"Don't Need You": A Herstory of Riot Grrrl

"Don't Need You": A Herstory of Riot Grrrl may be my favourite music documentary - top four for sure. It randomly popped into my mind, and I decided to search YouTube for a trailer I could post. What I found was far better than a trailer: I found the whole damned film.

Since a couple of years ago, Riot Grrrl has been one of my favourite musical movements, due largely in part to this approximately thirty-nine-minute mini-documentary by Kerri Koch. I like Riot Grrrl for an obvious reason: it's simultaneously punk and twee (at least a handful of Bratmobile songs are twee). But Riot Grrrl is also probably the only musical movement the social/political ethics and aesthetics (redundant?) of which have ever interested me (besides male-dominated punk's D.I.Y. philosophy, which Riot Grrrl shares, and Straight-Edge movement); maybe it's my disdain for most things typically "male" or just macho "male" culture in general. That's not so abnormal coming from a guy. Hell, Ian MacKaye (Minor Threat and Fugazi front person and all-around punk icon) was a huge proponent of Riot Grrrl.

Anyway, I don't want to repeat any of my university essays, so just enjoy the documentary.

There’s Fun, There’s the Time of Your Life, and Then There’s Andrew W.K.

November 26, 2011
The Rickshaw Theatre
Vancouver, British Columbia

Spurred by news of New York party-monster Andrew W.K.'s upcoming I Get Wet tenth anniversary show on March 3 at the Venue, I decided it was time I got my ass in gear and finished recapping his show at the Rickshaw Theatre at the end of last November.

My roommate at the time and I arrived at the Rickshaw just as Andrew was starting the second song in his arsenal of keys-and-guitar-driven party metal (so said the guy working the door). My roommate went to get us drinks while I tore through the crowd to get as close to the front as possible; surprisingly, my roommate, who ended up pounding both of our drinks because we got split up, ended up finding me in the mayhem.

Andrew W.K. was, in many ways, the epitome of a great show: a place where and time when complete strangers can get together and for an hour or so are best friends in the world because they're all there for the same thing: their love of Andrew W.K.

Andrew W.K. was another one of those shows where people could go completely limp without worrying about collapsing onto the floor and getting trampled to death because they're squished between equally sweaty bodies in a gigantic, hoarded, soggy mess. With zero energy required to remain upright, I was able to completely focus on enjoying the show as I floated in a nearly weightless state, swaying back and forth as the audience churned as a single sweaty organism.

I was having enough fun (and drunk enough) that I would have jumped on stage and maybe even crowd-surfed (likely not though). But as hard as I tried, I just couldn't push past the two or three people in front of me. Also, a guy named Steve beat me to it. Lucky dog. Considering I almost lost my glasses twice just by having been in the crowd (they cartoonishly bounced around my hands as I madly tried to grab ahold of them), it was probably a good thing I didn't jump on stage ... I'm so hardcore. I felt just like Milhouse when he was forced to evade a fed by jumping down a dam:



My roommate always imagined me at shows as Milhouse after Milhouse and Bart saw Spinal Tap:

"... Heeelllp ... Help! ..."

I've rarely had as much fun at a show as I did at Andrew W.K., yet I hesitate to call him the fifth best show I've ever been to, if only because his set seemed really short and maybe because he fell juusst slightly below my expectations: he actually wasn't as social with the crowd as I'd expected, he didn't have a full band, and he had an unnecessary, at times annoying hype-man. I forget his name and don’t care to look it up, but I believe he was the night's opening act.

Maybe it was the alcohol that made Andrew's set seem so short, but overall, I didn't mind too much because the show was so much fucking fun - so much fun that I was almost immediately able to get over my disappointment that all he had on stage was a dinky keyboard which he played to pre-recorded tracks.

I, unlike my roommate who'd never heard Andrew W.K. before I played some of Andrew's songs a couple of hours before the show, had high expectations, and despite the show's shortcomings, it was still one of the most fun concerts I'd ever seen. That certainly says something about Andrew Wilkes Krier's showmanship. I can't imagine how fun his upcoming I Get Wet tenth anniversary show is going to be, especially since he'll be playing I Get Wet in its entirety with his entire band, and Vancouver staple/music guru Nardwuar the Human Serviette's band the Evaporators will be opening. PARTY HARD!!!

Hehehehehehehehe.

So 90s. So Awesome.

Re-listening to Liz Phair's best-of-list-topping 1993 album Exile in Guyville (Matador Records) was another instance in which I wondered, "How the hell did I ever not like this?" Maybe I've come around to it because I've been jamming on other angsty alt-rockers such as PJ Harvey and the more contemporary Sharon Van Etten lately. Ah, ignorant youth (because I'm so grizzled now, right?). And hey, blog author trivia: Exile in Guyville was released on my birthday. Woop-woop!

Here's another one of my favourite songs from Exile in Guyville album-opener "6'1"":

Tom Jones. Jack White. Howlin' Wolf.

Jack White teams with Tom Jones to cover Howlin' Wolf's "Evil" and Frankie Lane's "Jezebel" in the latest installment of Third Man Records' Blue Series. Listen to White's and Jones' version of "Evil" at Consequence of Sound.

White Stripes' Haircut

I was always disappointed there was no longer, better quality version of the White Stripes' cover of "Devil's Haircut" by Beck. Oh, well. Maybe their cover being so short is a good thing, making me want to (and allowing me to) listen to it over and over again. And the quality isn't too bad, but it'd just be nice to have a cleaner version as well:

Cool Week For Best Coast

First, they were hand-picked by Metallica to play a music festival curated by the metal legends despite Best Coast guitarist and lead-singer Bethany Cosentino having trashed the Metallica/Lou Reed album Lulu. Second, Best Coast was featured as a question on Jeopardy's latest college week show: