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<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nIn this far-reaching anthology, David Ensminger<\/a> delves underground to explore the oft-overlooked community of badass women who shaped the punk scene. There is a common thread of women being excluded and gatekept from hardcore music; this book shows that women have been able to overcome those barriers, kick ass, and shred with the best of them. Biographies, interviews, band anecdotes, and never-before-published photos showcase the talent and artistry of bands like Bikini Kill, the Guttersluts, Bratmobile, Spitboy, the Germs, the Slits, and dozens more. With its intimate aesthetic analysis and raw, zine-like presentation, this is an essential resource for anyone looking to discover, rediscover, and cherish punk history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read on for a sneak peek at\u00a0the new foreword by Katy Otto<\/a> of Trophy Wife and Exotic Fever Records! <\/em>Punk Women: 40 Years of Musicians Who Built Punk Rock<\/a> is available to order from our site or find with your local bookseller.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n It matters so much to see yourself represented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I grew up in the DC metropolitan area. I fell in love with music at an early age and this love grew to a fever pitch in high school. When I felt alienated, or depressed, or loney, I would lock myself in my room with Tori Amos, Nirvana, or Hole blasting. I would make audio cassettes of my favorite radio programs, and would record MTV’s 120 Minutes on VHS tapes to rewind and playback again and again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At sixteen, my friends and I began putting on our own shows with local bands in VFW halls and church basements. I went to my first Fugazi show, and my world opened up. I had begun playing drums after going to Lollapalooza 1995 and seeing the inimitable Patty Schemel from Hole. Watching her play drums was the single most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life. I wanted to access that strength and power, and it was seeing another woman do so that made me feel inspired and encouraged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It turns out I was very lucky to live in the DC metropolitan area as a teenager. Our music scene was extraordinary, the stuff of legends\u2014and it was populated heavily by some of the most impressive, prolific, and accessible women imaginable. Punk in DC was fueled by women. They were front and center\u2014writing zines, playing in bands, putting out records, curating shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I formed my first band Bald Rapunzel with another teenage girl, Bonnie Schlegel. We’d play together in that band for five years, touring the country, releasing records, and eventually founding our own record label with our other friend Sara Klemm in 2000. Bonnie named it Exotic Fever Records to connote that which is infectious and rare. Bonnie came up with the idea to start a label\u2014 she believed strongly in a number of bands and wanted to do all she could to help them get a fair shot at gaining an audience. She enlisted my help, and we looped Sara Klemm in too. However, we didn’t exactly know how to run a record label\u2014 and that is where the amazing women of DC punk would come in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kim Coletta, interviewed in this book, was our mentor. She answered our phone calls, spent tremendous time with us, and walked us through various processes with a generosity of spirit which was unmatched\u2014all while her own band Jawbox was signing to a major label and touring, and while she was running her own label DeSoto. In Kim, we saw someone to aspire to. We knew that women and girls controlling the means of production for punk and DIY culture mattered. She helped us to feel confident and like we belonged. We also had great resources created by Kristin Thomson and Jenny Toomey, two women in our community who ran the label Simple Machines and put out a zine that served as a guide to how to put out your own seven inch. We were encouraged in our own band by Kathy Cashel and Jen Semo, two brilliant musicians from our favorite band Norman Mayer Group who came out to our shows to cheer us on. Everywhere we looked, women in our community were making things happen, and were helping the younger women coming after them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Early on, Seventeen Magazine contacted Dischord Records, where Kim also worked, and asked if they knew of any young women running record labels. They mentioned us, and we were featured in the magazine. This helped us to grow our project. In 2020, Exotic Fever Records celebrated twenty years with a virtual festival streamed worldwide. We’ve released over 65 items to date, including five benefit compilations raising funds for the DC Books to Prisons, Vietnam Veterans of America Benefits Program, Compassion Over Killing, the District Alliance for Safe Housing, and Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive. Over time, young women and girls began asking us questions\u2014and we tried to pay it forward by helping them as much as we could.