From the NME:
Gaggle – ‘From The Mouth Of The Cave’ (Transgressive)
Opening with something that sounds like a washing machine slow cycle, Gaggle’s full-length debut revels in its own weirdness. Sometimes, as on ‘Army Of Birds’’ bonkers Salt’N’Pepa sass, it works. But mostly their kooky feminist shtick is so heavy-handed (‘Liar’, for example, is essentially a chant about punishing men for cheating – *eyeball roll*) you just want to switch them off and blare out some Guns N’ Roses. A number of Gaggle will own literature by Germaine Greer. They will have at some point been described as ‘quirky’. They will talk openly about their menstrual cycles with no embarrassment. Everyone else will inwardly sigh.
Lisa Wright (5/10)
Wow. I know that the U.K. music press largely focuses on male-centric music – conveniently overlooking the majority of the most vital music out there – but it’s now considered a *bad* thing to read Germaine Greer, be OK with your female sexuality and sound a little different to The Vaccines? Wow. And they wonder why their circulation is still dropping.
This explains Oasis, right?
Is that cover a spoof mockup like my ‘Kim Kardashian’ joke?
Yes it’s a bad thing to read Germaine Greer, who is often guilty of misogyny in the vicious attacks she’s published over the years on various women she doesn’t like. Her recent snotty comments about the female Australian prime minister’s “fat arse,” her homophobic comments about transsexuals, and the way she has always pursued petty feuds with women she doesn’t like has revealed her to be someone no longer worth listening to. She’s just an attention hog and if a man was saying some of the misogynist things she’s said about other women, he would have been rightly pilloried. No one should pay any attention to this blowhard.
So Ceil, I take it due to your dislike of Germaine Greer (for what sounds like some reasonable er reasons) you are now associating this record and it’s enjoyablity and quality with something you don’t like. Now that this Lisa character has put the two things together in your mind, can you ever listen to this record without it triggering feelings generated not by this record itself, but by Germaine Greer? Didn’t think so. Hence this reviewer has done a hatchet job. And she calls herself a woman… well she goes by a commonly recognized woman’s name at least. If music such as this was presented as no big deal politically and just appreciated on the basis of it’s melody in the same way that seriously offensive stuff often is regardless of content, then perhaps we could get somewhere. It saddens me that bands like Odd Future (who to me have now become a totem for misogyny in music) can get away with saying some really sick and twisted stuff about what they want to do to women and that got NOT A WORD OF PROTEST about it’s content from the majority of the industry and audiences DEFENDED THEIR RIGHT TO SAY THIS STUFF IN THEIR MUSIC. But heaven forbid a few women sing a song with empowering lyrics that casually go against the patriarchy that condones so many songs degrading and discouraging to women. THE SONG IS A PROTEST. THE PROTEST IS BEING PROTESTED AGAINST.
That Lisa needs to start writing under a male name if she is not going to represent femininity. If she wants to impress the boys she works with by being part of their pack, she ought to be done with the whole ‘being a woman succeeding in a male dominated environment’ mantle that is there if you think about it and just call herself Steve as her professional name. She sucks.
SHE IS BIASED AND NOT IN A POSITION TO REVIEW ANYTHING REMOTELY GIRLY, FEMININE OR WITH ANY SHRED OF FEMININE EMPOWERMENT FROM NOW ON. SHE SHOULD ONLY BE ALLOWED TO WRITE ABOUT TOSSERS LIKE THE ONE ON THE COVER. AND THE TOSSERS WHO NORMALLY WRITE ABOUT OASIS SHOULD REVIEW THIS SORT OF MUSIC AND THEN THE CARDS WOULD BE ON THE FUCKING TABLE.
Men make the best feminists for obvious reasons… but remember that women make the best misogynistic for precisely the same reasons. Never forget this. Wolf in lamb’s clothing.
Golightly: Actually I like the Gaggle song. I just don’t have much regard for Germaine Greer. This sentence of the review — ” A number of Gaggle will own literature by Germaine Greer.” — is only the reviewer’s conjecture, not mine. It doesn’t affect what I think of the song.
I know plenty of lovely feminists who nonetheless think Germaine Greer is a supremely petty and vicious person who should just put a sock in it sometimes.
Totally agree with you on Odd Future. If you want to get equally pissed off, read the Guardian’s story today on the new book about Led Zeppelin, which pulls no punches on the band’s truly repulsive treatment of women (not just badmouthing them in verse but sexually abusing actual women, including underage girls) and then read comment after comment at the end of the story saying “fantastic band” and “best. band. evar” and “top band.”
After all why worry about sexual abuse and pedophila if the music is good?