Riot Grrrl

Sleater-Kinney is the bomb.


I am a huge fan of '90s low-fi feminist punk... known as 'riot grrrl.' I could talk about this for pages, but basically the genre was spear-headed by Kathleen Hanna (of Bikini Kill, Le Tigre, and Julie Ruin). Riot grrrl music is really d.i.y., and it started addressing issues of sexism in the punk rock scene, and sexism in society. There was also a lot of literature floating around in connection with this movement, a lot of 'zines:

"JIGSAW, a puzzle made up of all different weird shaped pieces. It seems like it will never come together, it makes no sense, but it can and it does and it will. Jigsaw, pieces like where you grew up and in what kind of fucked up culture and do you have a penis or not and did your parents have money and did you get teased for wearing the same coat four winters in a row and are you Thai-american or Black or Mulatto?
...
Jigsaw Youth, the island of lost and broken toys, feminists who wear lipstick, people who envision 'the land of do as you please', whose lives are not simple and they are sick of trying to make themselves cohesive enough to fit into a box. Jigsaw Youth, listening, strategizing, tolerating, screaming, confronting, fearless, girl soldiers, boy lovers, poofy haired teen girls scraping out the eyes on a photo of Rick Astley, Jigsaw Youth, the misunderstood seeking to understand other people's reality. Making mistakes... making mistakes... making mistakes... making mistakes... feeling something. Knowing you will never see the puzzle put all together but trying anyways cuz each fucking piece really matters and being with friends matters. Jigsaw Youth... inventing and reinventing what these words mean."
- Kathleen Hanna, Jigsaw Fanzine, 1991

See, I told you I could go on for pages (this is what I do instead of homework). Sleater-Kinney is Corin Tucker, Carrie Brownstein, and Janet Weiss. They went extinct in 2006, just after I discovered them. I was born too late.
Some of my favorites:
Entertain
Dig Me Out
You're Not Rock 'n' Roll Fun
Heart Attack

I have yet to find someone that loves this kind of music as much as I do (or even finds it remotely listenable). I think Sleater-Kinney is more accessible, so maybe you will like it or love it and then we can get really excited and angry and yell and scream together.