re: Girl bands

[Jeff Dalton <jeff%aiva.edinburgh.ac.uk@Cs.Ucl.AC.UK>]

> Date: Mon, 30 Mar 87 15:37:28 est
> From: Karen Weiss <weiss@nrl-aic.ARPA>
> Subject: girl bands

> Lora Logic, whose band Essential Logic was a Rough Trade group, was the
> original sax player for X-Ray Spex, featuring the young, intelligent,
> mulatto, feminist, and quite short vocalist Poly Styrene.  After the X-Ray
> Spex' only album, "Germ-Free Adolescents", her solo career didn't live up
> to the early promise she showed.

Poly produced one solo lp, Translucence (?), which is very different from
X-Ray Spex.  It's quite subdued and introspecive but still interesting.
It was only L1.99 a while ago in the UK but has probably ceased to exist
altogether by now.  After that, she became a Hari Krishna for a few years
(maybe still) but produced a single last year or so.

> Essential Logic wrote the title track to the Lizzie Borden film "Born In
> Flames", in which appeared a performance by the fabulous all-female band
> "The Bloods".  Their sole recording, a 7" entitled "Button Up", should be
> required listening for all white funksters.

Don't forget Laura's own recorded output, which includes at least the
Essential Logic LP Beat Rhythm News (I think that's the title, but my
copy is at home).  I never liked the record all that much -- it was sorta
like X-Ray Spex without everything that made them fun -- but still play
it from time to time.

Then we have the Raincoats.  They have 3 lp's so far, but the first is
quite different from the later two.  My sister used to say it was the worst
record she had ever heard, but what she meant was that they couldn't play
very well, were off key, etc. even more than other groups that supposedly
"can't play".  But I thought it was great.  Anyway, it was guitar, etc.
plus violin, sometimes a Velvet Underground-like sound, sometimes not.
Included a cover of the Kink's "Lola".  The second lp, Oddyshape, showed
a marked improvement in their ability to make sounds, but to me was fairly
boring.  New musical direction, deemed more appropriate for a serious
political image perhaps?

Brix Smith's Adult Net 12" releases are (more or less)
     Incense and Peppermint
     Edie
     White Nights/Stars Say Go
     Wake Up in the Sun

Put them all together and you've almost got an lp, so maybe there will
be one soon.  I like this stuff, what can I say?  I can see not liking
"Edie", but "namby-pamby"?