Punk Rock Women Vocalists

So there's a certain vocal thing I've been noticing among a few different female vocalists. It's hard to describe, but I've heard it with Andrea Zollo (Pretty Girls Make Graves), Alison Mosshart (The Kills, Dead Weather) and Alexis Krauss (Sleigh Bells). Particularly on the Dead Weather track "The Difference Between Us," and the Sleigh Bells track "Infinity Guitars." It's something punky and growly (and actually kinda reminds me of I think it's Carrie Brownstein on S-K's "Youth Control") and I'm trying to figure out who originated it vocally. It's not Patti Smith who is softer/bluesier vocally, or Joan Jett, or Alice Armandariz (The Bags), which sounds too placed in LA punk vocals to really fit this paradigm (tho maybe that's where it comes from? it's in the same bag as Exene Cervenka for me). Definitely not Hayley Williams (Paramore) or Avril Lavigne who have way too clean vocals to fit this mold, I think.

So what are other examples of this vocal expression (if you hear what I'm hearing in it) and who is the earliest example of it? Also, use this thread to discuss other punk rock female vocalists (I did some searching -- couldn't find any similar thread, but I imagine this territory has been covered before).

Not sure this is what you are talking about, but this makes me think of Bikini Kill and also at least moments of Belinda Carlisle's singing in the Go-Gos, like in the song We Got the Beat, as poppy as it is, there is a great punk-rock growl moment towards the end when she's like "Jump baaaa-ack!" that I think totally defines this.

maybe a bit of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ycPKfwLqh0

Also Brody from the Distillers?

I haven't heard Distillers in awhile, but I think I remember Brody is almost exactly what I'm talking about. So who innovated this style of singing? Or is this just the context of contemporary female punk rocker vocalists?

can you describee the style you're talking about a bit more?

Hrm. Brody's vocalists are a bit too deep and even a little metal'y (at least on Coral Fang now that I relisten) so not really this so much. Tho relistening I def feel like I underrated that album when it came out. It's got a great sound.

Where does X-Ray Spex fit into this (not sure I'm nailing the sound yer talking about)?

like are we talking "Oh Bondage Up Yours" territory here maybe?

or "Cherry Bomb"?

don't know if this fits but that pigfuck thread reminded me how much i like this song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpxFXz08bX0

Kim Gordon

her growly/shout-y stuff on Jet Set Experiment and No Star, for ex.

X-Ray Spex's Poly Styrene was high and screechy, not very low and growly - but then neither is Sleigh Bells singer...and Joan Jett is kinda low and growly, but she's an example of what we're not looking for... not sure what we're after here.

I'm trying. I mean, I kinda started thinking about this because I started hearing something vocally that reminded me of other vocal performances. Like Zollo kinda screaming, but you can hear this rough edge in her voice on "The Noctural House" when she sings "Magnetic," or on "Domino" when she sings "No no no no no / No no no no no / Heart calls domino." Then I heard something similar in "Infinity Guitars" when Krauss sings practically the whole thing -- that shouty, almost cheer-leadery sound in the beginning, "deaf chords / dead ends." I'm not sure what made me hear something similar for Mosshart, but it's on the new Dead Weather album, like when she sings "I'm not the way that you found me," which is kinda bluesy too and more tonally - uh - sultry? than these other singers, but has some kind of similar vibe to me. They're almost all stylistically plainer performances (there isn't a huge vocal range going on) and they're all predominately featuring the singers attitude over a more calculated performance style. But there's also something I would nail as explicitly punky. If this sounds vague it's because I'm trying to figure it out myself.

jjjustin, I think you nailed it with "Oh Bondage Up Yours!" It's a bit more screamy than these other performances, but definitely could see it as a proto version of it.

Anyway, feel free to totally ignore what I'm trying to figure out and just discuss female punk rock vocalists, cause they're awesome and I love them all.

Ah, well, in THAT case...

One of my favorite videos in all of Youtube-dom:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPCO85TSVlA

juicy juicy juice

my new fave band by the way

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgV211U1RlM&feature=related

The first female punk singer I go into was Penelope Houston from the Avengers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uarX1MQhfOE

Something about your description gave me a Lydia Lunch brainstorm. Maybe it was passionate, sorta like chanting, not a huge vocal range that did it.

My fav moment from the Crass camp, Honey Bane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OinX5D9dtWY

the sloppy hey-we're-trying-to-play-reggae-here upstrokes are so great.

as with everyone else, i'm having a hard time pinpointing exactly what yr talking about, mordy. have listened to the pgmg, dead weather and sleigh bells tracks (nay, nay and yay, respectively), and i don't see much similarity. zollo reminds me of debbie harry, mossheart's going for a sultry blues thing, and alexis krauss adopts a tough, snarly stance while basically chanting the lyrics. maybe there's some similarity in that they all kind of "drop the mask" in their vocals, allowing a bit of plainspoken/everygirl attitude to show through. like, whatever the singing style, they use it to converse as much as to emote, and the quality of their conversation does have a distinctly punk cast: blasé, almost taunting.

i get why joan jett doesn't fit in with this - she's either going for a soft, breathy style (crimson & clover) or belting it out at full power (most everything else). her singing doesn't break or reveal character in the same way. but i can't see why you exclude patti smith. i mean, yeah, she's doing all kinds of other stuff, sometimes sounding a bit like grace slick, but she's like godmother of tough, plainspoken, girl-punk vocals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1o68h4Usqs
(forgive shitty NBK title card on video}

also yeah, the avengers, like nate said. take away the fake english accent, and penelope houston's doing something similar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4TpfB0feZg

"they use it to converse as much as to emote"

this definitely, tho the words are obviously imperfect (conversing is a form of emoting), but maybe it's that they seem less stylized. Patti Smith does a lot of actual talking is the thing, and the artists I mentioned definitely aren't chatting it up, falling into poetry in the middle, and when Smith sings it seems very different from her natural speaking voice (which is probably true for these other artists, but they aren't splicing them together so it isn't noticeable)

retweeted by Viv

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B6_r1GxIAAAI1Tt.jpg:large

Chrissie Hynde, Pauline Black, Debbie Harry, Viv Albertine, Siouxsie Sioux, Poly Styrene

Not seeing a credit, but orig tweeted by John P AKA @FrogAlaPeche

Oh sorry: earlier tweet incl "photo by Chris Stein"---got a book coming out, doesn't he?

I'll take Penelope Houston over any of them

The OP makes me wonder how far back we should look for the "roots" of the female punk growl. i mean, hadn't the growl & rasp mode of delivery been thoroughly explored by blues singers already? Didn't Patti Smith idolize Janis Joplin? To speak in oversimplified terms somewhat, it makes perfect sense: if you want to sing powerfully and play the role of shaman, if you don't necessarily care for sounding "pretty" in the conventional sense, someone like Joplin would have provided a great source of inspiration.

Are there any books on this topic? Someone (with greater grasp of vocal technique than I) please write one. Punk vocals in general are given short shrift, yet they can send shivers up the spine. Throw in some harmonies (see X), and you've got some otherwordly type magic happening.