Women on Women Setlist, 8/22/08

Loretta Lynn - "Porland Oregon" Van Lear Rose (Interscope)
Imogen Heap - "Daylight Robbery" Speak for Yourself (RCA Victor)
The Raveonettes - "My Heartbeat's Dying" Lust Lust Lust (Vice)
Sally Shapiro - "I Know" Disco Romance (Paper Bag)
The Go! Team - "Universal Speech" Proof of Youth (Sub Pop)
M.I.A. - "Boyz" Kala (Interscope)

Interview with Heather and Jan from Girls Rock! Chicago
Selections from the Girls Rock! Chicago CD compilation:
Screaming Candy - "Rock Candy"
Jagged Tulips - "Simple"
Never Knows Best - "We're Not the Same"
Hot Pink Streaks - "Spitting Venom"
The Sandstorm Girls - "AHHHHHH!"
This year's camp is happening July 28th through August 3rd, at the Inter-American Magnet School. There will be an end of camp show at the Metro on Saturday, August 2nd, at 3pm. Come by and check out the campers' bands!

Mates of State - "Help Help" Re-Arrange Us (Barsuk)
The New Pornographers - "All the Old Showstoppers" Challengers (Matador)
Office - "If You Don't Know By Now" A Night At the Ritz (Scratchie/New Line)
The 1900s - "Bring the Good Boys Home" Plume Delivery (Parasol)
Free Kitten - "Oh Bondage Up Yours!" Unboxed (Pearl Necklace)
Run On - "We'll Play House" Days Away 7" (Ajax)
Tsunami - "Flameproof Suit" World Tour and Other Destinations (Simple Machines)
Breeders - "Stop Whispering" Pod Demos
Chicks on Speed - "We Don't Play Guitars (feat. Peaches)" 99 Cents (Chicks on Speed Records)
Halo of Kitten - "I Hate Porn" Porn Soundtrack 7" (1 of 4) (Amphetamine Reptile)
Bang! Bang! - "All Nite" Do You Like It? (Heads Up)
Petra Hayden - "I Can See For Miles" Petra Hayden Sings: The Who Sell Out (Bar None)

Thanks to Jan and Heather from Girls Rock! Chicago for being our special guests tonight! Don't forget to check out the GR!C website for more information on how to help support Chicago's own rock 'n' roll camp for girls. 

Watch Pitchfork Festival From Your Home, Plus Tips From WOW On Festival-Going

For those of you not lucky enough to get tickets to this weekend's Pitchfork Festival, they've just announced that you can watch many sets for free online from the Pitchfork Festival Live Stream. Right now there is some archival footage from the last two years up.

If you are braving the heat and the crowds, take it easy so you don't get overtired or heatstroke. Some tips from personal experience:

• There's not a lot of shade at the park, so load up on sunblock and reapply regularly. No one likes a lobster, unless its on your dinner plate. Of all the sunblocks I've tried, this one is my all time favorite - non-greasy, long-lasting, no weird scents.
  
  
• Drink water. Drink water. Drink water. Alternate one beer, one water. We're serious about this folks. Don't be the guy who passes out and whose friends have to take them to the emergency room and miss the festival.
  
  
• Wear earplugs. No doubt there will be plenty of folks at the festival selling or giving away cheapie ones, but for future reference check out Chicago woman-owned business Ear Love, who sell inexpensive yet high quality reusable earplugs. I've been wearing them for years.
  
  
• Take a break from the music and sunshine occasionally by walking around the vendors booths. Our top picks - the Chicago Independent Radio Project's Record Fair, DEPART-ment's collection of handmade crafts, and the Flatstock poster show.
  

See you at the festival!

WOW Favorite Kate Havnevik's New Video for "Unlike Me"

Whenever we play anything by Norweigan artist Kate Havnevik on our radio show, we always get phone calls asking us who she is. A classically-trained guitarist from Oslo, Kate joined an all girl punk band as a young teen, and then later struck out on her own with more eclectic songwriting. She co-owns Continentica Records, and with only one album out so far, we're certain this is just the start of a long career.

We thought we'd start your weekend off with the video for "Unlike Me", which is just creepy enough to match her haunting voice. Enjoy!

Fighting For A Fighting Chance: The Gardasil Controversy

Imagine your mom, your sister, or your best friend sitting you down this weekend at lunch. "I have something to tell you," she says. "I have cervical cancer." Your mind races through emotions - sadness, fear, anger - and you mentally calculate how long before you can get on the Internet and start googling all about cervical cancer. When you do hit up the information superhighway, the news isn't great. Although five year relative survival rates are up, now to about 72% overall, the disease is still quite devastating. Survivors can expect treatment to include a combination of surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy, all of which can come with serious side effects, including reduced or eliminated fertility. You do the math on survival statistics, have a margarita, accompany your mom/sister/friend to the hospital, light some candles and hope for the best.

What if, though, 70% to 80% of those conversations could be avoided? It's possible that science has finally produced a way to nearly eliminate cervical cancer. Presently, it's estimated that 70 - 80% of cervical cancer cases are caused by HPV, or the human papilloma virus. The most common sexually transmitted infection, HPV is present in about 80% of American women by the age of 50. Gardasil, a new vaccine, prevents four strains of HPV, which account for about 70% of all cancers. Widespread vaccination efforts of pre-teen girls could potentially eliminate or at least drastically reduce cervical cancer within a generation.

So what's the hold up? Gardasil was approved in June of 2006, and has been on the market since then for girls and women between the ages of 9 and 26. Merck, the makers of the vaccine, were seeking to expand approval for women ages 26 to 45, as well as boys and men, but the FDA denied that request last week, citing concerns that could not be resolved in the approval time frame. Merck plans to respond to the FDA by the end of July and try again.

In the meantime, the vaccine has run into other problems. Some religious conservatives have opposed vaccinations because they believe it will encourage promiscuity in teen girls, and one group has used reports of side effects to bolster its claim of the vaccine's danger. We did a little digging and went to a country that's been using Gardasil for much longer than the U.S. to find out - was Gardasil unsafe? Kate Benson and Ian Munro of Australia's Sydney Morning Herald report that there have been very few complaints in Australia. Indeed, they uncover that the conservative groups opposing vaccination may be manipulating the data to imply causality that does not exist.

So if you can't get Gardasil, what can you do? Make sure you get your yearly pap test to detect HPV and cervical cancer. If you are uninsured and living in Illinois, you may be eligible for free cancer screenings from the Illinois Breast and Cervical Cancer Program. Don't delay - every day a cancer is undected is a a day wasted!

