Song of the Day: The Trashwomen “Justine”
My obsession in the last couple of years has shifted mainly to bands and music movements that no one really cares about. The ones that came and went and no one bothers to look back because they haven’t become part of the music “cannon”.
The early 90’s Bay Area budget rock movement is on the fence right around now. It’s still pretty hard to find some of these records, but with the emergence of a lot of kids claiming bands like the Mummies and Supercharger as influences it’s only a matter of time before we start seeing T-shirts and 180G Reissues. So I’ll enjoy this time before some dumb critic starts talking about how “it was direct statement regarding the musical climate of the time” by digging in piles and piles of vinyl, hoping to unearth gems from that era.
I don’t know much about the Trashwomen. I know that within three weeks they formed, learned how to play their instruments, and played their first show….and that’s enough right? They were loud, used a lot of reverb, and weren’t afraid to scream a lot. While other all-girl punk bands of that era were so concerned with making important statements, the Trashwomen played irreverent surf-rock dumbed down so much all you could do was jump around and enjoy it.
Hence their cover of the Mummies “Justine” is a minute and 57 seconds of pure balls to the walls, punk rock bliss. They supplement the swagger of the original version with an urgency and somehow manage make it even more of a sing along affair.
