The Fountain of Youth

The Fountain of Youth
Or
Why I Still Listen to Hole: The Magic of Music Nostalgia

I dig music for a number of reasons. I like the stress relief that comes with dancing. I like songs with lyrics that I can relate to, that soothe me, or that I can sing along to. But I think the number one thing that I love about it the most is that it can bring me back to a specific time and place in an instant.
I can remember the first time I heard punk (or, at least what was punk to a suburban 11 year old): I had snuck a radio and headphones into bed with me and was listening to the local “alternative” station. I was listening mostly to help me fall asleep, but then a song by Green Day came on and I jolted back awake. The song made me feel anxious and excited all at once – this wasn’t the same as the Carpenters or Supremes records I was used to listening to. It was a moment that would change my taste forever.
Next came the discovery of Hole, Babes in Toyland, and Bikini Kill. I was shocked and amazed that there were bands that had women who were so up front about their anger and didn’t make me feel like I needed to sex myself up to be worthwhile. I re-played Hole’s Live Through This over and over again, not really understanding why Courtney Love was so pissed off, but liking the way listening to her made me feel – as many girls my age did at the time. It was a time when I was daydreaming about high school, about college, about what adulthood would be like. I couldn’t imagine a time when I wouldn’t be wearing velvet Doc Martens and hanging out listening to music with the girls who were my best friends at the time.
Now, that time has come. I still hang out with my best friends listening to music, it’s just different ladies then when I was 14. I tend to wear Mary Janes over boots. And Hole went commercial and then went belly up. I get teased for still keeping Live Through This in heavy rotation in my personal collection. But every time I hear the opening chords of “Violet”, I get brought back to some of the most pleasant memories of my adolescence: daydreaming about possibilities, without bills to pay, and sporting some kick ass boots. It’s an album that can get me through a bad day or help me celebrate a great one even now, 14 years later.
The warm, fuzzy feelings I get from the music of my youth are probably the reason I’ve held onto my Dave Matthews Band records – but that is a blog for another day!

Girls Rock! Chicago Seeks Volunteers

Our good friends at Girls Rock! Chicago are seeking volunteers and workshop leaders for 2008's summer camp program. A week long camp for girls age 9 to 16, Girls Rock! Chicago provides instrument instruction, music composition coaching, recording workshops, song-writing workshops, hands-on activities, technical equipment workshops, guest speakers, team-building activities and band performances. The girls form bands the first day, and by the end of the week they get the live concert experience from onstage when they perform! The organizers are looking for volunteers in a variety of full and part time capacities, as well as workshop instructors for a variety of topics.

If you're unable to volunteer, you can still help Girls Rock! Chicago by donating online or contacting them about gear and instrument donations.

WOW's fave way to donate? For the month of June, Bleeding Heart Bakery will make a donation to Girls Rock! Chicago for every "charity cupcake" sold during the month of June. Talk about a tasty treat!

WOW Setlist, 5/27/08

Francoise Hardy - "Oh Oh Cheri" The "Yeh-Yeh" Girl From Paris! (Vogue)
Patsy Cline - "Hungry For Love" S/T (MCA)
The Handsome Family - "All the Time in Airports" Last Days of Wonder (Carrot Top)
Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins - "Rise Up With Fists!!" Rabbit Fur Coat (Team Love)
Neko Case - "Hold On, Hold On" Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (Anti-)
Janet Klein & her Parlor Boys - "When Jenny Does Her Lowdown Dance" Put a Flavor to Love (Coeur De Jeanette)
Belle & Sebastian - "Funny Little Frog" The Life Pursuit (Matador)
Violet Dischord - "Lithium" V/A Nearvana San Francisco (Tinnitus)
Go Sailor - "Fine Day for Sailing" S/T (Lookout!)
Elizabeth Conant - "Little White Lies" Why Shouldn't I (Haven)
Big Mama Thornton - "Little Red Rooster" In Europe (Arhoolie)
Scotland Yard Gospel Choir - "Obsessions" S/T (Bloodshot)
Martha Wainwright - "When the Day is Short" Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole (Zoe)
Blondie - "Dreaming" Eat to the Beat (Chrysalis)
Shesus - "Weapons of Love Destruction" Ruined it for You (Narnack)
Metric - "Patriarch on a Vespa" Live it Out (Last Gang)
Bang! Bang! - "Something More" Electric Sex (Morpheus)
The Breeders - "Walk it Off" Mountain Battles (4AD)
Slowdive - "Waves" Just for a Day (Castle)
Saint Etienne - "Sun in My Morning" Tales from Turnpike House (Savoy Jazz)
Headlights - "So Much for the Afternoon" Some Racing, Some Stopping (Polyvinyl)
Kirsty MacColl - "A New England" Galore (IRS)
Mates of State - "Goods [All in Your Head]" All Day (Polyvinyl)
The Kills - "Wait" Black Rooster (Dim Mak)
The Gossip - "Listen Up" Standing in the Way of Control (Kill Rock Stars)
The Raveonettes - "Blitzed" Lust Lust Lust (Vice)
J+J+J - "Jobs That Require Headphones" They Hump While We Go Nuts (Johann's Face/Circle Machine)
Ladytron - "Destroy Everything You Touch" Witching Hour (Ryko)

