Flashback Review: Bratmobile: Ladies, Women, and Girls [B+]

Artist: Bratmobile

Album: Ladies, Women, and Girls

Released: 2000

Label: Lookout! Records

Genre: punk / riot grrrl

Purchase date: 2 Mar 2011

Format: mp3 files

Source: eMusic

I first heard of the riot grrrl punk movement in 1991 when I was a senior in college. A friend of mine who was a self-described radical lesbian feminist was playing Bikini Kill's self-titled record, and when I said I liked it and asked who it was, she dubbed me a cassette copy. That cassette is long gone, but I always had a soft spot for fiery female-led rock. Then Sound Opinions did a brief retrospective of riot grrrl in March of this year, and I bought this album by the other American exemplar of riot grrrl, Bratmobile.

Ladies, Women, and Girls was released by Bratmobile in 2000, seven years after the band's debut, and a year after the band re-formed after a five-year hiatus. The band retained its energy and message espousing female empowerment, and it's a whole lot of fun. Bratmobile would release only one more studio album in 2003 before disbanding.

Rating: B+

Album listing at Amazon

Album listing at eMusic

"Eating Toothpaste" official video

Review: Titus Andronicus: The Monitor [A-]

Artist: Titus Andronicus

Album: The Monitor

Released: March 2010

Label: XL Recordings

Genre: punk / alternative rock

Purchase date: 7 June 2010

Format: mp3 files

Source: eMusic

You can't fault this New Jersey-based punk band of lacking ambition. Their sophomore release, The Monitor, is of all things a loose concept album that uses the American Civil War as running metaphor. The music is brash and raw, but the songs themselves are extremely well-crafted, with wonderful melody and clever lyrics. The emotions of the music really carry this record: the highs are high and the lows are low. There's a wryness in the lyric, as if they're at once extremely serious and winking at the camera. They paraphrase their local hero Bruce Springsteen in the opening track, singing, "Tramps like us, baby we were born to die." This music is as subtle as a fist to the jaw, and man, can they rock out, with nods to '70s arena rock and the LA hardcore scene.

There's a joy to this music along with the anger, and that joy is infectious.

Rating: A-

Official video for "A More Perfect Union"

Album listing on Amazon

Artist not currently available from eMusic