the wrong end of the telescope

This entry was supposed to be about London. Because I have a lot of happy things to talk about, including but not limited to brunch with the internet, Brendon Urie's face, waffles and more waffles, Bristol in all its awesomeness, some of my favorite girls (and I miss them already), the accidental time travel-esque fic I'm writing, all of the good food, many new books, and so on. But. I got an email this morning, and.

According to Laena's twitter, The Like are on indefinite hiatus, and we are to make of that what we want to make of it. Which, I mean, as much as I am absolutely going to take that as not-ruling-out-more-stuff-in-the-future-COMPLETELY (I am nothing if not optimistic), is still really really sadmaking. I never got to see them live, I never got to hear the new things they were recording, I won't get to see where they could go together, I just--dammmit. Dammit. They mattered to me. Their existence mattered to me. So there will be a happy entry about London, but not right now, because I am sad, this morning and my heart, it's a little bit broken. They're my band, you know? And I hope they come back, I HOPE they come back, but I want them to be around now. ♥

Yesterday I saw a .gif going around on Tumblr from that ATL video that said something like "fucking boys in bands doesn't make you famous". I'm so sick of this, you guys. So sick of this. (ETA to clarify: 1. stop making videos/in general act like women have one place in the scene and one only, and 2. if they want to fuck boys (or girls) in bands, they don't need to be ashamed of that.)

On the other hand, I woke up to posts about The Like in Australia, and god, that was cathartic. Girls on stage, girls who have such skills, girls who captivate an audience like it's nothing out of the ordinary. I need that. Especially right now, when women's rights seems to be going backwards in the US. Which makes this seem trivial, maybe, except the ways that women are devalued in the scene, the way their sexuality is simultaneously a commodity and derided, the way their skills are doubted, the way their stories aren't told--it's all very familiar.

A little less than two years ago, I posted more than this, a post about women in music, inspired by the zine Pretty Good For a Girl.

I said:
I want Lyn-Z and Kitty to not be so rare that (misogynist asshole) security guards refuse to let them backstage after playing because somehow the drum sticks, the bass and the stage sweat still isn't enough to convince him they're not groupies. I want to be able to not flinch when I turn on MTV and there are music videos playing. (Come to think of it, I want more videos like Ciara's Like A Boy.) I want female musicians in bands to not be A Big Deal. I want female fans and techs and managers and performers to be respected. I want this to be our scene, in every sense of the word. This is our scene; this is our space.

I need a new album with The Like, I need more music by women. So what I want right now, please, are recs. Rec your favorite female musicians. Any genre, any era.

Here, I'll start (and I'm not reccing The Like, simply because I talk about them a lot anyway and they are, in fact, my favorites):

Adele:

( Hometown Glory )

Beverley Knight:

( Shoulda Woulda Coulda )

The Noisettes:

( Scratch Your Name )

Now you. ♥