#slant 6

what is this my music taste is all over the place.... lowkey very inspired by this

The Bags: “Survive” (1978)

The Bags emerged among the O.G. wave of ’77 punk in Los Angeles; they're proof that women built its slashing sounds. Fronted by Alice Bag—who was born Alicia Armendariz into a traditional Mexican household in East L.A.—and bassist Patricia Morrison, the band only ripped through one single, “Survive,” during their lifetime, but it contained considerable power and cemented their legacy. (That’s Alice Bag in the definitive punk documentary The Decline of Western Civilization alongside Germs, Fear, X, and Black Flag.)

“Survive” was resilient, hardboiled, and utterly cool. Its noirish finger snaps and jazzy drum fills evoked a detective's theme song with its magnifying glass pressed up against the entire world. Its titular sentiment cut to the most irreducible truth of all this: That feminist art can save you. —Jenn Pelly

Crass: “Walls (Fun in the Oven)” (1979)

In their seven years together, the British anarcho-punk collective Crass sang about several conflicting ideologies, from militaristic fascism to vegetarian pacifism. However, while their messages were mixed, the band remained staunch in their allegiance towards feminism. “Walls (Fun in the Oven),” off 1979’s Stations of the Crass, was a sing-song mantra of feminine autonomy.

Singer Joy De Vivre’s hypnotic delivery—claustrophobic, falsetto yet monotone—was as hollow as the reproductive course she described. “Desire, deny, deny, desire/Have a child to justify/Images that you apply/I won't bow my head in shame,” she chanted, sounding dispassionate to the point of lobotomization. “Walls (Fun in the Oven)” was a strict refusal to accept the familiar path of matrimony and the nuclear family: “I won’t play the game…without your walls, I am alive.” –Quinn Moreland

Bush Tetras: “Too Many Creeps” (1980)

Gestated in dark clubs and cramped DIY spaces, New York’s no wave movement wasn’t just an oddball response to the macho energy of the previous decade’s punk scene. It marked a palpable shift in rock circles in the city and beyond, and became a hotbed for the musical expression of feminist ideals. Sonic Youth and Lydia Lunch are frequently credited with pushing its postmodernism into the spotlight, but due is also owed to Bush Tetras, the freak-funk outfit formed by guitarist Pat Place (a founding member of the no wave icons the Contortions).

Neo Boys: “Rich Man’s Dream” (1980)

Neo Boys were young and frighteningly smart when they began rising through Portland’s early punk scene in the late 1970s, when singer Kim Kincaid was just 14. Their oblique yet succinct lyrics expertly captured the hypocrisies of Reagan-era cultural politics; “Rich Man’s Dream,” from their self-titled 7”, poked and prodded the listener, asking questions that actually merited reflection. “Will you stand when they come for the rich man?” Kincaid slurred over chiming guitar and restless yet focused percussion. “Are you an answer to the rich man’s prayers?”

“Rich Man’s Dream,” released on Greg Sage of Wipers’ Trap Records, best defined Neo Boys’ particular charisma. These four young women made music that seemed to veer toward unhinged, but really followed deliberate patterns; their instrumentation was expansive and preternaturally balanced, each part pushing and pulling without drowning out another. Well ahead of their time, Neo Boys started a map they were never supposed to draw. K Records’ Calvin Johnson cites them as a key inspiration. –Jes Skolnik

White Lung: “I Believe You” (2014)

According to the Department of Justice, two-thirds of sexual assault cases go unreported, and for every 1,000 incidents of rape, only 13 cases will ever be prosecuted. And in those few instances, it’s often not the actions of the perpetrator that are put on trial, but the victim’s credibility: What was she wearing? How much did she drink? Why didn’t she just run away? Why didn’t she call the cops right after? Why did she maintain a relationship with the accused? What’s her motive?

the gits

pearl jam

lunachicks

L7

temple of the dog

mother love bone

Excuse 17

veruca salt

slant 6

the spells

sleater kinney

babes in toyland

auf de mar (will show up as mellisa auf de mar on spotify)

The julie ruin