Girl Groups

I've been busting my ass recently to find LPs by The Tammys. "Egyptian Shumba" is a fun song, but they've got others.


I've got soft spot for this sort of stuff from The GoGos to The Pipettes. Does anyone else have any personal favorites?

Having turned 13 in 1981, I was a huge fan of The Go-Gos. Still am. They made some great pop/rock songs.

I'm not proud, but I'll admit to really loving Bananarama in the 80's.

Salt N Pepa, En Vogue, TLC and SWV are R&B essential girl groups. I like a few songs from The Bangles, Go Gos, and Pointer Sisters but I was never interested enough to buy their albums in the 80s. Current groups like Danity Kane and Pussycat Dolls are not my cup of tea.

Edit: Just went to the Pipettes website. I like their remixes better than the originals. Might have to pick up that album.

I'll pitch in a word for The Donnas.

Sleater-Kinney.

The Pipettes are pretty fantastic. I've been waiting for the latest album to come out for a while. But their first is something I can put on, regardless of where my head's at, and enjoy it.

I'm a huge sucker for this type of stuff, although I like the "classic" period -- the Phil Spector/Brill Building that dovetails with the Motown Era and the British Invasion (although Motown produced perhaps the greatest classic girl group, The Supremes). The British stuff is lesser known, but there's some great stuff that came out of that era. I highly recommend tracking down "Gonna Get Burned" by the Chantelles and "Mickey" by Twinkle.

I know we're talking just about groups, but this period of music means I have to give Dusty Springfield a mention. "Dusty in Memphis", still one of the sexiest albums ever recorded. And Dionne Warwick, of course. Cheryl St. Clair's song "I'll Forget You Tonight" is in that vein, but her voice is aching and the instrumentation of it is pretty fantastic.

I've been listening to a lot of classic rockabilly lately, and there are a ton of lesser known female rockers in that era that are still kick-ass. Many times, it's a female singer with a male backing band but what's out there can be really enjoyable. Sherre Scott and Her Melody Covers have a fantastic cover of "Whole Lot of Shakin' Goin' On" with a piano solo that doesn't rival Jerry Lee's, but it's fun in its own way.

My favorite girl group is probably the Shangri-Las. They were designed/form as a tonic to the "good girl groups," and I like the edge that they have. On songs like "The Train from Kansas City", "Out on the Streets," "Dressed in Black" and "Remember (Walkin' in the Sand)", their desperate vocals over dark, slow, melodies make them an unforgettable group of this era. (And of course, you got to love the spot-on "ripped-from-a-diary-or-True-Romance" spoken parts, like in the perhaps the greatest of teen death songs, "Leader of the Pack.")

I guess The Slits don't really count because Palmolive left and was replaced by a dude named Budgie by the time they released the "Cut" album. Balls.

Check out Wanda Jackson for some good female rockabilly action.

I fucking love Wanda Jackson, but was trying to keep it as much centered towards groups as possible.

Which they would reply "WE'RE NOT A GIRL GROUP!"

They play (or at least used to, I haven't listened for a while) a lot of The Crystals on Little Steven's Underground Garage. They're by far my favorite girl pop group.

True.

Ever since I saw L7 at Lollapalooza, I've been a fan. Wargasm is the best all-chick punk-metal song put to tape. They were TERRIBLE vocalists, but they were what they were.

Last I heard, Donita Sparks shed her punk image and went pop. Look it up.

Garbage

Sparkle Moore is another great female rockabilly singer, and Kelly Willis' first two albums were some of the best neo-Rockabilly of the 90's, though again, not a "girl group." And let's not forget the 5-6-7-8's, who are for sure all girls.

My favorite "underrated" girl group is probably The Marvelettes. The Velvelettes were another Motown girl group that got overlooked at the time: their first album wasn't even released until many years after it was recorded. Mary Wells, too, wasn't in a girl "group," but her music was very much of that style, and was one of the few Motown artists of her day to write any of her own material.

