Or Mostly-Girl Punk Bands

We can take some liberties with the word "punk", but I'd like to use that as a general guideline. Like I guess I'd accept that Le Tigre fits this category if someone wants to insist that they're really that good.

So here's what I've got:

first wave
The Slits
The Raincoats
X-Ray Spex

later
Bikini Kill
Sleater-Kinney

current
Vivian Girls

Please add to this, and tell me something about the other good ones I don't have here. Were there, like, any good all-girl garage-rock bands or any thing like that (pre-punk)?

You gotta count
The Runaways (first wave)
Although they were probably more garage rock than punk, per se.
and
The Donnas (later)
Also more a garage rock band, but with heavy Ramones influence.

and...
Shonen Knife (later)
Okay, debate whether or not they were/are actually any good. But, they do have a fan base. And I, for one, find them to be a lot of fun.

The Donnas - maybe, but they always seemed a little gimmicky.

The Runaways - OK, but isn't this a little closer to hard rock than punk? I know I said we could take liberties with that, but I'm not looking for bands that are being compared to Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith. Or are those comparisons totally off?

Shonen Knife seems like a good suggestion. What's a good place to start? Comp or album?

If you're going to count X Ray Spex, then you may as well throw in Bow Wow Wow, The Bags, X, and The B-52's.

As far as Shonen Knife is concerned, skip it all and go straight to the "Every Band Has..." tribute.

I always liked this album:

Although I've heard that Let's Knife is also a good one.

Yeah, OK. I guess X-Ray Spex isn't even "mostly girl", technically. I haven't really heard that much from them, to be honest, but I was under the impression that the guys in the band didn't sing. Is this wrong? I mean it seems like the two strongest (or most up-front) presences in the band were Poly Styrene and Laura Logic. With the B-52s, Fred Schneider is a huge vocal presence so I definitely can't count them. Don't know about Bow Wow Wow and The Bags.

How do we feel about The Go-Gos Beauty and the Beat?

Seriously. Never heard it outside of that one song. I know it's more New Wave than punk, but I can live with that.

Hole, I'm not sure is this is the type of punk your looking for but the first two albums are great. If you're being loose about the girl thing then I would throw out The Distillers, though there are more guys in the band, the only one that really counts is Brody Dalle.

I love the Go-Gos.
And, I also love the first Bangles album, but now you're drifting even further away from punk... into pure pop, so you probably don't want to go there.

Spitboy

And, once again, "punk" is loosely defined here, and they do/did have a make drummer, but:
The Breeders?

Yeah, I'd count The Breeders.

L7

i think "punk" and "best" are loosely used in this thread, so i'll throw in bratmobile, the eyeliners and softball.

was tsunami all-girl? i think i might have seen a guy in the band once, but i always thought from listening that they were all girls.

i've put a couple best coast tracks on some mixes lately. one gal & an 8-track making some lo-fi goodness - more pop than punk.

I saw these girls open for Social Distortion. I thought they were decent, and hot, which doesn't hurt.

Not "the best" by any means, but:
Demolition Dollrods

Played in nothing but pasties and thongs.
Of course, their male guitar player was something to avoid looking at, but the girls were fun to watch, as long as my earplugs were in.

I don't think "best" should be used loosely, but of course people are always going to say that's the case when they don't like what someone else has mentioned. I mean, if you're going to list a band here, it should be one that you consider to be among the "best".

As far as "punk" being used loosely, I'd rather consider something that was at least in some way derived from punk - like The Go-Gos supposedly were a punk band who had polished up their sound on their debut album. And The Breeders having followed The Pixies; Le Tigre coming after Bikini Kill. That sort of thing, as opposed to more classic-rock-leaning girl bands that really have nothing at all to do with punk. I know it's kind of hard to delineate, and I don't really know whether I'd want to count a band like The Runaways. I was just calling that into question.

Been seeing mentions of Best Coast here and there. Will check out.

I got lost in the definitions. So you're looking for band withs mostly girls in it, no male singers, and poor record sales?

not punk,

but the first Damone record 'from the attic' would probably fall under a power pop garage rock record...

the coathangers

The Go-Gos and The Breeders have poor record sales?

shiv - I've been meaning to hear more Coathangers. I have one song on a 7" that I really like.

I'm not so interested in changing my definition of punk for this exercise, and not really insistent that any of these should be considered "the best"... but all worth considering:


The Dishrags
Animal Slaves
Mecca Normal
The Pandoras
The Muffs
Ethyl Meatplow
The Paybacks
Les Hell On Heels


The Donnas definitely belong on this list - as long as we all agree to pretend they never released anything after Turn 21.

The Donnas are one of the worst bands of the last 15 years.