Rock critic Ellen Willis' work has been collected into a book

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Sex, Hope & Rock’n'roll: Ellen Willis and Pop Critique

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Rock is, among other things, a potent means of expressing the active emotions--anger, aggression, lust, the joy of physical exertion--that feed all freedom movements, and it is no accident that women musicians have been denied access to this powerful musical language." So wrote Ellen Willis in June of 1974, when the acclaimed feminist thinker and cultural critic was working as the Rock, Etc. columnist at the New Yorker.

A new book of Willis's rock criticism is out now, titled Out Of The Vinyl Deeps and edited by her daughter, Nona Willis Aronowitz, and this weekend a conference at New York University will celebrate her work as a pop culture thinker and writer. Nona joins Laura in studio with Drexel University professor Devon Powers to discuss Willis's influence and ideas.

Women who drum: Patty Schemel of Hole

[the_future_modernes]

'Hit So Hard' has Patty Schemel out from behind her drumset

Patty Schemel has played with some of the best bands of the last three decades. The out drummer has been on the kits for Hole, Bastard (a short-lived supergroup with Courtney Love, Louise Post and Gina Crosley), Imperial Teen and Juliette and the Licks. And luckily, she's brought a camera with her to recording sessions, backstage areas and into the studio. It was only right that she'd hand over the hours of footage to some capable friends (including director P. David Ebersole) to make a movie out of it.

Hit So Hard Trailer

Q&A: Patty Schemel is Alive and Kick-drumming