In a very special moment of internet “holy shit” last week, thanks to Dangrous Minds, I discovered a link on the Kangnave blog for three massive collections of female fronted punk rock bands from the years of 1977-89. Titled: A Reference Of Female-Fronted Punk Rock: 1977-89 (Part 1/3), this collection expands world wide, extracted from tapes and records, including obscure hardcore and punk bands that one could not discover with a lifetime of digging.
This is a pretty insane project put together by my pal Vince B. from San Francisco a few years back. As the title indicates, this is a homemade 12 x CD-R (!) compilation of punk bands fronted by female vocalists from 1977 to 1989. More like a giant mixtape than a compilation, as he only made 36 copies which he sent to friends and people who submitted material. You may notice that some of the bands didn’t have a steady female vocalist (The Lewd, etc.) but he still included songs that were sung by another member of the band. This is as international as it gets, with stuff ranging from world famous Blondie or Crass to the most obscure Eastern European cassette compilation veterans. The boxset came packaged in a handnumbered fancy translucent lunchbox enclosing all 12 CD-Rs, a stack of full-colored cards featuring comprehensive tracklist and artwork/info, as well as a manga pin-up figure! Talk about a labor of love.
In other words, thanks to a dude with much more patience than myself, I will be listening to angsty punk music for the next month straight and LOVING IT. Dig in!
Download the Compilation HERE.
