Best Female Rock Group


Okay, I know this "best of" thing has been done to death, but I think it's fun. A guy in my office and I were discussing this the other day. To limit the hair-splitting (although I suspect that's a good part of the fun with these things), "Female Rock Group" is defined as follows: the band must be fronted by females and the majority of the members must be female, and the majority of the material must be written by the female members. For example, The Breeders qualify for consideration (majority female, fronted by the Donnelly sisters and a kick-ass, if slightly pathetic outfit), while "Blondie" does not (only one female member, most of the music written by her boyfriend.) Female rockers, like PJ Harvey and Liz Phair, who write their own material and have relatively anonymous backing bands also qualify (don't quibble, it's my thread).

Now, let's get on with it!

My entries are:

1. Breeders

2. Bangles (yes, the Bangles. check out the cuts that were NOT chosen to be singles, e.g., "Dover Beach")

3. Sleater-Kinney ('nuff said!)

4. Bikini Kill (ditto)

5. Liz Phair.

6. Throwing Muses.

7. Belly.
anth0456
I'd like to throw Ani DiFranco into the mix. She's an angry lesbian singer/songwriter that rocks and can play the hell out of a guitar. Equally, there's Aimee Mann, also a kick-ass singer/songwriter (from the 80's band 'Til Tuesday). Her music was the inspiration for the film "Magnolia", according to the director. Oh, Glen, the lead singer from 4 Non Blondes (Linda Perry?) is now a successful songwriter (most recently a song for pop/r&b artist Pink - "I'm Coming Up").
Have to admit, got a friend who's also a freak for women singing (who I don't see but once every few years these days, the bum moved to Chile) but for near on ten years going, one of the first things we clear up whenever we talk is whether we've heard anything better than Tanya Donnelly screaching like a cat on track 9 ("Not too Soon") from Throwing Muses's Hunkapappa. Pretty ho-hum recording, but still at the top of my list.

If you're looking for a purely angelic voice with some hard-edged instrumentation, gotta check out Heather Nova (the first album, Oyster, and some of the live ones, her second isn't all that special). I'm on board for ALL of the above, but also have to throw in Tori Amos (especially her earlier stuff). Shoot, there are more, but they escape me at the moment. 2a.m., July 4, still at work, no wonder I can't think....