• Album Reviews,  Band Information

    Brittany Howard. Thunderbitch.

    by Theresa Kulbaga Brittany Howard may be my very favorite contemporary woman in rock. I’m a long-time fan of the badass band Alabama Shakes, having written about them before for this magazine. And when I learned that Brittany Howard was embarking on a solo project, I was sold on the idea well before the album was done. Released in June 2019, Jaime is an album that showcases Howard’s powerful songwriting. The first track, “History Repeats,” has been nominated for two Grammy Awards for Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance. Maybe it’ll win. (In 2016, Alabama Shakes earned four Grammy nominations for their album Sound and Color and won three…

  • A Little Slice of History,  Band Information

    Lopin’ Along Thru the Cosmos with Forgotten Folk Genius Judee Sill

    By Theresa Kulbaga She was a 1970s folk-pop artist with long hair draped over her sweater. She had a one-of-a-kind voice, tinged with a charming, breathy lilt and a preference for underused vocables. She made poetry out of lyrics and guitar and piano. She liked the word “grim.” She is a favorite of Carrie Brownstein and many others—in fact, she had a major influence on the mainstream songwriting of the 1970s and beyond. Her first name begins with a swooping J. No, I’m not thinking of Joni Mitchell. Instead, I’m describing forgotten folk genius Judee Sill. Sill had glasses and a sharp, intelligent face. She was classically trained, a great…

  • Album Reviews,  Band Information

    Fatty Cakes and the Puff Pastries: A Grrrl Band Who Understands

    Take one listen to Fatty Cakes and the Puff Pastries’ eponymous album (released November 9 and produced by Alice Bag), with its playful synthesizers and insistent guitar and drums, and vulnerability will not be the first thing to come to mind. Take another listen, however, and you’ll realize that this is a grrrl band who understands. What do they understand? Panic attacks, for one thing: the opening track, “Panic Attack,” is an homage to anxiety in all its unpredictable terror. “I’m a weirdo, I’m a weirdo, I’m a weirdo, I’m a weirdo” captures the repetitive bully that is a negative thought that will not go away. They understand fear in…

  • Band Information

    A Country Music Appreciation All Thanks to Lucinda Williams

    I was never big on country music growing up… well aside from Johnny Cash because he is definitely a Krombholz family favorite. My dad, on the other hand, loves old country music and has been a fan of Lucinda Williams for a long time. I’m sure I’d heard her at some point or another growing up but I remember the first time I actually heard her. I was rewatching my favorite tv show, Alias, and the character Michael Vaughn goes into a dingy bar where “Righteously” is playing (Season 2, Episode 17 if you need to check it out). I remember thinking, “I need to hear more of this musician.”…

  • Artist Spotlight,  Band Information

    Them Are Us Too’s Kennedy Ashlyn Speaks on Bringing Amends to Light

    Them Are Us Too’s Bandcamp bio reads “femme 4 femme, sad 2 sad”, a description that summarizes the dreampop band’s sound perfectly. Their first Dais Records album, Remain, came out on March 24th, 2015, and the cult of TAUT formed around them. With Kennedy Ashlyn’s soaring, Kate Bush-esque vocals and Cash Askew’s reverb-drenched shoegaze guitar, they gifted endless femme energy to the indie rock world. Their music feels like unfolding a note from a high school friend about her deepest, darkest secrets—each emotion blown to cinematic proportions, inviting the listener to feel in ways they may have forgotten how. Tragically, Cash Askew passed away in December 2016 in the Oakland…

  • Artist Spotlight,  Band Information

    Interview with sludgegaze band WIPEOUT’s Cassie Tucker

    Wipeout – Optic Nerve (Official Video) from Cassie Tucker on Vimeo. Take a bag of glitter, your favorite sugary cereal, and cavernous pedals–crunch it by hand all together in a mixing bowl, and you have the Baltimore band Wipeout. The sludgegaze music of Cassie Tucker and Kayla Goldstein walks a line between hauntingly cinematic and playful glee. And with one single and an album out–the 2017 ripper titled Milkbird recorded by Alex Zhu–Wipeout shows no chance of stopping. I found the band through tattooist Tucker’s visual art on Instagram (@sllackula), which instantly drew me in: neon colors everywhere, psychedelic creatures and humans, and childhood nostalgia tinted with cheeky evil. I…

  • Band Information

    Pussy Riot: “Show Them Your Freedom!”

    If you followed the news coverage of the 2012 arrest and trial of three members of Pussy Riot, the Russian feminist punk collective, then you know that Nadia, Masha, and Katia are not the only women in the group, even if they are the most famous. Pussy Riot is one part punk music, one part performance art, and one part guerrilla feminism. Members refer to the band as “they,” refuse to give details about their activities, and perform in colorful balaclavas to protect their anonymity. They perform spontaneously and in guerrilla fashion in public spaces in Moscow, such as beauty salons, prison rooftops and, of course, church altars. Pussy Riot…

  • Artist Spotlight,  Band Information

    The Venus Flytraps: We Met in a Dream

    The Venus Flytraps (Cleveland, Ohio) chats with Women in Rock about animal language, biker bars, and wanting to do everything. Your first EP, Clamp Down, was released on Quality Time Records just last year. Congrats! When and how did you start playing together? In the spring of 2016, we met in a dream. Besides a mutual fascination with all things other-worldly we are drawn together inexplicably and irresistibly and now here we are.   Can you describe your sound in your own words? Rock n roll from the midwestern jungle.   Do you have a favorite song or lyric from your album? (Personally, I love the title track and “Cherry…