She's Making History, Working for Victory

"Rosie The Riveter," written in 1942 by Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb.

Happy Memorial Day, everyone!

It wasn't a rock... it was a rock lotto!

Our friends over at Girls Rock! Chicago are hosting a benefit show tonight... with a twist! The Rock Lottery Benefit Show will feature seven bands comprised of local musicians who were grouped together through a random, lottery style drawing. Each band had just three weeks to prepare a set, including at least one original song.

This year's participants include members of The Laureates, Hidden Mitten (the Hump Day Dance Party's own Rev. Michael Flavor), Coupleskate, Blue Ribbon Glee Club, Three Dollar Bill, In Miniature, Love of Everything, Chin Up Chin Up, Gay Baby, and many, many more.

It's all happening tonight, May 22nd, at the Abbey Pub (3420 W. Grace). Doors at 8, show starts at 9. $6 in advance, $8 at the door, 21 and over. All proceeds benefit Girls Rock! Chicago, a rock and roll summer camp for girls.

Promoters Ordinance Threatens Chicago Music Community

As you may have heard, the City of Chicago is currently considering a "Promoters Ordinance". Although the ordinance was tabled last week, it has not completely disappeared, and in fact, will likely reappear on the city council schedule sometime in the near future. What’s this ordinance all about, you ask? Essentially, the city of Chicago wants to require a “Promoters License” for any independent promoter seeking to throw an event. This license would require the promoter be 21 or over, get fingerprinted, obtain $300,000 of insurance and pay fees of $500 to $2000, depending on the size of their event. Jim Derogatis at the Chicago Sun Times has done some excellent and thorough reporting on the ordinance at his blog, and Scott Smith at Time Out Chicago has interviews with some alderman and others here.

Like other devotees of the Chicago music community, we here at the Women On Women Music Program are concerned about the impact the Promoters Ordinance might have on the local music scene and the ability of the “little gal” to throw concerts. 99% of the people we play on our show wouldn’t have gotten their start without that basement show or local night promoted by a kid they knew in high school. To see the little indie promoters helping underground acts get shows disappear would be devastating for the Chicago music community, especially for local and unsigned artists. The ordinance also unfairly singles out small venues and venues without seating, such as Metro, Martyrs and Double Door. We also worry that the exemption for non-profit organizations is too narrowly defined that it is possible this could even apply to some of the benefits we’ve done for WLUW in the past.

It seems to us that this ordinance is unnecessary, as current regulation of venues is intense and efficient. We urge you to write your alderman and tell them to oppose this ordinance. You can find your alderman and his or her contact info here -
http://www.chicityclerk.com/citycouncil/alderman/find.html

The Chicago Music Commission is also collecting comments on the ordinance, which will be presented to city council members. The survey is a little confusing, so to help you decode it, here's how we voted:

"The Public Performance and Amusement (PPA) licensing system currently in place works to keep events at PPA spaces well managed and safe."
AGREE We don't believe any more regulation is necessary. Independent promoters are already covered by regulations governing PPAs, that is, venues.

"The City's proposed language exempting a promoter seeking to do business with a venue that has 500 or more seats from needing a license but requiring a promoter to receive a license in order to do business with a venue with that has less than 500 seats will ensure safer shows."
DISAGREE Any regulation should be across the board for large and small venues alike. Targeting only small venues or venues without a lot of seats is unfair, negatively affects small businesses, and will have no impact on safety.

"Exempting promoters working with venues that have seats bolted into the ground from being a license will make live music shows safer."
DISAGREE Seats being bolted to the ground or mobile will have no affect on safety.

"Individuals under 21 years old should not be allowed to promote events in Chicago." DISAGREE Many of Chicago's most successful music business leaders began their careers as teenagers. Forcing them to wait until they are 21 will stunt growth of new business, and will have no affect on safety.

Don't delay - write your alderman and fill out the survey TODAY!

WOW Setlist, 5/20/08

Sally Shapiro - "Time to Let Go" Disco Romance (Paper Bag)
Berlin - "Metro" Metro: Greatest Hits (Cleopatra)
M.I.A. - "Boyz" Kala (Interscope)
Chicks on Speed - "Mind Your Own Business" Will Save Us All (EFA)
Butter 08 - "9mm" S/T (Grand Royal)
The Cardigans - "Iron Man" First Band on the Moon (Mercury)
The Josephine Wiggs Experience - "Make Me Feel Like Doris Day" Bon Bon Lifestyle (Grand Royal)
Mirah and Spectratone International - "Love Song of the Fly" Share This Place (K Records)
Eleni Mandell - "Pauline" Thrill (Space Baby)
The Bellrays - "Voodoo Train" The Red, White & Black (Alternative Tentacles)
Puffy Ami Yumi - "Can-Nana Fever" V/A: I Love Guitar Wolf Very Much (Narnack)
Pretenders - "Tattooed Love Boys" S/T (Sire/Real Records)
Little Nell - "See You 'Round Like a Record" V/A: Songs From the Vaults - A Collection of Rocky Horror Rarities (Ode Records)
Poster Children - "Love" Daisychain Reaction (Twin/Tone)
Imperial Teen - "Sweet Potato" The Hair the TV the Baby & the Band (Merge)
Headlights - "So Much for the Afternoon" Some Racing, Some Stopping (Polyvinyl)
The New Pornographers - "Myriad Harbor" Challengers (Matador)
Carla Thomas - "How Do You Quit (Someone You Love)" V/A: The Complete Stax-Volt Singles Vol. 4 (Atlantic)
The Pipettes - "Really That Bad" Your Kisses Are Wasted on Me EP (Memphis Industries)
Nicole Willis and the Soul Investigators - "Feeling Free" Keep Reachin' Up (Light in the Attic)
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings - "Keep on Looking" 100 Days 100 Nights (Daptone)
The Cramps - "Journey to the Center of a Girl" How to Make a Monster (Vengeance)
Gore Gore Girls - "Sweet Potato" Get the Gore (Bloodshot)
The 5.6.7.8's - "She Was a Mau Mau" Bomb the Rocks (Giant Claw)
The Runaways - "Born to Be Bad" The Best of the Runaways (Mercury/PolyGram)
Sarah Shannon - "Fading Heart" City Morning Song (Minty Fresh)
Shannon Wright - "You Baffle Me" Let in the Light (Quarterstick)
Laura Veirs - "To the Country" Saltbreakers (Nonesuch)

Johnny Get Angry

I can't stop listening to "Johnny Get Angry" by Joanie Sommers. This is simultaneously both the best and the worst song in the world to me right now. Go take a moment and listen to it, if you please.

Seriously, it's like the smell of gasoline... you're not really supposed to like it, but you're still sometimes irresistably drawn to it. (Note: Kids, don't huff gas.)

Worst:
- Dude, the lyrics. Are you serious? I feel like a bad feminist for liking this song.

Best:
- Dude, the lyrics!
- It has an awesome bass line!
- There's a kazoo solo in the middle! A KAZOO SOLO.
- It's probably secretly about BDSM! (Ok, probably not, but it amuses me to think so.)
- It's really catchy and I can't get it out of my head! (Maybe that should be on the "Worst" list...)

Moral of the story: Just because a woman is singing doesn't necessarily mean it's a revolutionary act and/or a groundbreaking threat to the establishment. *coughlilithfaircough*

The lyrics, for posterity:

Johnny I said we were through
Just to see what you would do
You stood there, and hung your head
Made me wish that I were dead

Oh, Johnny get angry
Johnny get mad
Give me the biggest lecture I ever had
I want a brave man, I want a caveman
Johnny show me that you care, really care for me

Every time you dance with me,
You let Freddie cut in constantly
When he does, you never speak
Must you always be so meek?

Oh Johnny get angry,
Johnny get mad
Give me the biggest lecture I ever had
I want a brave man, I want a caveman
Johnny show me that you care, really care for me

Every girl wants someone who
She can always look up to
You know I love you, of course
Let me know that you're the boss

Oh Johnny get angry, Johnny get mad
Give me the biggest lecture I ever had
I want a brave man, I want a caveman
Johnny show me that you care, really care for me
Johnny, care for me, Johnny
Johnny Johnny Johnny Johnny...

