Supporters of GIRL POWER, Scarlett Johansson is on your side! Johansson, one of the Haim sisters, and 3 other “girls” have formed The Singles. They’re a “girl group,” made entirely of “girls.” This is so cool! Check it out! Continue reading »
Should we make this a “ladies only” All-Star Jam? Nah, that wouldn’t be fair. Feel free to add whatever’s on your mind.
Jack White‘s new solo album, Blunderbuss, has been promoted by performances featuring an all-female backing band. For his appearance on Saturday Night Live, for instance, he performed one song backed by his women and one song backed by his dudes. The discussion I hope to explore in no way is meant to question the qualifications of either of his backing bands. What I’d like to discuss is how these promotional efforts—and based on White’s long career built on exquisite “branding” there can be no denying that his new band of “Jack’s Angels” is not part of his latest promotional campaign—play for you, especially the legion of women who often lurk here in the Halls of Rock.
Townswomen, when you see a Jack White (or a Prince—this seems like something he’s done) backed by an all-women band for the launch of a new album do you feel that more of a sincere support of sisterhood or a Fellini-esque male fantasy is at play? In other words, is there a part of you that wonders whether this a legitimate version of this?
Will Your Mystery Date Be a Dream or a Dud?
So our ’90s-era Mystery Date was California-born and -based singer-guitarist Barbara Manning, who’s released records as a solo artist and a member of various bands, including SF Seals (ie, the “local baseball team” ladymisskirroyale referred to) and the World of Pooh. These songs are from a collaboration called Barbara Manning Sings With the Original Artists she did Stuart Moxham of Young Marble Giants (who accompanies her on the first track, “When I Dream”) and Jon Langford of The Mekons (on the second Mystery Date track, “Gold Brick”), among others. You probably know the varying sounds of The Mekons. Young Marble Giants is one of those bands that you may have heard of but never actually heard. Here’s a Young Marble Giants track that showcases Moxham’s guitar style:
Who says female-fronted bands can’t tap into the Power & Glory? As one of the YouTube commentators wrote:
how can you listen to todays fucked up shit after watching this clip…
Sounds of the Hall in roughly 33 1/3 minutes!
In tonight’s edition of Saturday Night Shut-In, Mr. Moderator calls on The Power & Glory of Rock to remind him that it’s all right. Along the way he predicts that 2011 will be The Year of the Female-Fronted Band. Finally, a recently pardoned listener emerges from lord knows where to confirm that the show’s request line has finally been repaired.
[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/RTH-Saturday-Night-Shut-In-13.mp3|titles=RTH Saturday Night Shut-In, episode 13][Note: The Rock Town Hall feed will enable you to easily download Saturday Night Shut-In episodes to your digital music player. In fact, you can even set your iTunes to search for an automatic download of each week’s podcast.]
