Band-Maid: Rebooting Rock and Roll (Part 1)

 

Some of the pioneering female rock bands made it a point to be transgressive.  The Slits.  The Cramps.  7-Year Bitch.  Bikini Kill.  Hole.  Get the message?  Band-Maid are more sly about it.  Who could be afraid of a girl band wearing maid uniforms?  Well, one of their albums is called "World Domination", and they play hard rock with lots of attitude.  It's a shot in the arm for an art form frequently said, at least by Western critics, to be dying.

 

Band-Maid have released over 135 songs to date, in a wide range of styles, without anything close to a dud.  If you listen somewhat chronologically, you witness a band evolving right in front of you, from danceable pop-punk songs toward their now trademark fusion of hard rock, jazz and funk.  They have also released an all-acoustic album which is one of the most gorgeous things I’ve heard in decades.

 

Band-Maid's fans include a lot of musicians, who often compare them to the Beatles for their creativity, versatility and attention to production detail. Despite zero coverage from Western media, their 16-city October tour of the U.S. sold out in two days in May, with tickets now fetching four and five times the original price on the resale market.  Their U.S. promoter, LiveNation, clearly messed up, or they would have taken into account Band-Maid's passionate online fan base.

 

Why all the excitement? See for yourself:

 

“Alone”, Feb. 2016  This was the first song and MV the band wrote, arranged and directed without outside input.  It is also where their trademark sound really crystallized, including a short, wild guitar solo that leaves you wanting more.  Since then they've had full artistic control over their work.  Consider this their declaration of autonomy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axF56i4spio

 

“Yolo”, Oct 2016  This song foreshadowed a lot of what was to come a few years later, in its experimentation with mismatched time signatures, odd harmonies and unexpected transitions.  They would come back to these ideas in later albums.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKZbzcUdY1g

 

“Thrill”, Nov. 2014  Their first professional music video and the one that introduced them to Western fans.  They were debating whether to disband, when this video went viral on social media (they initially had no idea what was going on when their Facebook page blew up).  It is also the last video with them all in maid outfits. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uds7g3M-4lQ

 

 

 

I am extending International Women's Week to the rest of the year

Women everywhere just suffered an incomprehensible insult at the hands of the U.S. government, which has declared that under our Constitution, people who can get pregnant are not entitled to full autonomy.  The country that once led the world in advancing human dignity is now leading the retreat.  This decision may not not technically apply in other countries, but make no mistake that it gives cover everywhere to those who think equality and dignity are not for everyone.  

In solidarity with women, this blog is going to focus for the rest of the year on female artists, composers and band leaders.  It’s not much, just a small gesture, but it's what I can do here.  As in so many other fields, women are proving they are as good as, or better, than men, at all the stuff men once arrogated to themselves.  Women are now leading the way in music and musical expression all over the world, so why not acknowledge that in a music blog?

 

If you want to check out my prior posts about great musicians who also happen to be women, here are some links: 

Women in rock:

https://zapatosjam.blogspot.com/2021/03/international-womens-week.html

https://zapatosjam.blogspot.com/2021/03/international-womens-week-2.html

https://zapatosjam.blogspot.com/2021/03/international-womens-week-3.html

 

A political commentary:

https://zapatosjam.blogspot.com/2021/03/international-womens-week-postscript.html

 

Rock pioneers:

http://zapatosjam.blogspot.com/2020/07/girls-rock-1-pioneers-leslie-gore-suzi.html

Some of the greatest voices ever:

http://zapatosjam.blogspot.com/2020/06/ah-anna.html

https://zapatosjam.blogspot.com/2020/06/greatest-voices-1-ella-fitzgerald-first.html

https://zapatosjam.blogspot.com/2020/07/tina-turner-force-of-nature.html

https://zapatosjam.blogspot.com/2021/11/greatest-voices-5-floor-jansen.html

https://zapatosjam.blogspot.com/2021/11/greatest-voices-6-more-floor.html

https://zapatosjam.blogspot.com/2021/11/greatest-voices-7-floor-unchained.html

https://zapatosjam.blogspot.com/2021/12/greatest-voices-8-how-floor-jansen.html

 

Jazz innovators:

https://zapatosjam.blogspot.com/2021/10/jazz-greats-4-hiromi.html

https://zapatosjam.blogspot.com/2021/11/jazz-and-fusion-greats-senri.html