"Guerrilla Girls! She-Punks And Beyond 1975-2016" by VARIOUS ARTISTS featuring Patti Smith, The Bags, X-Ray Spex, Mary Monday & The Bitches, Blondie, The Raincoats, Essential Logic, pragVEC and more (January 2023 UK Ace Records CD Compilation with Nick Robbins Remasters and Mick Patrick Notes) - A Review by Mark Barry...

 

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"...Anything's Allowed..."

 

Ace Records of the UK specialize in CD compilations – always on the hunt for that collection they know you need in your urbanite domicile like an audit of the Trump Tower accounts system.

 

Well, along comes this unladylike left-field little bruiser to sort us boys out good and proper. "Guerilla Girls! She-Punks And Beyond 1975-2016" offers you 25 remastered odes of joy from the emergence of Seventies Punk and New Wave to Girl Power and the resurgence of Power Pop and She-Punk bands of the Twenties. "Guerilla Girls!" takes in many famous names – all of who have been telling their mum since the age of fifteen that an office job is not their primary goal just at the moment.

 

And what a great listen it is too – cleverly compiled by Ace's Mick Patrick with notes by fellow admirers Lucy O’Brien, Vim Renault, Lena Cortina and Patrick himself – you literally get 79-minutes of early giants like Patti Smith, X-Ray Spex, Blondie and The Slits - to new goers on the block like Babes In Toyland, L7 and Bikini Kill (with many other worthy points inbetween).

 

I love this little CD and have been giving it some since I first spotted it on their release schedules back in January 2023. It looks good - a cool digipak, huge 40-page booklet, great audio - top stuff. Time to honor the Punkettes who put the riot in Grrrls way back when nice ladies didn't engage in such lurid botherations. To the Day-Glo details...

 

UK released Friday, 27 January 2023 - "Guerrilla Girls! She-Punks And Beyond 1975-2016" by VARIOUS ARTISTS on Ace Records CDTOP 1599 (Barcode 029667102827) is a 25-Track CD Compilation of Remasters that plays out as follows (79:00 minutes):

 

1. In Excelsis Deo / Gloria (Version) - PATTI SMITH (from the December 1975 US LP "Horses" on Arista Records AL 4066 - Full Album Version 5:40 minutes)

2. Survive - THE BAGS (December 1978 US 45-single on Dangerhouse BAG 199, A-side)

3. Iama Poseur - X-RAY SPEX (April 1978 UK 45-single in EMI International INT 533, B-side of "The Day The World Turned Day-Glo" - and on the November 1978 UK LP "Germfree Adolescence" on EMI International INS 3023)

4. I Gave My Punk Jacket To Rickie - MARY MONDAY & THE BITCHES (1977 US 45-single on Malicious Productions (no catalogue number), A-side)

5. I Didn't Have The Nerve To Say No - BLONDIE (from the 1977 album "Plastic Letters" on Chrysalis CHR 1168)

6. You're A Million - THE RAINCOATS (from the 1979 UK album "The Raincoats" on Rough Trade ROUGH 3)

7. Popcorn Boy (Waddle Ya Do?) - ESSENTIAL LOGIC (October 1979 UK 45-single on Rough Trade RT 029, A-side - and on the December 1979 UK LP "Best Rhythm News - Waddle Ya Play?" on Rough Trade ROUGH 5)

8. Expert - prayVEC (June 1979 UK 45-Single on Spec SP 002, A-side)

9. My Cherry Is In Sherry - LUDUS (July 1981 UK 45-single on New Hormones ORG 8, A-side - and on the 1981 2LP-set "The Seduction" on New Hormones ORG 16)

10. Kray Twins - MO-DETTES (from the October 1980 UK LP "The Story So Far" on Deram SML 1120)

11. Earthbeat - THE SLITS (August 1981 UK 45-single on CBS Records A 1498, A-side - and on the October 1981 UK LP "Return Of The Giant Slits" on CBS Records CBS 85269)

12. Das Ah Riot - BUSH TETRAS (May 1981 UK 45-single on Fetish FET 007, B-side of "Things That Go BOOM In The Night")

13. Bitchen Summer (Speedway) – BANGLES (from the December 1982 US Compilation LP "Rodney On The ROQ Vol.III" on Posh Boy PBS 140)

14. Shakedown – AU PAIRS (from the August 1982 UK LP "Sense And Sensuality" on Kamera Records KAM 010)

15. It's About Time – THE PANDORAS (1984 US 4-Track EP "The Pandoras" on Moxie MM 1044)

16. Come On Now – THE PUSSYWILLOWS (from the 1988 US LP "Spring Fever!" on Telstar TR003)

17. Rules And Regulations - WE'VE GOT A FUZZBOX AND WE'RE GONNA USE IT!! (From the 1986 UK LP "Bostin' Steve Austin" on Vindaloo Records FBOX 1)

