New list 2fer. Best Girl Bands, and best of Bands reunited
I usually take Friday's off from my job search, and I'm feeling pretty un motivated today, on top of that I'm stuck at home waiting for UPS to show up with a package.
So I want to do two lists broken into two posts. The first one
The best of Girl Bands.
Now I think its best to define Girl Bands as a complete set, every instrument played by Girls with the song writing by the Girls in the band. So when I was looking at it, I wasn't looking for a vocal group, or a band that had mostly girls and a guy or two in the band. This is the All Girl Band addition
1) The Runaways
Arguably the Girls band that started the genre. A all girl band that played hard and partied hard. They were defiant and extremely talented. They released four studio albums and had hits like Cherry Bomb and Hollywood.
The Runaways were also like a finishing school for several female rockers that went on to greater roles in the harder rock area. Joan Jett, Lita Ford went on to great solo careers, while Michael Steele went on to form the Bangles.
2) The Bangles
Formed by Susanna Hoffs and the Peterson Sisters, who were joined by Michael Steele from the Runaways. Its amazing that the Bangles success was fairly short lived as they were formed in 81 and broke up in 1989, before briefly reunited at the end of the century. This was a really talented band that played on a pop rock/psychodelic sound. To me their best song was the cover of Hazy Shade of winter.
3) The GoGo's
A lot of people challenge me on the Go Go's as an after through in the discussion of best female groups. But people tend to look past their talent. But this band was ridiculously talented and polished. The Go Go's came out of the LA Punk scene in the 80's and created a combination pop/punk/surfer group. There is no doubt that the Go Go's were ridiculously talented with Jane Wiedlin on Rhythm guitar, Kathy Valentine on bass, the amazing Charlotte Caffey on guitar and keyboard and Gina Schock on drums with Belinda Carlisle on vocals. Again this band was fairly short lived, breaking up at their height in 1983, and spending a lot of time fighting each other in court and having sporadic reunions.
(FYI if your ever board, this central park concert is a excellent watch.
4) Vixen
Its absolutely crazy how many walls this band broke down. They entered the hair metal revolution of the 80's and while they were as heavily made up and coiffed as most of the boy hair bands of the time, they could outplay and out party a lot of the bands out there. Originally formed by the late Jan Kuethemund, the most popular lineup included Roxy Petrucci, Share Ross and Janet Gardner. They had a brief career before breaking up in 1989 due to a major misunderstanding between Jan and the rest of the band. Petrucci and Gardner did reform in the 90's and released Tangerine sparking lawsuits and hurt feelings. Since them Vixen has appeared in various forms, but never found the success that they did during the Hair metal phase
5) The Dixie Chicks (Chicks)
Renamed recently as just the chicks,
I do consider them to be an all girl band, though they use touring members to fill out their sound. But primarily this is a band focused around Martie Maquire, Emily Strayer and Natalie Maines. Playing a combination Blue Grass/Country/Revial. The Chicks were dominate from the late 80's until the early 2000's when they sadly received extreme backlash over their statements about then President George Bush Jr and went on a long hiatus. While they're remember for hits like Open Spaces and Cowboy Take me away, it was Maines defiant voice on "Not ready to make nice" that really resonates with most fans.
6) L7
Formed in 2001 with Suzi Gardner, Donna Sparks, Jennifer Finch and Dee Plakas, this is probably one of the most aggressive sounding all girl groups, formed in the late 80's they still work to this day.
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I liked Bananarama but left them out as they were more of a vocal group, then anything else, and I wanted to focus on fully formed Girl Groups that played their instruments, had a strong song writing presence
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Last night while I was working on my list, I came across the Bands Reunited episode around the Vixen Reunion. Band Re-Uniteed was a show that only lasted 1 year, its premise was to bring broken bands back together to talk about their history and their breakups and play a short live set. It was a cool concept. Even though the show was heavily criticized for its manipulation and putting some people through pure hell in reliving negative experiences, it was still a great watch.
While they had some successses sometimes their attempts ended in extreme failure. The New Kids on the Block failed, there was extreme bad feelings int he Klymax reunion as well as a boob slip. They tried to reunite Gen-X and Billy Idol quashed that.
But there were some really good reunions. Berlin, Vixen, Scandal, Flock of Seagulls all reunited and performed and to some extent healed some wounds.
So without much text or preamble.
1) Vixen - Touched on earlier but this band had a particularly nasty breakup over a miscommunication between Jan and the rest of the band. For the most part them members all floated away from music. So it was cool to see them together to perform again.
2) Berlin - This was actually an awesome watch. The breakup was in a word awful, and most of the band floated away to other careers and hadn't talked in about 20 years. This was actually a pretty sweet reunion, and their performance was probably the best of the series
3) Scandal - The whole episode isn't up anymore, but this was a band that split apart when Patty Smyth decided she wants to go solo.
4) Flock of Seagulls - Considered one of the ultimate one hit wonder bands, this was cool to watch, though without the Flock of Seagull hair cuts
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Kind of a shame to leave out Heart, I know they are half men but you could replace those men with any decent musicians and they'd sound the same, the 2 women are irreplaceable. I guess that would open a whole can of worms though.
[Edit: I see they were mentioned, I was responding to the first post, which hadn’t been refreshed in my browser for a while it seems]
Also a newer band Larkin Poe. Two of the Lovell sisters formed this band, it has a bluesy sound. They are working hard, got nominated for a Grammy for their last album Venom and Faith
(when they tour they use 2 fellas in the band, but they write and record everything themselves, as far as I know)
Last edited by DeluxeMoustache; 06-26-2020 at 11:59 AM.
+1 for Luscious Jackson.
I'd like to throw in an honorary mention for Scratching Post, although it wasn't a female band, Nicole Hughes was the only consistent member.
Also, for the next list thread, I vote we have a "List of Captain's best list threads"
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In the early 90s Halifax/East Coast Scene (Sloan, Eric's Trip, Superfriendz etc) there was a bad called JALE that I did kinda dig for awhile, Dreamcake was their first album I think. eventually a dude or two joined the band, but they were a 'girl band' at first, pretty sure
Not all girls, but mostly girls. Hole - particularly the entire album Live Through This, was really good.
Live through this is only as good as it is because Billy Corgan and Kirt Cobain helped write it. The rest of Holes catalogue is garbage (e: except Awful)
New list 2fer. Best Girl Bands, and best of Bands reunited