WOW Setlist, 5/13/08

The Rondelles - "Tuesday Rock City" The Fox (Teenbeat)
Bratmobile - "The Real Janelle "The Real Janelle (Kill Rock Stars)
Puffy Ami Yumi - "Love So Pure" An Illustrated History (Bar None)
The Shangri-Las - "Give Him a Great Big Kiss" Myrmidons of Melodrama (RPM)
Blondie - "Union City Blue" Eat to the Beat (Chrysalis)
Mary Lou Lord - "His Indie World" S/T (Kill Rock Stars)
Dressy Bessy - "Just Like Henry" Pink Hearts Yellow Moons (Kindercore)
Lush - "Single Girl" Ciao! (4AD)
Metric - "Combat Baby" Old World Underground, Where are You Now? (Elgonix)
Pretty Girls Make Graves - "This is Our Emergency" The New Romance (Matador)
Saint Etienne - "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" Travel Edition 1990-2005 (Sub Pop)
Prototypes - "Je Ne Te Connais Pas" Prototypes (Minty Fresh)
Francois Hardy - "Tous les Garcons et les Filles" The "Yeh-Yeh" Girl From Paris! (Vogue)
The Magnetic Fields - "California Girls" Distortion (Nonesuch)
Imogen Heap - "I Am in Love With You" Speak for Yourself (RCA Victor)
Chicks on Speed - "Give Me Back My Man" Will Save Us All (EFA)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Date With the Night" Fever to Tell (Interscope)
The Smears - "Moms Rock" Love is Fer Suckers (Cargo)
Laura Veirs - "Ocean Night Song" Saltbreakers (Nonesuch)
Sarah Harmer - "Basement Apt." You Were Here (Zoe)
Loretta Lynn - "Have Mercy" Van Lear Rose (Interscope)
Kimya Dawsom - "My Rollercoaster" Remember That I Love You (K)
Scarlett Johanson - "I Don't Wanna Grow Up" Anywhere I Lay My Head (Rhino)
Death by Chocolate - "Cutoutgirlscout" Zap the World (Jetset)
Ex-Girl - "Pretty You Ugly" Endangered Species (Alternative Tentacles)
The Peechees - "Do the Math" Do the Math (Kill Rock Stars)
The Breeders - "Walk it Off" Mountain Battles (4AD)
The Reputation - "Face It" To Force a Fate (Lookout)

Prelude

Welcome to the official blog of the Women on Women music program!

Gosh, where do I start?

First of all, please allow us to introduce ourselves... We are the ladies of Women on Women, a weekly music program on WLUW in Chicago. The show showcases the best of women in all genres of music, and has been "putting the broad back in broadcasting" since its inception in 2001. We feel that women as a whole are underrepresented in the traditionally male-dominated music industry, and take pride in focusing on female musicians you might not hear elsewhere on the dial. WOW also brings you feminist news and politics, information about local shows and events, and of course, fabulously witty commentary on whatever else happens to tickle our fancy that week.

So why a blog? First of all, we're all long-winded and opinionated bitches. And since the show is primarily a MUSIC show, we don't always get to ramble on to our hearts' content. A space like this will allow us to do just that, hopefully in a manner that is both thought-provoking and entertaining. Secondly, we'd like to create a home-away-from home, so to speak, and stake out our own little corner of the internet where we can extend the message and the music of the show beyond our allotted two hours every Tuesday evening. Thirdly, we'd like to get more in-depth and expand what we're currently doing on-air, and bring you more of the WOW you've come to know and love.

In the coming weeks (and months... and, dare we say it... YEARS?), this is what you can expect to find here:

- Setlists from the radio show;
- Interviews with up and coming bands, musicians, and other movers-and-shakers in the world of independent music, arts, and underground culture;
- Announcements of upcoming shows and events, both local and national;
- Profiles of significant bands and/or women in the history of rock;
- Record reviews, show reviews, book reviews, new zoo reviews;
- Scholarly essays on women in music;
- Feminist news and events;
- In-depth political analysis and commentary;
- Random rants and raves;
- A legal feature from our resident lawyer-to-be;
- Special guest star bloggers;
- A fancypants new layout;
- Hot grrrl on grrrl action;
- And possibly even some podcasting! (Although we're still working out the kinks on that one.)

We're really excited to get started, so stay tuned!

(Oh, and if YOU'D like for us to interview and/or play your band on the show or the website, or announce your show/play/derby bout/bookreading/etsy site/whatever, leave a comment below or drop us a line at wowmusicchicago@gmail.com.)