GRLZ - Women Ahead Of Their Time


I was on my usual Tuesday jaunt to the record store to catch some of the week's new releases - Siberia from Echo & The Bunnymen, Tender Buttons from Broadcast and The Bad Plus' Suspicious Activity? - when I spied this compilation called GRLZ - Women Ahead Of Their Time. I pick it up, flip it over, and right away I know I need to have it. Out on Crippled Dick Hot Wax! (best or worst label name ever?), it's an excellent set of tunes from the original post-punk era, all bands that prominently featured women. Here's the line-up - The Slits' rendition of I Heard It Through The Grapevine, Delta 5's Mind Your Own Business, two songs from Rip, Rig & Panic as well as songs from Anna Domino, the New Age Steppers, Ludus, Dorothy, Nicolle Meyer and Jajaja. Several of these acts are news to me, but I was most psyched about some Rip, Rig & Panic on CD dude! Also included are these two great tunes -

Maximum Joy, like Rip, Rig & Panic, were an offshoot of The Pop Group, and where RR&P did the funky jazz thing, Maximum Joy were pure punk-funk. Stretch is too damn funky, all popping bass and wackawacka guitars, with a great, shrieking vocal performance and some killer skronky sax. October 28th brings Maximum Joy! Unlimited (1979-1983) on the same label. It's a collection of all the singles and 12's formerly released on their original label, Y Records. Great stuff, and I look forward to getting my hands on a copy of it.

If you know anything about early '80s music you are familiar with Bow Wow Wow. Put together by Malcolm McLaren - who stole the musicians from Adam Ant's band, fronted by 16 year old Anabella Lwin, their tribal drumming driven punk pop lit up the music scene for a couple of years. C30 C60 C90 Go! encapsulates all that is good about the band - the frantic beats, the punchy vocals, and it's all about the joys of music - we can all relate. On the strength of how good this track sounds digitized I think it's time that the powers that be give us some Bow Wow Wow remastered reissues.