy makers in the ball sack. And as Melanie wrote last week in her blog, The Feminist Guide To Hollywood, "Why aren't actual musicians writing songs about this and bringing attention to the fact that the United States Congress is trying to ban birth control?" You can listen to all the tracks at Tamblyn's Soundcloud.

And if that doesn't get you all riled up about the situation, here's a video of Kathleen Hanna speaking at last year's Planned Parenthood rally (I know it's an old video, but I think it's worth watching again seeing as Planned Parenthood in Texas just lost some of its government funding, and Texas' Medicaid Women's Health Programme has lost all of its funding). As sickening as some of these potential laws are, I take heart in the fact that there are these inspiring women getting up and telling those stupid old men to fuck themselves.

Cards!

HOW EFFING COOL IS THIS. Playing cards decorated with feminist musicians! Done by feminist artists! Once my new credit card arrives, I am so taking advantage of their special offer and getting two decks for the low low price of $25. I'll post the second deck to my sister and we can play Nico Bingo together over the phone. Go to the Kickstarter page to see the full list of artists and some of the drawings. Everybody's there: Ari Up, JD Samson, Poly Styrene, Carrie Brownstein... They're about $3000 short of the $12000 goal, so everyone needs to go and donate. This has to happen guys, I'm already planning awesome new versions of Solitaire and Go Fish.

AMP

The 2011 Australian Music Prize shortlist was announced a few days ago (The Jezabels won) and if you've been following the award since its inception you may have noticed a growing trend: the number of female nominees is steadily rising. This year we've got a heart stopping three and a half representation! That's three and a half of the nine artists listed. They are Abbe May, Adalita, Kimbra and the female half of the Jezabels. Compare that to two last year, who were Pikelet and Sally Seltman, and the year before that we had the Lisa Mitchell shitstorm which, I think, planted the seed for this year's showing.

The 2009 awards were an interesting moment for the place of women in Australian music. Bernard Zuel (rightly) pointed out that the AMP had fallen under a "The Drones/Mess Hall/Augie March/Eddy Current hegemony" and wrote that he feared it was becoming a male rock award. As he put it, "I don't think anyone could argue that we the judges have fallen short if over the past four years only five women and two predominantly female groups have made it into the shortlist, compared with 29 men or predominantly male bands... This is a failure, for common sense would tell you there were not four times as many men as women making high quality music in those years." (Reminder: before Lisa Mitchell, no women had actually won. She still stands as the only female artist to have been awarded the prize).

Fast forward to yesterday and we have our most woman heavy shortlist yet, with three artists. Why? If Mr. Zuel hadn't put up his hand and pointed out the obvious would things have continued the way they were? Seeing as the output of female Australian artists hasn't changed much in quality or quantity since 2008, a scientific approach would tell us that Bernard Zuel's article, and the response to it, was the precursor for the changes we're seeing now.

Not that I think the AMP or its judges are necessarily sexist. Like so many forms of institutionalised discrimination, it sometimes takes a person pointing it out for anyone else to be able to see it. Like a Magic Eye puzzle or a fart, it reveals itself slowly. And what we're seeing now is certainly progress - if things keep going the way they are, next year there will be four women nominated! Practically half! I do think it's a shame that it took four years for us to see three women in the shortlist, but hey. At least we're getting somewhere?