[CORK] Avril Lavigne

[Owen Byrne]

Jeff Bone wrote:

>
> On Friday, Mar 21, 2003, at 16:08 US/Central, Tom wrote:
>
>> Its US magazine over The Thresher. Its Barney over Teletubies. Its Avril
>> Lavinge over Patty Smith.
>
>
> Hey now. Avril Lavigne is the most authentic thing going on in 
> American music today. (Take a moment to consider: she writes her own 
> stuff; the Sex Pistols were a figment of Malcolm McLaren's fertile 
> imagination.)
>
> Don't be dissin' my chick!
>
> I'm serious. Don't make me come throw "SHOCK AND AWE" all over your 
> sorry ass!
>
> jb
>
> PS - [META-FORK] propose CORK as Culture ORK, not just Culinary.

She's on my TV right now - and the thought went into my head - its just 
another commercial manifestation of a trend that has been around for the 
last 10 years or so - namely girls rock! When I find
myself looking for some headbanging - well - the girl groups - The 
Breeders, Sleater-Kinney, The Donnas, Bikini Kill - seem to have the 
greatest level of disrespect for the establishment.


I liked this review
Owen

http://www.audiogalaxy.com/pages/review.php?band_id=76904

> Revolution Girl Style Now!
>
> by David M
> 12.3.2002
>
> These days, "punk" doesn’t mean a whole hell of a lot. Sure, *Blink 
> 182* have piercings and green hair, but it should be pretty obvious 
> that when they run down the beach and pull smooth dance moves in their 
> videos, they’re not mocking *‘N Sync*—they’re celebrating their 
> ability to sell just as many records as Justin, Lance, Fucko, J.C. and 
> Skeeter. Punk is just fashion, another branch of pop that allows 
> shallow preteens to pretend they’re ‘different.' The Revolution has 
> left the building.
>
> "This is a band whose very sound threatens to tear the world apart at 
> its seams."
>
> But somebody forgot to tell *Bikini Kill*. With their assault of 
> animal-torture guitar, eardrum-bursting drums, and, most of all, 
> *Kathleen Hannah*’s cute girl/screaming banshee Jeckyl and Hyde 
> presence up front, this is a band whose very sound threatens to tear 
> the world apart at its seams. Add to that the group’s central place in 
> the Riot Grrrl 
> <http://www.audiogalaxy.com/pages/band_listing.php3?style=Riot%20Grrrl&SID=3f19f40cf78f0749fc85c1213eeb4622> 
> movement of the early nineties, producing fanzines filled with 
> galvanizing feminist rhetoric and preaching "Revolution Girl Style 
> Now!", and you have at least a sense of what they were all about.
>
> Pussywhipped!
>
> But those things just scratch the surface. The real significance of 
> *Bikini Kill* is not in the things they did, but in the effects that 
> their actions had on their rabid (mostly teenage, mostly female) 
> following. Just as the Pistols had fifteen years before, Bikini Kill 
> inspired a wave of hundreds of similar bands (including Sleater-Kinney 
> <http://www.audiogalaxy.com/pages/band_listing.php3?band_id=76768&SID=3f19f40cf78f0749fc85c1213eeb4622> 
> and *Hole*), thousands of girls seeking truer liberation than anything 
> marching in a demonstration or burning bras had ever offered their 
> mother’s generation. The embrace of loud, fast rock and roll was the 
> ultimate indictment of patriarchy, an undeniable statement that girls 
> could do anything boys could—and maybe even do it better.
>
> "The real significance of *Bikini Kill* is... in the effects that 
> their actions had on their rabid (mostly teenage, mostly female) 
> following."
>
> More importantly, *Bikini Kill* and bands that followed saw that they 
> did not have to give up their femininity to change their role in 
> society. Unlike women before who had campaigned for the right to wear 
> pants, Kathleen Hannah embraced symbols of girlhood, wearing skirts 
> and dresses on stage. At the same time, lyrics like "In her hips, 
> there’s revolution/when she walks, the revolution’s coming/ in her 
> kiss, I taste the Revolution!" and titles like "Suck My Left One" 
> ripped apart the symbolism of her clothing, making anything and 
> everything possible for every woman, no matter how she dressed.
>
> Screaming, raging, spitting and clawing.
>
> And no-one could make this revolution more immediate and real than 
> Hannah. Her stage presence, infinitely angry, ironic and even violent, 
> was itself a condemnation of patriarchy and a revelation of the 
> possibilities of complete female liberation. Screaming, raging, 
> spitting and clawing at the walls she felt society had placed around 
> her and her sisters, she took female empowerment to a whole new level 
> (up to and including hurling used tampons at hostile male audience 
> members).
>
> "Titles like "Suck My Left One" ripped apart the symbolism of 
> (Hannah's) clothing..."
>
> "I Like Fucking 
> <http://www.audiogalaxy.com/bands/bikinikill/%5BBikini%20Kill%5D%20I%20Like%20Fucking.mp3?SID=3f19f40cf78f0749fc85c1213eeb4622>" 
> is just the sort of mind blowing track designed to shove the Bikini 
> Kill New World Order right down your throat. Hannah opens the song in 
> valley-girl mode, asking "Do you believe there’s anything beyond troll 
> guy reality?" and volume builds from there. Her voice slowly deepens, 
> intensifies and expands, the lyrics darkening until she’s screaming, 
> "Why don’t you show me how/ How to lose control?" and you can hardly 
> keep from screaming with her.
>
> The Singles
>
> Like all great rock bands with any dignity, *Bikini Kill* broke up 
> before descending into self-imitation. Members have gone on to other, 
> less ambitious projects, while their legacy has been more prominent 
> than ever with the rising success of acts like Sleater-Kinney 
> <http://www.audiogalaxy.com/pages/band_listing.php3?band_id=76768&SID=3f19f40cf78f0749fc85c1213eeb4622>. 
> Their music, more importantly, lives on in all its rough, ugly beauty, 
> inspiring members of both sexes with its passionate embrace of rock’s 
> ability to change, to empower and to kick ass.
>