Girls who can rock

[feldspar]

So I spent the better part of yesterday driving into and around the great state of New Jersey, which in the end translated to a nice seven hours round-trip in the car with just my girlfriend and my iPod.

About halfway down the Jersey Pike on the way home, she made the astute observation that I don't have any female musicians on my Pod. I pulled into a rest stop (the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Burger King/Sbarro's, in case you were wondering), and lo and behold, I could only find a meager handful of songs that fit the given criterion.

I am taking steps to remedy this situation, but I need help. Please recommend me, and subsequently, everyone else, some good female-created music.

[stueym]

I am taking steps to remedy this situation, but I need help. Please recommend me, and subsequently, everyone else, some good female-created music.

Well so much of this is personal taste of course, but here are some reccomendations of Rockin' women from my iPod

Alanis Morrisette (wonderful music from "Dogma's God")
Alison Krauss (For days when only the purity of bluegrass will do)
Anastacia (Soulful R&B from the alto voice of doom!)
Annie Lennox (Scottish Diva of reknown...enough said)
Aretha Franklin (Cos you just can't beat class)
Bjam (a bit folksy but her rock rocks )
Carole King (late night musings from the queen of singer songwriters)
Cerys Mathews (Welsh as Welsh can be but very distintive voice)
Enya (for those Orinocco moments)
Geri Halliwell (Occasional glimpses of briliance from this Bad Girl of Spicedom)
Gloria Estefan (for when you are needing to feel your latin roots)
Gretchen Wilson (for when you want to tastes your grits)
Joni Mitchell (Oh common you gotta have some Joni!)
kd lang (there's gold in them there hills, you just got look hard)
kirsty MacColl (God rest her soul she was awesome)
Liz Phair (ooooh Bad Girl!!! me likey!)
Macy Gray (for when you are in that mood)
Mariah Carey (All I want for Christmas...really!)
Martina McBride (Strike that-All I want for country Christmas...really!)
Mary Chapin Carpenter (terrific folk/country crossover snger songwriter...huge catalogue)
Mel C (Solo Album from this spicer has some awesome stuff on it)
Melissa Etheridge (Just a classy rocking lady who loves her ovations as much as me!)
Norah Jones (not much of a rocker but great for when you are in that mood)
Reba (country Diva of reknown...huge catalogue)
Shawn Colvin (just try her...she grows on you)
Shirley Bassey (get 60-70's stuff and you'll wonder why anyone ever needed an electric guitar)
Stevie Nicks (weird girl but awesome set of pipes)


I am tired now and want to listen to great female music now....

These are of course all biased by my preferences, but at least give you some stuff to go hit up itunes preview and see what you might like, or borrow CD's from friends to try them out on a test drive.

Stueym

[jack]

the most obvious choice is right here.

heather redmon. hell yes.

[mkilly]

Smashing Pumpkins, White Zombie, and Pixies all have female bassists, which kind of counts. Breeders is headed by two twin girls. Decemberists has two female members, one on keyboards and one on violin and vocals. The latter is Petra Haden and she's awesome. She did a completely a capella cover album of The Who Sell Out, and she worked with Bill Frisell, a jazz guitarist, on an album and it's really great. She is formerly of the band that dog.

here's some recommends:
CocoRosie (indie, two sisters)
*The Brunettes (indie, female vocalist/guitarist)
*Rilo Kiley (indie, female vocalist/guitarist/keyboards)
Mazzy Star (indie)
Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter (country/folk)
Belle and Sebastian (indie, female.. s... are in the band)
Neko Case (indie, country, folk-ish girl)
Sleater-Kinney (indie, three girls)
Tegan and Sara (indie, twin, lesbian sisters)
*Bitch and Animal (indie, two lesbian girls)
Mary Lou Lord (indie)
Noe Venable (indie)
The Distillers (punk, female vocalist)
Danielle Brisebois (popular, worked with New Radicals)
Ani DiFranco (indie)
Annie Lennox/Eurythmics (popular)
Black Box Recorder (indie)
*Cat Power (indie)
Dar Williams (folk)
Fiona Apple (popular)
Joan Jett (popular)
*Lisa Loeb (popular)
Liz Phair (popular)
*M.I.A. (popular rap stuff)
*(Melissa) Auf der Maur (former, replacement bassist for Smashing Pumpkins, and former bassist for Hole)
*Patti Smith (popular)
PJ Harvey (popular)
Poe (popular)
Rasputina (two female cellists and a dude drummer)
Save Ferris (ska, female vocalist)
Sinead O'Connor (popular)
*Tilly and the Wall (indie)
Tori Amos (popular)
Veruca Salt and Nina Gordon
*Yeah Yeah Yeahs (popular, female vocalist)
*Zoe Keating (one of the cellists in Rasputina)

I've starred the ones I particularly love. Ask if you're interested in any of these and I'll upload a bunch of mp3s.

[fodroy]

clay aiken *ba da ching*

[king_arthur]

Jill Sobule

Charles (KA)

[roymond]

Kate Bush
Jane Siberry
Ani Defranco
Natalie Merchant
Michelle Shocked

[jack]

emmylou harris

[j$]

The Slits, Lilliput, The Raincoats. All fantastic all-female punk bands, who rocked well beyond their male counterparts.

[WeaselSlayer]

Diamanda Galas. And muthafuckin' Bjork.

[fodroy]

calamine, the band who did the sealab theme song is pretty good.

[Justincombustion]

There's a rocker chick from the Netherlands called "Anouk" her song "Nobody's Wife" is pretty rockin good. For Dutch music.

[ken]

What MK said....

All Girl Summer Fun Band (K Records, Olympia WA)
Cindy Lee Berryhill (Sand Diego, CA)
Kostars (Grand Royal records, Luscious Jackson side project out of print)
Cibo Matto (Sony)
Lusicious Jackson (Capitol?)

The most rocking band around... Pretty Girls Make Graves

Ken

[john m]

Noodles
Metalmags (songfight)

[starfinger]

L7 !! (what a show)

and, yeah, Diamanda Galas. she will melt your head.



-craig

[pegor]

Oh come on now people. Nothing rocked harder then the early heart records. seriously - Barracuda!! Dreamboat Annie - the 80s stuff was an abomination but damn it the old Heart rocked!

[jimtyrrell]

Some good bands/artists w/female vocals:

Lush
Juliana Hatfield
Pizzicato Five

[WeaselSlayer]

I almost forgot, Deerhoof! And OOIOO!

[jack]

hoblit's favorite.............courtney love!

[Egg]

Rather than list a bunch of random music, I'm going to suggest that you IM me and let me know what your favorites are on your current playlist. Between that and what you submit, I can AIM transfer you some females that you probably like.

If you're too lazy to click on the AIM icon at the bottom of this post, I'm at oconnellisnthere or you can email me at mroconnell a t gmail d o t com

[Niveous]

Oh come on now people. Nothing rocked harder then the early heart records. seriously - Barracuda!! Dreamboat Annie - the 80s stuff was an abomination but damn it the old Heart rocked!

The aforementioned Rasputina does an incredible version of Barracuda on their live shows.

[fodroy]

Deerhoof

i'm going to have to disagree on this one. deerhoof is not even listenable in my opinion. i saw them open for wilco last year. basically their chick singer is a mixture of yoko ono and pikachu. my friend and i laughed our way through most of their set.