Spill Challenge by SweetHomeAlabama
Since all the guitar and bass gods, lords of the drums, and keyboard wizards seem to be male – lets have some songs featuring a great instrumental perfomance played by a woman.
Cordell Jackson
Ready, steady, go!
And, please can we have a volunteer for next week’s Spill Challenge?
Too obvious?
no, that was my first thought too.
My second thought is Kate Bush, seen here playing the piano on Wuthering Heights. I know she’s a vocalist, but a very musically talented lady too. Sorry for the fuzziness of the video, I wanted one of her actually playing it.
The late Kelly Johnson, who I knew in the 70s (she gave me a bass guitar once) was pretty damned good as a guitarist. Here’s one of my favourites of hers
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/conservative-mp-nadine-dorries-pays-901399#.T-DHzXs010g.twitter
Wrong link?
Er….let’s take that again, shall we
Oh come on, guys. We must be able to come up with a few more! I always thought this was a great cover thanks to the geetar work:
I like a bit of Bangles. Not as much as Mr Bethnoir, but isn’t Susanna Hoffs cute?
She is cute – but it affected.
See that look – the one where she looks either far left or far right – often up into her eyelids – that’s a models look. It’s used by photographers to get as much white in the eyes – making them contrast the darkness of her eye colour.
she does it loads – it annoys me – because i know that she knows – and it’s not subtly done to look natural – it performed. It’s easy to go off ‘cute’ when the person knows that’s the effect.
Give me a woman with a good glare – and you get strong and sexy – not wishy washy knowing ‘cute’.
(did I type that out loud?)
You are quite correct, but she does it so well (plus I think Prince taught it to her coz he does it too, so it’s not her fault)
I’m going with Poison Ivy Rorschach of The Cramps, here playing on The Tube in the ’80s – the epitome of cool
very much so, dond
I’ve always liked the guitar playing on this.
go to about 3 minutes 15 in this clip and enjoy:
Sheila E – a love Bizarre
Prince could mostly out perform his female foils – Sheila could cock rock like no other – bloody hell – this is SO 80′s.
Shane – how about this! :
Love it !
dond for all Sheila E’s, great call.
Dond for all Sheila E.’s, great call.
(Oops, sorry if this post is a double, forgot to sign in first time.)
I think that in a three piece group each member really needs to be totally there all the time. And this is really true of the drummer.
So Okinawan girl rockers Stereopony are really great three girl rock group and as my dad says “in the engine room” (on drums) is Shiho Yamanoha. Not just a great girl drummer, but a great drummer – full stop ! ! !
Here they are in action ! ! !
Stereoponey – Effective Re-Line and Sweet Blue – Live
This comes to mind…
OH! I think I might be stuck on this…………………..
If it’s not guitar playing, the only thing that springs to mind is Karen Carpenter playing drums. (there was also the girl who played drums for a group called “Applejack”, (I think), back in the days. Mitch might know a bit more.
Can’t do a link right now……………………time for peepy bo-bo’s.
Night night.
The Applejacks had a girl bass player (Megan Davis). Honey Lantree played drums for the Honeycombs (“Have I The Right”), but the best was Claire Lane who played drums for The Ramrods which (I hope) is here
Thanks mitch.
Emily Wells: My main instrument is the violin. Im also really into little toy instruments. I have a few toy pianos and always bring one on the road with me. I have little glockenspiels, I love analog synthesizers, old synthesizers, old drum machines … anything that I can sample — Im into. I really like the combination between real instruments and electronic stuff. I also like the uke a lot … [The Melodica is] a really cool instrument. You can kinda make a sound like an accordion because its got air going through. You can play chords just like you would on an accordion, but you can also play single notes
Emily Wells
michael nyman meets hip hop my new fav musical crush – if only classical influence RR had been about this sort of thing.
Brilliant!! (Emily has played with JA a couple of times)
now that, I’d like to see.
Oh wow!
