Rock 'n' Roll 'n' Blues Women!

Simone Odaranile is an English session drummer, part of the indie-rock band The Go! Team.
Simone has signed with Rina Sawayama as her touring drummer with her Dynasty Tour (2021–22), and has also been a part of various live performances of Sawayama in 2020/2021, including the performance of "XS" at The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in October 2020

Vic Cheung Mun Sun Jamieson is a British-Chinese guitarist based in London.^[1] Jamieson is biracial, her mom is Chinese and her dad is English. She is a session guitarist, and toured with major artists like Mahalia and Jvck James.

Jamieson has worked with Rina Sawayama several times, including as the main guitarist on her Dynasty Tour (2021-22). She was also credited as a composer and guitarist on Sawayama's single "This Hell", from her forthcoming album Hold the Girl (2022).

The Go-Go’s aren’t in the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame. It’s a fact repeated quite a few times in Alison Ellwood’s documentary on the titular band, and “The Go-Go’s” doesn’t just lift the veil on the Los Angeles punk band-turned-pop goddesses but also attempts to cast an eye on the misogyny of a music industry that hasn’t given the band their due. “The Go-Go’s” lit the world on fire, and while Ellwood’s documentary might not do the same thing, it’s a great crash course.

...
The band members that comprised the original Go-Go’s lineup were teenage girls looking to avoid conforming to the norm. Lead singer Belinda Carlisle was a perky blonde cheerleader who had no problem cutting her hair short and dyeing it black. The core group of bandmembers all saw themselves as misfits, in spite of their looks, and as they navigated a punk landscape that thrived on non-conformity the band soon realized they were at a disadvantage.

As the band recounts their travels to Europe, they found themselves performing in a series of clubs frequented by white supremacists. To hear them tell it, it was a horrifying nightmare of being spit on, berated and ridiculed, not just because they were Americans, but because they were women. Ellwood doesn’t focus overtly on sexism, but leaves it on the margins. Whether being told to bare their breasts at a show or teased up to be beauty queens in their music videos, The Go-Go’s were always aware of how they were sold as sex objects. The lack of respect from the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame almost reinforces that without strictly saying it.

...

Of course, the arrival of fame changes everything, and it does take “The Go-Go’s” down a familiar, VH1 “Behind the Music” path. Carlisle and Jane Wiedlin are the most recognizable members of the band, with Charlotte Caffey being credited as songwriter for most of their material. But where “The Go-Go’s” sticks out is in the names you don’t know, like drummer Gina Shock. Shock steals every interview she does with her tough talk and uncompromising attitude. Shock discusses being one of the oft-forgotten members of the band, as drummers often are, but her eventual fallout from the band showcases how much in-fighting was taking place behind the scenes.MORE

Members

Nakano Miho – Vocals/Guitar
Araya Tomomi – Guitar
Oda Mamiko – Bass
Ishikawa Minako – Drums

Former

Okuyama Reika – Drums
Ishibashi Wakano – Keyboard

The original five band members were high school students in Sapporo when they formed the band in 2009. They changed drummers in 2017 and their keyboardist left in 2018. (official site: drops-official.com)

At the moment Drop’s style seems to be changing, though one consistent in their music is that is their sound tends to evoke styles of the sixties and seventies. The song in the above video —こわして— has a loose, grungy, rough-edged sound reminiscent of Patti Smith’s 1976 punk ballad Pissing in a River. Drop’s latest release —毎日がラブソング—is an upbeat song that feels much more ‘pop’. The new style is more accessible, but the arrangement, particularly the horn parts, still has a retro feel, which is a signature feature of band’s sound. When introducing performers they admire, the band members tend to name-check performers from bygone eras (e.g. Little Richard, Elvis, The Beatles, Chet Baker, Link Wray, Earl Palmer, Janis Joplin) or performers who have stylistic roots in the past (e.g., Tom Waits, The Black Keys). These influences come through in the the retro feel of many of the band’s songs.

Guitarist Yoshi and vocalist Rami formed Aldious in Osaka in June 2008.^[3] The name Aldious was created by Rami shortening the phrase "Ultimate Melodious."^[8] In November they took part in the compilation album Red Hot Burning Hell Vol.16,^[9] soon after which guitarist Ruki and bassist Sawa left. In January 2009, Toki and Kaze joined as guitarist and bassist respectively, later the band released their debut four-track EP Dear Slave on November 7.^[9] Kaze left in December, and drummer Aruto joined in January 2010. March saw the return of Sawa on bass and around this time Aldious formed their own record label, Bright Star Records.^[9] Their first single "Defended Desire", released July 7, reached the number 4 position on Oricon's Indies chart and number 49 on its regular chart.^[9][10] In April, Bright Star became a sublabel of Spinning and the band released their debut album Deep Exceed on October 13, 2010.^[3] It reached number 15 on the charts.^[11];MORE

Big Joanie is the sort of band you get to a show early for. In the past three years, the London-based group has self-released three rough-hewn EPs on their own imprint, Sistah Punk, each one featuring songs that blend tangling post-punk guitar lines, spit-shined hooks, and a “sprinkling,” Chardine says, of black liberation politics. Their most recent EP’s knotty title track, “Crooked Room,” took inspiration from a lecture by Seattle-born writer Melissa Harris-Perry, who compared life as a black woman in a white patriarchy to trying to find a true vertical in a room where all the angles are out of whack. “That’s exactly what it is,” Steph Phillips, Big Joanie’s lead vocalist and guitarist, says when we meet in a cozy cafe near South London’s Caribbean Brixton Market. “[Society] distorts the world around us to try and make us see things not as they are, or to try and make us fail.”

...
On stage, Steph has a serene focus and a deep, assured singing voice. But she admits to a natural reserve, explaining that she lived vicariously through the riot grrrl music she devoured as a teenager in the middle England town of Wolverhampton. “As a very shy person, I loved hearing someone else stand up for themselves,” she says. A couple of hours away across the Midlands, the outgoing, quick-to-laugh Chardine grew up nurturing a love for Nirvana in Kettering, the town “where all the fucking government parties do their research for middle England.” In London, bassist Estella Adeyeri was listening to British alternative radio station XFM — “back when it wasn’t just blokey music,” she says. MORE

On the international scene, female rockers have always had a niche. But try going on a quest for women in rock bands in India, and you would encounter only a few.The female vocalists, of those there is shortage. But the women who make the sound behind the vocals? Ah there you have us. Says guitar teacher Rupert Fernandes, "Female rockers are as good as non-existent. This could have a lot to do with the fact that being in a rock band involves being on the road a majority of the time, and practising late hours may not be so easy for women. Also, holding the crowd together at a rock show could get challenging."

While rock band Scribe's bassist, Srinivas,

Scribe @ Independence Rock XXII Finals

Scribe - 1234 Dracula live at blue FROG - 5th September, 2010

feels "women may be shy", Exhumation's guitarist Prashant Shah says, "There are hardly any men in the country who listen to rock these days, so women rock fans are even more scarce, let alone being band members."

But let that not fool you. Across India, female rockers are increasingly making their presence felt. Take Yasmin Kazi,

Yasmin Claire from Myndsnare

drummer of Bangalore's progressive death metal band Myndsnare. She says the initial reaction when the crowds saw her was of scepticism. '"What's a girl gonna' drum for a death metal band', they asked," she says. "Or 'What's that singer chick doing behind the kit'?" But after five years of showing the country her double bass skills, even professional drummers across the country quiver when they watch her play.

Myndsnare - Raining blood.mpg

Gino Banks, a sessions drummer, insists she is the best drummer in India for that genre.


( Read more... )