I'll second Sleater-Kinney for sure. I like The Donnas, though I don't think they sustain over the course of more than an album or two.

"Funnel of Love" is incredible, and Southern Culture On The Skids does a great cover, with Mary Huff on vocals.

Butch Vig's packing a third leg.

I'm interested to see if The Pipettes, with replacements for Becki and Rose, can recapture the magic. And it was magic.

as I posted in the gossip column, The Wonder Girls are testing the waters here in America by touring the the Jonas Brothers. It's interesting as I think they only have 2 songs available in English right now.

But as girl groups are huge in Japan and Korea, its nice to see them try to bring it back in the U.S.

Do CSS count given that four of the five of them are girls?

I can think of a ton of stand alone female performers, but I'm really stretching to think of any contemporary girl groups other than pop groups, the Pipettes and Sleater-Kinney.

Luscious Jackson. Chillout music of the highest order. Still a damn shame they're gonna go down as one-hit wonders. And I didn't even know till about two years ago Kate Schellenbach was the Beastie Boys drummer, which just raises the cool several more points.


And I have to back up Diva on En Vogue. I've yet to see another R&B girl group come along and stay so consistently great with the bare minimum of drama.

...so are Steve Marker and Duke Erickson.

Kittie?

Seconded. I saw them at a Halloween show about 2 years ago. They were awesome.

And as was said, although Garbage is not a girl group, they're great live as well. I've seen them 3 times. I'm a real sucker for female singers.

bikini kill and/or le tigre, anyone?

You're Goddamned right Kittie. And though it doesn't qualify as a "group", if you're looking for a strong woman in metal, check out Crisis (having a friend who used to drum for them helps...and they opened for Kittie!).

How is it that Rath is the only person to bring up The Supremes? I mean, it's The Supremes! They created the archetype, and are still infinitely listenable.

While it's pretty obvious that Gwenno runs the show, I too have fears about their follow-up album. But since she's the primary song-writer of the band, and the only original member left, I can only hope that she'll ensure that the next one is as great as the first. It's just upsetting that nothing was released just before summer by them. The first album is such a great summer listen.

I'm currently listening to some Swedish band called Liechtenstein, who are all female, and come off as a mix between Siouxie and the Banshees, and The Raincoats (an excellent, sometimes all-female, post-punk band). Their album is one of my favourites so far, this year.

Everyone should check out The Raincoats awesome cover of The Kinks' Lola.

Au Revoir Simone is another band with a solid release this year, featuring three female keyboardist, producing Air-like music. I really like Another Likely Story, from their new album, Still Night, Still Light.

It's barely even worthwhile to make distinctions between a lot of girl groups and solo female artists in the mid-60s. Basically, pick your star singer (or even just a group name), throw on some backup vocals, and you've got an instant "girl group."

At one point, there were basically two completely different groups of Crystals (the original lineup and Darlene Love with her backup group), and they both had hits, then there were recordings that featured hybrids of the two, etc. Even the Ronettes, despite having a more stable lineup, were sort of a fluid entity in the studio.

The idea of "girl groups" today just seems sort of outdated (except maybe in the world of R&B where group vocals are still often key), since we've all become a little more savvy about the industry and how creative control works.

Perhaps it's not as complicated when it comes to The Pipettes, which resembles the classic girl group and has the lead vocalist as a key songwriter or even Sleater-Kinney, which is all women (although it does seem a little off to call them a "girl group," since it aligns them with The Shangri-Las, and their division of labor is probably more like Cream, Husker Du, or Mission of Burma).

But what do you do with bands like The Fastbacks or Dirty Projectors, where the women equal or outnumber the guys, sometimes or always sing lead, and play instruments, but don't write the songs vs. something like Bat for Lashes or The Pretenders, where the women are entirely outnumbered by guys, but the music is almost entirely the product of a sole woman's vision?

I disagree. I think Sparks has an incredible voice. She knows her limits and plays within them.

That, and L7 could kick every other girl group's ass six ways to sunday. They've ruined everyone else for me. I love them. Hungry for Stink is one of my five favorite driving albums of all time.