(are you not supposed to be in the wilds of no night – living off crunchy leaves – and tripping with sleep depravation?)
‘Oh wow’ indeed.
Tomorrow. I’m all alone here and the family are gone because I have to sort out the mess left by someone else already on holiday. Grumble, mumble … But tomorrow I’ll be living off nuts and berries, digging up new potatoes and all sort of fresh veg, marinating some elk, enjoying a cool beer in the sauna and thinking about a swim in the Baltic. Probably too cold for that last one.
4 a.m. today I had a very tetchy stag prancing along next to me – big fellow he was – but very very nervous (and I wasn’t even thinking of marinating him)
I’ve not heard her before, like! She reminds me of CocoRosie in terms of vocal style and children’s instruments, but I think she beats them on musical skills by quite a way.
BTW who is JA? *shows ignorance*
I think CocoRosie do have exceptional musical skills – I think one of them is highly trained too – but I think they have a very annoying ticks with their vocal stylings that bug me more than the instrumental ones… personal judgement obviously.
anyway – Joseph Arthur is a pet project of Helen’s to get nominated – I will try and gazump her if I get the chance to slip Wasted in – my fav track of his – I’m being taught new a wonderful extra songs with each nomination. Deaf ears Jon
hasn’t been seduced yet – but we’ll keep trying.
Joseph Arthur and Emily
I do know what you mean about CocoRosie’s singing style. On something like Gallows it’s acceptable, but they get a bit carried away don’t they?
Thanks for telling me who JA is, I was thinking that Jane’s Addiction seemed unlikely as collaborations go.
Jane’s Addiction before he believed his own made up myth and Emily Wells with modern technology – that’d entertain me.
CocoRosie – yep, they need someone in there telling them to stop over egging the song. Love them – but it’s selective, not wholeheartedly.
Here’s another
I’ll be in Pahiyas this Saturday as well. I say don’t drop anything! Hahaha. You can alyaws earn the money back. But the memories will never happen again. Hahaha cheesy!
I think Lora Logic deserves a mention, from X-Ray Specs. Not my usual sort of thing but she could certainly play sax. Poor quality video, sorry.
I did wonder if I should post this after my RR outburst.
Could give you any amount of Iva Bittova but try this for starters
Who knows where the links go?
Any excuse to wheel out the wonderful Erika & her crew again:
Lucie Rejchrtova
Solo
In Brownian motian
Saw her at The Albert Hall last year with the PCO.
This is a bit of a fuzzy recordng, but here she is again. I forgot to mention Kathryn plays the northumbrian pipes, for those that don’t know.
Lovely, great choice!
Cool – an opportunity to post this -
Mary Lou Williams – The Credo
Love a bit of MLW – a stone cold groover!
Ok, start sobbing
now
Thank you for posting J du Pre, a long time favorite. I’m glad that someone posted it on uTube. You don’t even need the sound, just look at the images from about 4.30 on.
One of my first thoughts – great.
Nobody does it better than du Pre. Thanks TY.
Rising to my own challenge: Surf’s up!
Produced by Kim Fowley, so you know it’s just gotta be a little bit weird:
Chiyo and the Crescents – Pink Dominos
Chiyo Ishii was not Japanese, but actually a Native American who took on the name when she married a Japanese-American.
Of course female drummers are few and far between too
“Of course female drummers are few and far between too”
Not in Japan and China, I can think of dozens of really great girlie drummers from those countries.
Not least the mighty Atom from Hedgehog.
Bonnie Raitt is a great guitarist:
I’m trying to find a link to Scarlett Rivera playing on BD’s Desire – her fiddle work is absoluteoy integral to the album and the Rolling Thunder tour recordings.
dond for Bonnie!
I was impressed when I saw this on Jools – intriguing guitar style
Kaki King – Playing With Pink Noise
O.K. Not everybody’s favourite kind of rock ‘n roll, but as a base guitarist she was pretty good.
