i-want-more

Irregular features...Record box #1

Now, I'm not saying I'm as important as John Peel, but I am saying that like him, I too possess a box of 7" records that I keep separate from everything else. As something entertaining (I think this blog has veered back and forth on a scale from dull to coma-inducing recently), I'll be taking a look at the records that I keep in this box.

To make things slightly more interesting (Ha! Who am I kidding?) I'll try to group the records together under some headings and talk about them over the next few entries.

1. Revolution, grrrl-style now!

Huggy Bear 'Her jazz'
Fifth Column 'All women are bitches'
Babes in Toyland 'Bruise violet'
The Slits 'Typical girls'
Kleenex 'Aint you'
PJ Harvey 'Down by the water'

Riot grrrl was a real blast. It was a short-lived thing, but it burned brightly. In the early 1990s, I was living in a nasty dormitory town on the outskirts of Greater London, wondering why I had bothered going to University and why things weren't nearly as exciting as they had been back in Exeter. This movement spoke directly to me and I loved it.

I think the record that started it for me was the first Bikini Kill album (which was recommended to me by this man). From there I bought other things that caught my eye, including the Huggy Bear and Fifth Column records. Huggy Bear were an odd sort of band. I saw a fateful show of theirs with American grrrls Bratmobile on a boat down the River Dart. They were funny, brilliant and frustrating in equal measure. There were times when I found myself cringing at what they said, and times when I thought they were bang on the money.

Fifth Column are a band that came out of nowhere and then vanished back there. Although I read with some surprise that they had been going for ten years prior to the record that I bought! The single 'All women are bitches' is caustic but hilarious and has some of the best witchy cackling ever committed to vinyl contained on it. The single was released on the mighty K record label. [More on K and their related artistes another time.]

Babes in Toyland aren't riot grrrl, I know. Instead, their songs dared to talk about hating other women. A sample lyric from 'Bruise violet': 'You little bitch, well I hope your insides ROT'. They were a wonderful band, one of my favourites of that time, and a superb live act.

The Slits and Kleenex: again, not strictly riot grrrl, but more than worthy of being in this section. Both of these singles are dear to me. I originally bought the Slits 7 for the B-side - their cover of Marvin Gaye's 'I heard it through the grapevine'. That's something I hear everywhere now, so it's good to be able to flip it over and hear 'Typical girls', with its lopsided reggae beat and wonky piano playing.

'Aint you' is brilliant and is pretty much the only single I own that other people covet.

As for Peej - I have only included her here because I know that she would hate to be identified as a feminist. Sorry Polly, I couldn't resist. This song is one of her best, I think.

posted by deafdisco @ 8:06 pm