Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Bratmobile - The Real Janelle (1994) EP Vinyl-Rip

Bratmobile formed when University of Oregon students Allison Wolfe and Molly Neuman collaborated on an influential feminist fanzine, Girl Germs. The band played its first show as a two-woman act at Olympia's North Shore Surf Club on February 14, 1991, with Molly and Allison sharing duties on guitar, drums, and vocals.

During spring break 1991, Allison and Molly went to Washington, DC to follow Beat Happening and Nation of Ulysses on tour and try to work on a new form of Bratmobile that, at that time , included Jen Smith and Christina Billotte in the line-up. Together, they recorded and released a cassette tape entitled Bratmobile DC. Beat Happening's Calvin Johnson had previously introduced Molly to nascent guitarist Erin Smith from Bethesda, Maryland during the Christmas holiday in December, 1990 at a Nation of Ulysses show in Washington, DC. Smith was co-author, with her brother, of the much-revered TV pop culture fanzine Teenage Gang Debs when Allison and Molly asked her to jam with them. It clicked, and in July 1991 the trio played their first show as a 3-piece with Molly Neuman on drums, Erin Smith on guitar, and Allison Wolfe on vocals. They were just in time to play at the historic International Pop Underground Convention in Olympia, Washington, becoming the only band to appear twice.

From their first shows, Bratmobile were considered an exciting and important addition to the fertile early '90s NorthWest scene. From 1991 to 1994 Bratmobile released a classic album, Pottymouth, and an EP, The Real Janelle, on Kill Rock Stars, as well as The Peel Session recording before the intense media scrutiny and inner pressures of the Riot Grrrl movement hastened the band's breakup (on stage, no less) in 1994.(From Wikipedia)

Bratmobile's second 12", and their last release for close to six years, 1994's The Real Janelle is a big step up from the chaotic Pottymouth, both in musical skill and clarity of thought. The songs are more pointed -- "Brat Girl" is a violent screed holding up the infamous suburban high school serial rapists "the Spur Posse" as the ultimate result of the kind of emotional abuse touched on in "And I Live in a Town Where the Boys Amputate Their Hearts" -- and also more subtle. The low-key, quietly tense "Yeah, Huh?" is almost downright pretty in comparison to a full-force punk-rocker like "Die," but even the latter song is more controlled and direct than Bratmobile's earliest releases. The highlight, however, is the title track, the catchiest song of Bratmobile's career, and a scrappy punk-pop D.I.Y. classic.(From Allmusic.com)

Ripped at 320 kbps
Enjoy

3 comments:

  1. Nice to see you back, I never heard this when it was around and I'm from Seattle... there was so much coming at ya back then so it's cool to be able to sit back and give a listen now even if it's ?? years late. Once again many thumbs Up for posting the vinyl rips !!! It add that extra sense of realism thats often missing from CD versions, Plus now I know how to spell "Vinyl" =) thanks for the spelling lesson.

    ReplyDelete