Mutter magic.lr
Oh goodie ! I get to post a song by my current “main squeeze”. She is….wait for it….Japanese ! and called Tamurapan and I love her and want to have her babies.
Anything by Sharon Shannon – this one fits the bill.
If there’s no takers, I’ll do the Challenge next week.
Here’s Alice Coltrane sticking the Singing Ringing Tree in the Moulinex -
Deliberately forgetting that this is a one shot deal
The Jimi Hendrix of the koto
Well this isn’t great in a twiddly, complicated, muso way but it is great in a memorable bass line way, so…………
How cool is Tina Weymouth?
As it seems like we can more than one . . . .
Prog Rock is a live and well and living in Japan ! ! !
Boris are really nice experimental and post prog band that have had a lot of success not only in Japan but also in USA.
They formed in 1998 and have been active ever since.
The guitarist is called Wata and she is really great as you can see and hear in this video.
I hope you like it ! ! !
Donds for Boris and Wata…..love ‘em!
Easy one: my absolute favourite jazz guitarist is the wonderful, and late lamented, Emily Remler. I’m afraid the stereo effects get a bit weird on the first track…
Emily Remler
Not wishing to be a grouch, but this page has taken nearly ten minutes to load; no chance that we could carry on with the precedent set by Shane's Not-the-RR-Challenge thread, and post links rather than embedding the videos?
Mmmm, smooth sounds!
Re links vs. embedded vids – not grouchy at all, eminently sensible! I’d vote for that (each time I post they load again).
Links seem a great idea, once again, I’m having the same problem as you Aba
I’ll try an edit together the comments to see if we could convince those that didn’t play.
I’ll do a post about it as soon as I can.
Well, this certainly comes to mind. Lita Ford & Joan Jett do the the shredding While Cherry Cherie solos on attitude. Still fucking rocks.
dond for Joanie, although when i think of her on guitar, unfortunately in the back of my mind it’s still “pretty good for a girl”.
I thought that someone would pick up on Nina Simone so I left it for others, but no one did so here she is. One of the great jazz pianists, unfortunately under-rated, she always shows her classical influences in her improvisations. This video was the topic of a fairly heated discussion here some years back, the entire program from Montreux 1976 is at youtube and it’s a must-see.
Good choice GF!
out why your bike doesn’t fall down when you ride, and it isn’t what they thought. Denver’s new myraoal candidates support cycling. Ohio Bike Lawyer Steve Magas’ excellent op-ed on the conflict between cyclists and drivers
my favourite kick-ass Brighton belles:
Electrelane – “Come On”
Girl groups with great drummers -
St Vincent – Surgeon As one youtube commentator says: “How duh fuck do you play that riff and sing at the same time.” There are more impressive performances out there but the first link has the cleanest sound.
Polka Chicks: “Ala asetu taloksi” Accordian virtuosity. It’s a Midsummer thing.
For a drummer I’ll offer Carla Azar – maybe not the most elegant, but I think she’s pretty neat
With Autolux
With Jack White
Always thought Tori Amos played a nice piano (when she reined in the kookiness):
I have an idea for a challenge next week, if no one else has volunteered yet…
llamalpaca – said a bit up ∆
“If there’s no takers, I’ll do the Challenge next week”
so it’s between you two.
I can tell your champing at the bit, aba , so you do next week’s and I’ll do the following.
Ex-Cathedra were a great ska-punk (with an emphasis on punk) band from Glasgow that I saw quite a few times in the 90s. Always good live, they rarely captured the sound on record, but this was one of their better attempts
Ex-Cathedra – Give Me Tommorrow (sax riff by a woman called Jenny, previously of all-female band PMT!)
One of the all female outfits I had a lot of respect for was the Slits
Also, Goldie & The Gingerbreads.
Goldie later became Bo Diddley’s manager for a time in the 80s
You should have seen them at the Acklam Hall in 1978 Mitch. A revelation to be sure. Sadly the album never caught that wonderful raucous spirit they had. Still a decent record though.