Radio Show Setlist for 7/15/08 - Every Tuesday Night on WLUW 88.7

Kim - "Bottle Rocket" S/T (S/R)
Bebel Gilberto - "Samba de Bancao" Tanto Tempo (Ziriguiboom/6 Degrees)
Portishead - "The Rip" Third (Island)
Azure Ray - "How You Remember" Burn and Shiver (Warm)
Kristen Hersh - "A Cleaner Light" A Cleaner Light EP (4AD)
The B-52's - "Song for a Future Generation" Nude on the Moon: The B-52's Anthology (Rhino)
Edith Massey - "Punks Get Off the Grass" Punks Get Off the Grass/Big Girls Don't Cry 7" (Egg Records)
All Girl Summer Fun Band - "Grass Skirt" Summer of '98 (Magic Marker)
Yo La Tengo - "How to Make a Baby Elephant Float" Summer Sun (Matador)
Francoise Hardy - "Oh Oh Cheri" The "Yeh-Yeh" Girl From Paris! (Vogue)
Stereolab - "Perversion" Peng! (Too Pure)
Electrelane - "After the Call" No Shouts, No Calls (Too Pure)
The Shangri-Las - "Remember (Walkin' in the Sand)" Myrmidons of Melodrama (RPM)
The Ting Tings - "That's Not My Name" We Started Nothing (Columbia)
Lush - "Single Girl" Ciao! (4AD)
Puffy Ami Yumi - "Go Baby Power Now" Splurge (Tofu)
Mates of State - "The Re-arranger" Re-Arrange Us (Barsuk)
Ssion - "The Woman" Fool's Gold (Sleazetone)
Growing Up Skipper - "V.I." Use Only as Directed 7" (The Making of Americans)
Gravy Train!!!! - "Laffin' All the Way... to the Bank" Hello Doctor (Kill Rock Stars)
J+J+J - "Skeeball Vs. The Mall" They Hump While We Go Nuts (Johann's Face/Circle Machine)
Ladytron - "Runaway" Velocifero (Nettwork)
Tilly & the Wall - "Falling Without Knowing" O (Team Love)
The Pipettes - "Guess Who Ran Off With the Milkman?" Your Kisses Are Wasted on Me EP (Memphis Industries)
Erase Errata - "Marathon" Other Animals (Troubleman Unlimited)
Ike & Tina Turner - "A Fool in Love" River Deep Mountain High (A&M)
PJ Harvey - "Happy and Bleeding" Dry (Island)
Essential Logic - "Collecting Dust" Fanfare in the Garden (Kill Rock Stars)

The Gits Documentary Released

Fifteen years ago last week, Mia Zapata, the lead singer of promising Seattle band The Gits, was at the top of her game. Her band was being noticed by more than just friends, they had toured Europe on their own ambition, and they had what seemed like a long career ahead of them. Those dreams were dashed in minutes when Mia was brutally raped and murdered by a stranger while walking home from a night out with friends.

Her murder remained unsolved for many years, and was even featured on shows like Unsolved Mysteries and 48 Hours, with little result. Desperate for answers, her band mates and friends raised money for their own private investigator to keep the case alive, and created a non-profit organization, Home Alive, which provides self-defense classes and education to this day.

As the years went by and it seemed hope was fading more each passing year, a sudden break came in 2003 when DNA analysis technology had progressed enough to allow cold case investigators to match DNA left on Mia's body to Jesus Mezquia, a man with a history of violence towards women who lived three blocks away from the murder scene at the time. Mezquia was convicted the following year and is currently serving out a thirty-six year sentence in Washington state.

Last week, in honor of the fifteenth anniversary of Mia's murder, a feature documentary film, The Gits was released. Documenting the rise and tragic end of this legendary Seattle band, The Gits has already won many awards and screenings are taking place across the country this summer and fall. Venus Zine has a heartbreaking interview with The Gits' drummer Steve Moriarty, wherein he expresses that finally, fifteen years later, he can move on - here's hoping all of Mia's friends and family find some closure.

Now That's What I Call Indie Media: Community Supported Publisher South End Press

Thanks to Lisa Jervis at Bitch Magazine, who turned me onto South End Press this week with her post about their recent troubles staying in business. Like many independent media outlets, South End Press is struggling with delayed and missing payments from larger organizations like Borders (R.I.P. Punk Planet),  and is asking their community members for help.

I headed on over to South End's website to see what Lisa was so riled up about, and that's when I discovered their Community Supported Publishing program, the first of its kind that I know of. Based off the Community Supported Agriculture programs that have raised awareness and support for sustainable local farming, the Community Supported Publishing program aims to do the same for books. For a monthly donation, members receive all new titles as well as select back list and bestsellers.

And what a catalog is is! Forthcoming titles like Breeding A Nation by Pamela Bridgewater, current new releases like Scott Kellogg and Stacy Pettigrew's Toolbox for Sustainable City Living, and back catalog releases like the classic Ain't I A Woman by bell hooks and Signed, Sealed and Delivered: The True Life Stories of Women In Pop by Sue Steward and Sheryl Garratt all caught my attention.

South End Press is currently in the running for a $10,000 prize from Ideablob, so take a minute and show your love with a vote, and help keep independent media alive!