18. Her Jazz – HUGGY BEAR (February 1993 UK 45-single on Wiiija/Catcall TROUBLE 001, A-side)

19. Bruise Violet – BABES IN TOYLAND (from the 1992 CD album "Fontanelle" on Reprise 9 26998-2)

20. Rebel Girl – BIKINI KILL (from the 1992 LP "Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah" on Kill Your Rock Stars KRS 206)

21. Pretend We're Dead – L7 (from the CD album "Bricks Are Heavy" on Slash 9 26784-2)

22. What's Wrong With You – BRATMOBILE (from the 2002 CD album "Girls Get Busy" on Lookout! LK 280)

23. Let Go Of The Past – THE TUTS (from the 2002 CD album "Update Your Brain" on Dovetown DT007)

24. Hot – THE REGRETTES (from the 2015 CD album "Feel Your Feelings Fool" on Warner Brothers 557260-2)

25. Silver Spoons – SKINNY GIRL DIET (from the 2015 CD album "Heavy Flow" on Fiasco 013)

 

The card DigiPak is cute but the chunky 40-page colour booklet is a serious bit of writing genius and investigation – each track with its 45 or LP or CD pictured above. LENA CORTINA and VIM RENAULT of PunkGirlDiaries.com have contributed and the factoids come at you fast and furious. This is a compilation that celebrates the not-so-pretty – the girl who is not asked to dance but wants and deserves love and sex just as much as the rest. Their voices come seeping through and as you can expect, some of it none to pleased with the norms of a male-dominated industry (an impossibly likeable Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex is on the cover).

 

NICK ROBBINS did the Remasters and power and passion comes a roaring out – from the near church silence of Patti Smith to the velvet-glove rock guitar of Skinny Girl Diet – there will be more than one occasion where you may need to turn down the stereo for fear of neighbour intervention. To the chunes...

 

Even now in 2023, the Patti Smith reworking of the Van Morrison Them 60ts classic "Gloria" into her "In Excelsis Deo" is a stunning listen – years ahead of its let's go wild and damn the torpedoes attitude. DJ and National Treasure John Peel loved the privately pressed Mary Monday track, while Poly Styrene sends up herself and everyone else for that matter in her "Iama Poseur" jab – a great X-Ray Spex single side. When you listen to The Raincoats strumming urban guitars and do-it-yourself Talking Heads angst - it's hard now to imagine the impact of ROUGH 3 - a label that would become dominated by The Smiths in the Eighties. They sounded like a homeless Patti Smith dreaming of Them's "Gloria" and somewhere to get a nice bag of chips - extraordinary stuff and a brill choice for left-field lovers. That is then reinforced by Essential Logic's "Popcorn Boy..." who sounded like the lovechild of Sparks and Cockney Rebel and early Jam acoustic guitar - all mad vocals and heavy-on-the-bass and social lyrics. It's a right slice of Joy Division barbed wire - love it. The earth is busy burning energy and light bulbs as clouds cough in The Slits drum-pounding ya-ya "Earthbeat" - another quirky you will either love or loathe or both. 

 

Marriage, brothers and violent men creep about the decidedly uncomfortable upbeat rhythms of "Kray Twins" - the Mo-Dettes taking on East End notoriety with a very British New Wave cavalier feel. And again the long shadow of David Byrne's Talking Heads and their neck-jerk beats permeates the brilliant "Das Ah Riot" by Bush Tetras - sounding huge here. I must admit to lack of knowledge on the very cool instrumental "Bitchen Summer (Speedway)" by The Bangles - an early 1982 stab at Link Wray greatness. The Au Pairs want us to give everything we are told by the media and Government a little thought and not be so willing to be brainwashed – their "Shakedown" a forgotten goody. Byrds type guitar jangles via The Smiths Johnny Marr run through the veins of The Pandoras EP-track "It's About Time" while that Sixties retro vibe bops out of "Come On Now", a short but very cool under two-minutes cover of The Kinks song by The Pussywillows.

 

There must be more to life, rules and regulations to blindly obey – Fuzzbox rile in their 80ts Punk vs. 60ts Girl Group "Rules And Regulations". But the first real sign of hurt and rage and pent-up anger hits hard with Huggy Bear when they tear into "Her Jazz" – which is in turn followed by the even more Nirvana-screeching attacks in "Bruise Violet" by Babes In Toyland – said to be about Courtney Love. Born of the same ripped-shirt in a nunnery attitude is "Rebel Girl" – a grungy in-yer-face shouter that sounds like a call to revolution rather than an invitation to waltz. L7 smartly break up the riffage and Hard Rock of "Pretend We're Dead" with a great middle eight and C'Mon C'Mon chants that give it a girl-Ramones feel. And on it goes...

 

For sure "Guerilla Girls! She-Punks And Beyond 1975-2016" is not the faint of heart and those needing a few quiet moments to contemplate Zen consciousness. It wants to shake you up, like they did, and I for one think these brave pioneers have pulled it off big time. Ace does it again...