Riot Grrrls: Mean, Mad and Defiantly Underground

The underground buzz words in rock: Riot Grrrl.

The punk-feminist movement--centered largely in Olympia, Wash., and Washington, D.C.--is producing some of the most aggressive, unrefined raw music of the day, via independent singles, hit-and-run concert appearances and guerrilla theater. The movement is also producing some provocative cultural debate: A typical Riot Grrrl action is to write a word like rape on her belly and walk through a crowded shopping mall. The very name Riot Grrrl pretty much captures the sound of this fury.

“The people who came up with the name and went on to make music are writing and singing about things that are very powerful and strong,” says Jean Smith, of the Vancouver, B.C.-based duo Mecca Normal. She is generally considered a prime inspiration to the Riot Grrrl bands.

And even though the music of Riot Grrrl bands hasn’t commanded a large audience yet, it has caught the fancy of the international rock press and other trend-watchers. The likes of America’s Spin magazine and England’s Melody Maker appear fascinated with such Riot Grrrl bands as Washington state’s Bratmobile and Heavens to Betsy and Washington, D.C.’s Bikini Kill.

It’s just the sort of thing that major record companies usually climb over each other to sign--just in case the scene catches on. And rock ‘n’ roll women certainly are on the minds of the major labels, which have recently signed such groups as L7, Babes in Toyland and Hole.

So why not Riot Grrrl bands, whose sounds hark back to the raw, homemade feel of the most independent punk?

Several record company talent scouts contacted by Pop Eye say they haven’t even heard any Riot Grrrl music yet--and the scouts who have heard it say the bands aren’t far enough along to justify spending the hundreds of thousands of dollars that companies typically invest in a new group.

“As of now, they don’t need to be on major labels,” says Tim Carr, who signed Babes in Toyland to Warner Bros. Records. “They’re just establishing the movement in the underground.

“They haven’t gotten to the point where they have to decide whether they want to be Fugazi (which has chosen to remain an underground band) or Mudhoney (which has moved up to the major-label circuit).”

So far, the Riot Grrrl groups appear content--if not determined--to remain on the underground level.

“I don’t think they’re interested in the record industry,” says Candice Pederson, co-owner of K Records, a small, Olympia-based label that recently released a joint single by Heavens to Betsy and Bratmobile. “I think the political climate would have to change . . . especially men and their attitude toward women in bands would have to change. There’s no evidence of that right now.”

“A major label is not for my band,” says Bratmobile drummer Molly Neuman, 21, adding that she’s suspicious of most press coverage the Riot Grrrl movement has received. “I’m in it mostly to have fun and to do things being in a band lets you do. . . . We’re punk-rockers. . . . And there’s no such thing as a Riot Grrrl band at this point. I’m weary of the tag. It’s not a thing of trying to run from an association, but it’s potentially limiting.”