Frightwig

Anyone interested in doing a genealogical study of the roots of riot grrrl rock must include this tremendously influential San Francisco band. Ferocious, funky feminists, Frightwig's debut LP was a brain-burning chunk of white-hot noise rock, loaded with unsubtle sexual politics ("My Crotch Does Not Say Go") and fueled by punk rock bravado that never let up. Flying in the face of every conventional (i.e., male-defined) attitude of a woman's place in contemporary rock, Frightwig simply got in your face and stayed there. Sadly, they burned out after two records, reuniting in 1990 for a dispiriting EP that sounded more like a sophomoric dirty joke. A lot of feminist-inspired women rock bands of the '90s, like L7, Bikini Kill, and Bratmobile, owed a debt of gratitude to this pioneering band.