New Girls of Rock (where have all the guitar girls gone?)

Best Coast's Bethany Cosentino

There just aren't enough cool girls with guitars anymore.

In the glory days of '90 to '94, girl (or girl-led) bands were everywhere. In the dawn of  New England indie rock in the '80s into the '90s, we had Juliana Hatfield and Blake Babies, Kristin Hersh and Tanya Donnelly of Throwing Muses and, of course, Kim Deal of the Pixies and then The Breeders.

But there were more: from Babes in Toyland to L7 to Liz Phair and later Hole we had authentic female rock bands. In the UK we had Elastica (ironically the rockingest brit pop outfit of the time), The Sundays and the Cranberries. Women were everywhere in rock.

The same can't be said today. Indie rock is a man's world with only a few rare exceptions. We had Sleater Kinney for a while. And Karen O of The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. There are a few big lady-led hard rock hits, from Paramore to The Dead Weather, but the strongest female voices migrated to pop, electronic or folk en masse. The best we had were Neko Case and Jenny Lewis -- both are great, but not "rock" in the dirty, guitar sense.

Even former tough rock chicks like Phair have gone all pop glam. I thought all might have been lost last year when the Yeah Yeah Yeah's suddenly became Missing Persons (Listen to Karen O on "Heads Will Roll" and tell me she doesn't sound just like Dale Bozio on Missing Person's early '80s hit "Words"). It seemed like a real loss to the indie rock world. Where were the women?

Enter the new girls of rock, led (right now) by Bethany Cosentino, the song-writing, guitar-slinging babe of Los Angeles-based Best Coast. Best Coast's debut album Crazy for You, like a lot of similar female indie pop (Dum Dum Girls, Vivian Girls) is drenched in reverb and big wall-of-sound guitars that would have made Phil Spector proud... There is a sort of Liz Phair meets Ramones meets Ronnie and the Ronettes vibe to the whole record.

Crazy for You is refreshing for putting a charismatic, guitar playing female at the head of an indie rock band. It's not a brilliant album, but it hits a lot of right notes. The lyrics are simple -- all love songs addressed to men (I miss you, I want you, I wish you were my boyfriend, etc. and so forth)  but honest. The songs are simple, too -- sparsely arranged around Cosantino's melodic lead vocals. It's a thoroughly enjoyable album from start to finish.

Best Coast is not new, but it is novel. It's a rock record by a women not going the pop tart route. It's a refreshing record that will sound at home on the car stereo the next time you drive to the shore.

The Dum Dum Girls

Dum Dum Girls I Will Be


Like Best Coast's Crazy for You, fellow L.A. band Dum Dum Girls' I Will Be, is soaked in reverb and '60s garage pop sensibilities. But where Best Coast wades in the warm waters of sunny beach sounds and sweet melancholy, the Dum Dum Girls change pace rhythmically a bit more often, and singer Dee Dee Penny trends a bit darker lyrically.

For example, in the band's single from the album "Jail La La," Dee Dee has been caught be the law and is heading for the county jail, and she hopes her husband got a better head start. In Liner in Her Eyes, she sings about female competition with her enemy "If she gets to the top before me... I can't tell how angry I will be." Dee Dee is down and conflicted, but not just over a boy she can't have.

The overall sound of the I Will Be is tighter and -- in my opinion -- more listenable than Brooklyn's Vivian Girls. It's not quite as engaging as Best Coast -- Penny just isn't as strong a vocalist as Cosantino -- but it is still engaging. It's got that big wall-of-sound you can find in numerous so-called indie pop, but the songs don't get lost in the drone. Again, not a brilliant record, but very good. Well worth the listen.