Kittie's first two albums are decent. Unfocused, but in that charming "we still haven't figured out we have a record deal" kinda way. Everything after, the charm's gone.

Also, far as female fronted metal goes, it's Arch Enemy and Otep or nothing. Eventually, in this discussion, someone brings up Lacuna Coil or Drain STH. This person should, inevitably, be beaten in front of his embarrassed family.

There's no contest for me with Sleater-Kinney. They're one of the best rock groups of the last two decades, male or female.

I always thought of Veruca Salt as a girl group, even though they're not solely female.

Hole mine as well be Courtney Love's solo project.

Dawn Crosby from Detente was, so far as I'm aware, the first really raw-throated, aggro female vocalist in metal.

i'm surprised no-one's mentioned Destiny's Child, I'm not a fan of their music but you can't deny their impact in the late 90's, even though it more or less evolved into the Beyonce show (just like 'The Supremes, imagine that)

I dig Sister Sledge, they had some pretty good stuff before disco fever kicked in, although Lost in Music is still a great funky number and Kathy Sledge was really hot.

One of my nieces has started to listen to "The Saturdays", a relatively new brit pop all girl band; I think by now she has made their cover version of "Just cant get enough" engraved in my mind.
The video, however, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vte4HUoRDSI is helping a bit....me like some British knickers.
And having worked closely to anime shops, there's a shit ton of all girl bands in japan.

YES YES YES. That is an amazing song.

If you dig Wanda Jackson, check out LaVern Baker.

To my mind, there's a drastic difference in quality between the stuff she did with Eric Erlandson (the only other founding member of Hole and a key songwriting contributor) and the stuff she did afterwards.

Do you guys think The Cliks count? Even though singer Lucas Silveira is transitioning, I assume they're usually going to be labelled as a girl group.

I've got a soft spot for a couple of the second tier 90s girl groups. While they don't have catalogues to match, say, TLC, Changing Faces and Zhane each scraped together a few songs that I'd gladly take over anything by Destiny's Child.

Also, any love for The Ordettes / LaBelle?

I agree with that. I forgot about her underwhelming solo album America's Sweetheart.

The new "Hole" album Nobody's Daughter was evidently supposed to be her second solo album, but she's using the album as a platform to reunite the band. Don't know if that's necessarily a good thing. Melissa Auf der Maur is back, but Eric Erlandson isn't.

Destiny's Child had some great singles during their heyday. I doubt they put out one truly strong album, but most of their singles were bubbly and infectious.

Two of my faves:

'Independent Women Part 1':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuMmfDWMLgY

'Lose My Breath':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17BfDEwLyXc

The Shaggs. Particularly the musical and vocal (featuring their dad) versions of the "Shaggs' Own Thing."

My favorites are probably Babes in Toyland and Zuzu's Petals. They put out some great albums in the early '90s, and their music has aged well.

I really liked The Pandoras, but their stuff is hard to find, and the lead singer had like an aneurysm out of nowhere and died in the early 90s. There was another girl rock band from the 80s that had Athena Lee (Tommy Lee's little sister) as the drummer, but I can't remember their name or the name of the song. I've still got a VHS tape somewhere of videos that has their song on it.

Do Diana Ross and the Supremes count? Because they sure should! I love them for being so catchy and even more danceable.

Nightwish, Epica, The Gathering, Xandria, Dark Moor...there are several European Prog-rock bands that feature(d) exceptional female singers. Tarja Turunen (ex Nightwish) was fantastic.

Um, yeah.

Good call.

And, for fans of the Donnas, I'll recommend the Eyeliners. Their discs are really fun pop-punk confections.

Nightwish and Epica are okay. They follow the Evanescence/Lacuna Coil model of great vocals, nice orchestral arrangement, weaksauce guitars, though.

Has anybody mentioned Cibo Matto? Cause someone needs to.

Shu-gah Wah-tuh... la la la la...

Wasn't Sean Lennon in Cibo Matto, though?