“Are you ready to be liberated?”
A melodic snarl rubs the surface of your TV speakers as some dirty guitar chords chug along like the beat up car you had in high school driving up a heavy incline. The voice is mesmerizing and sounds like what it would be like if Marlboro Reds could sing. The question is rhetorical, but five seconds in and you’re ready to politely respond with “Why yes, I am quite ready to be liberated.” The band is The Distillers and for many uncultured preteens in the year 2000, this is the heaviest band they’ve ever heard fronted by a woman. For a subsection of these uncultured preteens, the song, “The Young Crazed Peeling,” was as much a coronation for singer Brody Dalle as it was a spark that broke the floodgates into the world of female-fronted rock bands.
Warped Tour Founder Kevin Lyman said in an article by journalist Megan Seling “If you Google-search bands in the world, the vast majority of them are male,” and “I don’t necessarily go search out girl bands — I always try to make sure they’re there. But they have to be good.” Judging by some of the predominantly male bands that have played Warped Tour, it’s questionable as to whether or not being good is also the standard to book all bands on Warped Tour, regardless of gender. In the 12 years since this interview, there is hope that he probably doesn’t still feel this minimizing about female representation as there has been a slight increase in female-driven bands at the more recent Warped Tour dates. When asked why more women aren’t included in their lineups, a lot of festival and tour organizers hide behind the conceit that “there just aren’t enough bands with female members.” It’s total bullshit.
March 8 is International Women’s Day and to celebrate, here’s a five-plus hour playlist of 100 bands and artists that not just include women, but are actually fronted by women. While most of the bands on this playlist are contemporary with heydays extending from 2010 to the present, nearly a third are from the 90s and 2000s during the most prominent of Warped Tour years. It really opens up the argument that until there’s a little more equity in these lineups, maybe intersectionality should be a goal worth “searching out.”
This playlist is truly just the tip of the iceberg and has become so bloated that there are some very noticeable omissions. While it stays true to the spectrum of alternative rock, there is a wide range of sub-genres and overall mood. Nearly a quarter of these bands/artists are international, and while there are iconic choices throughout the list, there was an intention to include more underrated/underappreciated bands and lesser known bands. There is no true order to this playlist and the ultimate goal is to throw it on shuffle and experience it on random, however, it makes sense to establish a categorical cheat sheet that groups the vibes - auditorily and culturally.
That Girl Thinks She’s the Queen of the Neighborhood, I Got News For You, She Is!
Household names or bands/artists that are the pantheon of modern alt-rock
Le Tigre and Bikini Kill (Kathleen Hanna is the Jeff Teague of 90s alt rock IYKYK),
Sleater-Kinney (dream of the 90s is alive in Sleater-Kinney)
Liz Phair (the duality of female rockstars is none more prevalent than listening to “Fuck and Run” and then listening to “Why Can’t I”)
Veruca Salt (Q: which song is better “Seether” or “Volcano Girls” A: whichever one you most recently listened to)
PJ Harvey (say what you will about Rory Gilmore, she had great taste in rock music)
The Breeders (pound for pound “Cannonball” is the best layer by layer intro to any song from the 90s)
Rilo Kiley (4th wall break: I cried seeing them play “A Better Son/Daughter live this year… twice)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs (“Fever to Tell” is a top 10 album of all time)
Paramore (if your queen can’t c-walk, then what are they even doing with their life)
The Distillers (see first paragraph)
Peaches (legend)
Oh Make Me Over
Bands and artists that were previously or simultaneously in other bands with different sounds
Discount (Alison Mosshart from The Kills, The Dead Weather)
Survival Guide (Emily Whitehurst aka Agent M from Tsunami Bomb)
Katy Goodman & Greta Morgan (Katy Goodman from Vivian Girls and La Sera, Greta Morgan from The Hush Sound)
La Sera (aforementioned Katy Goodman)
PS Eliot (Alison Crutchfield from Swearin’ and Katie Crutchfield from Waxahatchie) Swearin’ (aforementioned Alison Crutchfield)