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am thrilled at the release of this book, which tells the story of many women from the punk and DIY community. I remember the thrill I felt as a young woman seeing The Muffs, and how heartbroken I was to hear of the passing of their legendary frontwoman Kim Shattuck in 2019. We hear from her here. I was awestruck years ago to play a show with Mecca Normal with my own band Trophy Wife, and as I near my 43rd birthday I am grateful to hear from Jean Smith about the ways in which older women are received in the subculture\u2014and why it’s critically important that we remain there as creative agents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Philadelphia, where I have made my home for the past ten years, I have been deeply fortunate to experience extraordinary contributions to punk by badass women\/queer\/gender noncomforing people of color. I have also seen punk forms of expression across a range of genres\u2014afrofuturist sci-fi, dance, visual art, soundscapes, and more. I hope we all continue to support art that stretches and expands across these kinds of borders and boundaries. I hope this book helps people to understand how vital women’s voices are to a musical ecosystem. Finally, I look forward to being astounded and transported by the women and girls yet to come. The future is yours and our ears are wide open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This book is an invaluable way to help keep the home fires burning for a form of expression which helped me form my identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Want to keep reading? Order\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Punk Women: 40 Years of Musicians Who Built Punk Rock<\/a> by David Ensminger<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/strong>, now available on a shelf near you!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Girls to the front! The new edition of this trailblazing classic includes 11 new interviews and over 30 new profiles of even more incredible musicians, including Blondie, Neko Case, The Urge, Gang of Four, Pogues, Submission Hold, Fastbacks, Teen Idols, and many more. In this far-reaching anthology, David Ensminger delves underground to explore the oft-overlooked… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[14,51,248,232,29],"class_list":["post-6459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogifesto","tag-books","tag-diy","tag-excerpt","tag-feminism","tag-punk"],"my_excerpt":"\n The new edition of this trailblazing classic<\/a> includes 11 new interviews and over 30 new profiles of even more incredible musicians, including Blondie, Neko Case, The Urge, Gang of Four, Pogues, Submission Hold, Fastbacks, Teen Idols, and many more.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In this far-reaching anthology, David Ensminger<\/a> delves underground to explore the oft-overlooked community of badass women who shaped the punk scene. There is a common thread of women being excluded and gatekept from hardcore music; this book shows that women have been able to overcome those barriers, kick ass, and shred with the best of them. Biographies, interviews, band anecdotes, and never-before-published photos showcase the talent and artistry of bands like Bikini Kill, the Guttersluts, Bratmobile, Spitboy, the Germs, the Slits, and dozens more. With its intimate aesthetic analysis and raw, zine-like presentation, this is an essential resource for anyone looking to discover, rediscover, and cherish punk history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read on for a sneak peek at\u00a0the new foreword by Katy Otto<\/a> of Trophy Wife and Exotic Fever Records! <\/em>Punk Women: 40 Years of Musicians Who Built Punk Rock<\/a> is available to order from our site or find with your local bookseller.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n","my_excerpt_rendered":"\n The new edition of this trailblazing classic<\/a> includes 11 new interviews and over 30 new profiles of even more incredible musicians, including Blondie, Neko Case, The Urge, Gang of Four, Pogues, Submission Hold, Fastbacks, Teen Idols, and many more.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n In this far-reaching anthology, David Ensminger<\/a> delves underground to explore the oft-overlooked community of badass women who shaped the punk scene. There is a common thread of women being excluded and gatekept from hardcore music; this book shows that women have been able to overcome those barriers, kick ass, and shred with the best of them. Biographies, interviews, band anecdotes, and never-before-published photos showcase the talent and artistry of bands like Bikini Kill, the Guttersluts, Bratmobile, Spitboy, the Germs, the Slits, and dozens more. With its intimate aesthetic analysis and raw, zine-like presentation, this is an essential resource for anyone looking to discover, rediscover, and cherish punk history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read on for a sneak peek at\u00a0the new foreword by Katy Otto<\/a> of Trophy Wife and Exotic Fever Records! <\/em>Punk Women: 40 Years of Musicians Who Built Punk Rock<\/a> is available to order from our site or find with your local bookseller.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6459"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6461,"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6459\/revisions\/6461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Girls to the front!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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