‘Nice Ass’ by Free Kitten

 For todays installment in Girl Power Week we are gonna look at another “super group’, Free Kitten. Formed in 1992 as a collaboration between Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon and Pussy Galore’s Julie Cafritz, two of the most amazing women in punk rock, the group was joined by Yoshimi P-We of the Boredoms on drums and Pavement bassist Mark Ibold. Notice in the line up the balance of members from more traditional punk/indie bands and members of noise/hardcore bands. This perfect mix really shows up in their music. The songs are always on the border of descending into absolute chaos held together only by a solid bass line and a vocal melody. Meanwhile, the guitar is delightfully overdriven and the drums are a punk rock versions of Captain Beefheart rhythms. This band is just the right mixture of punk rock elements.

 I think my favorite element of ‘Nice Ass’ is the subject matter of most the songs, the problems you face while being in the music industry. Basically, the members started a group to complain about the pitfalls of touring and the stupidity of the process. The whole album is a sneering look at the way things work and no one could vocalize that better than Kim Gordon, one of my favorite female voices in music. When this album was released in 1995, it seemed this is the way things would always work in the music world but we know better now, don’t we?

 In the end I’m sure people will chalk Free Kitten up as just another punk band but they are more than that. They’re a punk band with a hook both musically and ideologically. Nothing is more punk than railing against the system you’re apart of. Plus it’s just perfectly loud, chaotic music. What’s not to love?

Song: ‘Call Back’