Album Cover: New KT Tunstall

Not exactly my kinda music, but one hell of an album cover. KT rocking a Gibson Firebird. Drastic fantastic indeed.

The Donnas substitute Denim for Leather

Running in the tradition of The Runaways, Girlschool, Vixen and other all girl hard rock bands, the Donnas have managed to make the transition from nice-to-look-at-girl group to a successful powerhouse of contemporary hard rock music. Their classic rock riffs and tongue in cheek lyrics represent more than a simple turning of the tables of male rock clichees. Instead, their seventies-influenced hard rock ‘n roll has become a household name of its own. Songs like “Take it Off”, “Dirty Denim” or “Take me to the Backseat” could have escaped the soundtrack of an American 70’s drive-in movie, at the same time they are tighter than an old pair of drainpipe jeans. Up until the release of 2004's Gold Medal, the band used pseudonyms, very much like The Ramones.
Each member was known as "Donna" followed by the first initial of their surname. They decided to drop the stage names prior to the release of Gold Medal, though. On the fringe of the mainstream for some time, the Donnas put together a string of solid albums, from the unpolished American Teenage Rock 'n' Roll Machine (1998) and Get Skintight (1999) to the success of Gold Medal (2004).
With backing from Atlantic, the Donnas released Spend the Night in 2002, and Gold Medal in 2004. They also play cool cover version´s like Judas Priest´s Living after Midnight or Billy Idol´s Dancing with Myself. Whatever they do, they do it with style. With seven albums to their name and still in their mid-20s, these girls have a lot to come.

The Donnas have recently announced details of their eighth album together, which is their first since splitting with Atlantic Records. Returning to the more D.I.Y ethic of their earlier work, the band will release Bitchin’ on September 18th via their own record label Purple Feather. Cover Artwork as well as the new logo point towards a new direction for the girls.

The tracklisting for Bitchin’:

01 Bitchin’
02 Don’t Wait Up for Me
03 Wasted
04 What Do I Have to Do
05 Save Me
06 Like an Animal
07 Here for the Party
08 Better Off Dancing
09 Love You Till It Hurts
10 Smoke You Out
11 Girl Talk
12 Give Me What I Want
13 Tonight’s Alright
14 When the Show Is Over

http://www.thedonnas.com/

Girls and Guns: The Bikini Bandits

"All you need to make a film is a girl and a gun", french cult director Jean-Luc Godard apparently once claimed. What is it this fascination with scantly-clad, but heavily armed women in popular culture, as most recently documented in the controversial reception of a US web-based reality show called „Girls and Guns“? From Homer's godesses to Jeanne d'Arc, from Barbarella to Pam Grier and Charlie´s Angels, from the voluptous vixens of Russ Meyer, Jamie Lee Curtis (Blue Steel) to Lara Croft or the more recent Bikini Bandits, predominantly male audiences seem to be fascinated with strong female characters, who know how to defend themselves.
If they wear a bikini, that is. Although I´m not so sure about Jeanne d'Arcs casual clothing choices.

Unlike the gun-bunnies at ToughSportsLive, the Bikini Bandits appear to be a parody. They are a band of bikini-clad, gun-toting superhotties who star in internet shorts and their own movies. And they have that other, decisive ingredient: Rock n Roll.

The Bikini Bandits starr in videos by A Perfect Circle, hang out with Tool and had Dee Dee Ramone play the Pope in one of their flicks. In other words: they rock.

So, what´s the deal with all these machine gun maids and superheroines? Since I am far from being a social scientist, I leave the research to the scholars and just mindlessly embrace this weird popular culture phenomenon . By the way, „Girls and Guns“ comes with a subscription for similar intellectually challening shows such as cockfighting or Brazilian cagefights….what else could we ask for?

Feel free to add your comments. I might pick up this topic again after having seen the new Rodriguez / Tarantion Grindhouseflicks Planet Terror and Death Proof…. or I´ll add a little something on rrrriot girls or the like‚ `cause, actually, nothing beats a girl with a …guitar!

Further reading or unadulterated mindless indulgence:

http://www.girlswithguns.org/

http://www.moviebadgirls.com/

http://www.girls-with-guns.co.uk/

http://www.atomfilms.com/home.jsp

http://www.ifilm.com/video/2683985