Bleached (Jessica and Jennifer Clavin of Mika Miko)
Thunderbitch (Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes and a million other bands that rock your face off)
The Sounds (Maja Ivarsson who did that one off Snakes on a Plane song with Cobra Starship)
Upset (Ali Koehler of Vivian Girls, Patty Schemel of Hole)
I’m Not a Stevie, I’m a Christie McVie
Underrated bands and artists and bands and artists that flew under the radar a tier below the household names
Lemuria (one of the most underrated emo/pop punk bands of the 21st century)
Metric (they get their flowers, but they deserve more)
Pretty Girls Make Graves (their song “Speakers Push the Air” is what falling in love sounds like)
that dog.(30 years ahead of their time)
Damone (this band should have been bigger after playing Warped Tour)
Cruiserweight (if they release their big album 2-3 years later, they could have been bigger)
Elastica (the song “Connection” is discussed as a heavy influence on Olivia Rodrigo’s “Brutal”)
Dance Hall Crashers (Mark’s girlfriend knows ball)
Laura Stevenson (one of the strongest branches of the Bomb the Music Industry/Jeff Rosenstock tree)
TILT (might be the most ubiquitous t-shirt you’d see other bands wear while performing at Warped Tour in the 00s, top tier your favorite band’s favorite band)
Wednesday (MJ Lenderman or not, this band rules)
Chumped (watching this band will make you want to start a band, their music is infectious and everything that pop punk could have been if the sad girl bands got as much attention as the sad boy bands)
Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History
Bands that will punch you in the face with their music and their fists
Amyl and the Sniffers (this song sounds like a disco ball walking down the street with a switchblade)
Bad Cop Bad Cop
Be Your Own Pet
Cherry Glazerr
Die Spitz (this band is on the precipice of being huge)
Gossip
Gymshorts
Joanna Gruesome
Love Rarely
Mannequin Pussy
Perfect Pussy (a limited run of their vinyl had lead singer Meredith Grave’s period blood infused into the record, punk rock as hell)
Scowl
Screaming Females (manage to make a snotty cover of a Taylor Swift song that is just as catchy and fun as the original but with a guitar solo!)
Speed of Light (sounds like if Refused were reincarnated into a gen Z teenage girl)
The Linda Lindas (the type of band that makes you sit back and think to yourself “the kids ARE alright”)
The Velveteers
Times New Viking (on the pantheon of loudest band in the world with No Age and Lightning Bolt)
tricot (math rock is a universal language)
I Love This Music, Isn’t it Too Dreamy?
The side of the indie rock and pop spectrum that feels like you’re in a diner in Washington state
All Dogs,
Alvvays (this was a needle drop on the underrated tv show Man Seeking Woman, and it is beautiful and it is perfect)
Beach Bunny
Best Coast (Bethany Cosentino had a chokehold on mixtapes made for crushes)
Cinema Hearts
Everyone Asked About You
First Day Back
Girl in a Coma (only the second band named after a The Smiths reference)
Hinds
Julia Jacklin
Las Ligas Menoras
Momma
Oceanator (truly an underrated artist that should be bigger than she is)
Paper Girl
Pom Pom Squad (if this cover doesn’t hook you into the rest of their discography, you may just not like emo-adjacent music)
Ratboys (this song is about singer Julia Steiner’s grandfather saying goodbye to her grandmother through a hospital glass because she was in hospice during covid, it is hauntingly beautiful and will make you cry)
Thank You, I'm Sorry
The Beths
world's greatest dad
You Say Party! We Say Die! (this song may have been the inspiration for the name of the category)
Girls Just Want to Have Fun
Pop punk and power pop bands that remind you how fun pop punk can be
Blowout
Bully
Camp Cope
Cayetana (another truly underappreciated band that should have gotten their flowers before they broke up)
Charly Bliss
Diet Cig (incredibly catchy songs and high energy live performances)
Fresh
Ida Maria (this album is truly a hidden gem)
Illuminati hotties
Lambrini Girls
Meet Me @ The Altar (incredibly catchy songs that get better every time you hear them)
Mixtapes
Partner
Peach Kelli Pop
Pinkshift
Plastiscines
PONY
Remember Sports
Retirement Party
Sincere Engineer
Slothrust (this song was the theme song for the show You’re the Worst and that show had some of the best needle drops)
Sunday Cruise
Teens in Trouble
The Bombpops (They sound right at home on Fat Wreck in the 2000s)
The Regrettes
THICK
Weakened Friends
Winona Fighter