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KISS MY GRITS: The HERstory of Women in Punk and Hard Rock
By Shawna Kenney
It's no secret that women rock, but lately it seems the facts are finally being documented as part of musical history. Kiss My Grits: The HERstory of Women in Pun k and Hard Rock premiered to a small but enthusiastic audience at Hollywood's Vogue Theater Wednesday, July 25. Hole/Smashing Pumpkins bassist Melissa Auf Der Maur, current Hole drummer Samantha Maloney (formerly of hardcore band, Shift), rock-n-roll writer Pleasant Gehman, KROQ DJ Tami Heide and A Perfect Circle's Billy Howerdel sat among the punk rock-star studded crowd for the low-key opening.
Filmmakers Bethany Ward-Lawe (28) and Jacq. Lesko (31) befriended one another in a kickboxing class in Los Angeles a little over a year ago, and faster than you can say "kick-ass," self-financed and produced this unique rockumentary, which examines women in music through their own eyes via a string of interviews, rare live footage and taped telephone conversations. Quoting everyone from Yoko Ono to Sleater-Kinney, Joan Jett to Lydia Lunch, the film includes old and new-school rockers alike, while admitting to its many exclusions in the self-effacing program listing "the people we know are missing from the film" and a "did we mention we are only two women?' defense from the documentarians themselves. Despite the technically rough-edges of the work's look and sound (hey--this is punk, after all!), the women-on-women commentary technique lends a feminist sisterly tone to the project that is both rare and admirable.
Kiss My Grits will soon hit the road, starting with a show in Long Beach this Saturday August 4th, then San Francisco on the 18th and 19th, in Seattle's Bumbershoot Festival August 31st-Sept. 3rd, and at Ladyfest in NY Sept 6th-9th , with future screenings planned for DC, Boston, Chicago LA again by October. Check local listings or check out www.kissmygrits.net.
Shawna Kenney has written for Metal Hammer, Transworld Skateboarding, and While You Were Sleeping Magazine, among others. She is also the author of I Was a Teenage Dominatrix.
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