ST
EV
E^ E
IC
HN
ER
/W
IRE
IM
AG
E
March 2020 | Rolling Stone | 89
FURTHER READINGHer Noise
More great songs from the
riot-grrrl explosion“I WALK ALONE”
Mecca Normal, from Mecca
Normal, 1986 A shocking sound
in the Eighties: Vancouver poet
Jean Smith walks down the
street, over David Lester’s skel-
etal guitar. All she wants to do
is walk alone, so why does she
have to take her life in her hands?
Rock dudes always love to brag
about walking alone, but she
makes it sound terrifying.“SHOVE”
L7, from Smell the Magic, 1991
The great L.A. grunge queens
were fellow travelers to the riot-
grrrl scene. This Sub Pop single,
released a year earlier, vents the
urge to shove the entire world
out of your way: “The neighbors
say I jam too loud/America
thinks it should be proud.”Going
Deeper
Slant 6
Soda Pop Rip Off
1994
Slant 6 had all the flash you’d
expect from a power trio
named for a legendary Chrysler
muscle-car engine. So much of
the early riot-grrrl culture came
from the cross-country kinship
between Washington, D.C., and
the Pacific Northwest: Slant 6
held up the capital city’s end
with grooves like “Time Expired,”
goofing on Sixties garage rock,
but with a sense of menace.Heavens to Betsy
Calculated
1994
Even before Sleater-Kinney,
Corin Tucker had her own voice,
and in Heavens to Betsy she
wasn’t afraid to go all the way
there. “My Red Self” is still the
greatest rock song ever written
about surfing the crimson wave:
“What is the color, the color of
shame? Is it red?”Lois
Infinity Plus
1996
With her acoustic guitar, tea-
cup, and wry grin, Lois Maffeo
seemed like the scene’s wiseass
auntie. Infinity Plus is a lost
Nineties classic full of heart-
shredding ballads like “Capital
‘A,’ ” “Summer Long,” and the
Elliott Smith duet “Rougher.”Sleater-Kinney
The Woods
2005
Sleater-Kinney have always had
an unabashed classic-rock jones,
covering Creedence’s “Fortunate
Son” and Springsteen’s “The
Promised Land.” But they really
unleashed their megaheavy
psychedelic side on The Woods,
right up to the 11-minute climax
“Let’s Call It Love.” Brownstein’s
stripped-down ballad “Modern
Girl” became a theme song, with
the sad refrain, “My whole life
was like a picture of a sunny day.”“SHE SAID ‘BOOM’ ”
Fifth Column, from All-Time
Queen of the World, 1990 Fifth
Column started in the Eighties
as a collective of queer Toronto
art students set to smash the
patriarchy. (An early album title:
To Sir With Hate.) As Caroline
Azar said, “ ‘She said boom’ are
three simple words that, for us,
mean being responsible for your
own pocket-size revolution.”“DEAD MEN DON’T RAPE”
7 Year Bitch, from There’s a
Dyke in the Pit compilation,
1992 A point-blank manifesto
from the Seattle band, and
a highlight of the classic
seven-inch EP There’s a Dyke
in the Pit. 7 Year Bitch made a
searing appearance in the 1995
teen drama Mad Love as the
band Drew Barrymore sneaks
out to see, perhaps the most
Nineties scene in any movie.“HER JAZZ”
Huggy Bear, from Taking the
Rough With the Smooch, 1993
“This is happening without your
permission,” Huggy Bear an-
nounce in this U.K. broadside, anearly example of bands around
the world tuning in to riot-grrrl
spirit. “Her Jazz” was the Brigh-
ton band’s split single with Bikini
Kill’s “Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah,”
calling for “girl/boy revolution.”“SOME JINGLE JANGLE
MORNING”
Mary Lou Lord, single, 1993
No rage or noise here, just a
wistful folkie strumming her
heart out, with Bikini Kill’s Tobi
Vail and Kathi Wilcox as well as
Donna Dresch. “Some Jingle
Jangle Morning” captures how
it feels to stumble through your
twenties, seeing sunny people
go dark on you, watching friends
fall apart or drift away.“SEVENWHATEVERTEEN”
Excuse 17, from the Periscope
compilation, 1994 Carrie
Brownstein’s first band was
this pop-punk trio, releasing
two promising albums before
Sleater-Kinney blew up. Their
best moment (from the crucial
Yoyo label comp Periscope) is a
deceptively catchy lament for a
girl who loves you only when her
boyfriend’s not around.“HELLO YUCKO”
Emily’s Sassy Lime, from A
Slice of Lemon compilation,
1995 SoCal teenage sisters
Amy and Wendy Yao decided
to form a band after getting in
trouble for sneaking out to see
Bratmobile and Bikini Kill gigs.
Emily’s Sassy Lime had their
own fantastic style of fractured
brat punk. “Hello Yucko” is their
kiss-off to a loser dude, sneering,
“Hang your head in shame/
You’re all the same.”“I WISH I WAS HIM”
Kathleen Hanna, from the
Rock Stars Kill compilation,
1994 Teen indie prodigy Ben
Lee wrote this ode to the
Lemonheads’ Evan Dando. (The
ultimate Nineties compliment:
“He even understands the words
to Pavement songs.”) But Hanna
gives it a whole new level of
gender irony in the sly way she
sighs, “He thinks he can be a girl
better than me.”“TARGET PRACTICE”
Various Artists, from the Free
to Fight compilation, 1995
Free to Fight was more than an
album — it was “an interactive
self-defense project” released
on Candy Ass Records, involving
comics, poetry, and stories of
sexual violence, as well as songs
by Heavens to Betsy, Excuse 17,
Lois, and others. “Target Prac-
tice” is a blunt lesson in fighting
back, with voices chanting,
“Eyes, knees, groin, throat!”“ROMANCE”
Wild Flag, from Wild Flag, 2011
Six years after The Woods, two-
thirds of Sleater-Kinney burst
back to life with their new band,
Wild Flag. Brownstein and Weiss
teamed up with Helium’s Mary
Timony for “Romance,” yelling,
“Sound is the blood between
me and you.” It’s a credo they’ve
spent their lives living up to.“SOCIAL DEATH”
gSp, from gSp, 2017 The name
is pronounced “girlsperm.” A
trio of lifers from Bikini Kill and
Skinned Teens show every-
one how it’s done, with guitar
squalls over Vail’s rock-steady
beach-party drums. “Social
Death” is about refusing to give
up on life, forcing yourself to
leave the house and show up
places — the same struggle riot
grrrl has always been about.REBEL
GRRRLS
L.A. punk
rockers
L7, making
America
proud in
1992The Riot Grrrl
Collection
The Riot Grrrl Collection
is a crucial part of the
story, an anthology of the
punk fanzines that shaped
the music’s spirit. This book
— edited by Lisa Darms,
with an intro by Johanna
Fateman — shows how kids
created a coast-to-coast
network of kindred spirits
with radical new ideas,
using old-school media
tools like copy ma-
chines and staplers.