Not long to go now – it’s time to open window number 19 of the LOUD WOMEN Advent Galendar …
And it’s those lovelies from Argonaut!
Argonaut have been LOUD WOMEN family from day one – playing our first ever gig back in 2015, through to helping out with stewarding this year’s LOUD WOMEN Fest. We’re loving their recently-releases album Argonaut: Forever, which you can grab from here.
We’re also loving that they’ve recorded a cover of Last Christmas, just because:
Review by Lauren Murphy
Argonaut: Forever (LP)
Out now from Key Mail Order
In 2017 it’s hard to leave the house, or even stay in, without hearing music that has been produced, polished and perfected to the point where it’s hard to believe there were real, imperfect humans involved in it’s making. Artists spend up to a year in and out of the studio recording take after take until their album sounds exactly as it does in their head.
Argonaut have not done that. Argonaut spent just two days in the studio to record this, their third album, and the result is raw and fragile and urgent in all the best ways. In places. it feels like catharsis just listening to it; like listening to a group of people trying to get something off their chest.
Album opener ‘Zero Said’ is a thumping anthem that scratches at the nerve exposed by the #metoo movement.
‘Everybody Crash’ is a clear standout, with its amazingly catchy hook belying a cynical rallying cry against the world, and singer Lorna’s vocals softening the edges of the fury that bubbles through it.
Each song on the album demonstrates a rich pool of influence, seemingly touching on every decade without ever aping anybody and never ever feeling less than fresh.
The only downside to this album is that the eschewing of modernity doesn’t just extend to a good old musical rant, but to the release which is strictly mail order and even more strictly limited to 100 numbered copies.
Run, run to get yourself something to dance to while 2017 crashes and burns.
Find Argonaut on YouTube, Facebook and their website
Catch them live (for the last time with their brilliant bass player and producer Joules, who is sadly leaving the band) on Friday 15 December at The Bird’s Nest in Deptford
Our lovely friends Argonaut have recorded an acoustic version of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, which they play at our Little LOUD WOMEN show on 30 Sept at the Lexington.
Here it is as a free download, for all the family to enjoy!
originally published by Lorna Tiefholz at Gigs and Pencils
All ages/family friendly daytime gig put on by Loud Women at the Lexington.
Saturday 30th September.All ages kid-friendly gigs are the way to go for so many reasons!
1. You get to hang out with your friends who have kids and can rarely come along to gigs.
2. Kid-friendly gigs are in the day time! You can also fit another gig in later in the evening, so doubling your gig-going potential.
3. Kid friendly gigs are just MORE FUN! Where else do you get offered sherbet dib-dabs or Love Hearts as you walk in the venue? Where else is the promoter of the event dressed as Wonder Woman? Where else do you find yourself enthusiastically making lightning shapes while watching the excellent Argonauts?I’d never been to such a fun gig. The kids had a great time, and so did the adults.
Argonauts kicked off the afternoon with a fantastic set and lots of props, and everyone loved them. They handed out kazoos and gave us dancing instructions for audience participation, encouraged a stage invasion for ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’ and passed around bananas for their singalong version of ‘The Banana Splits’ theme.
In between bands there was stories for the kids while the grown ups drank beers.
Next on was my band, Rabies Babies. This show was the second time that our guitarist Laura’s toddler son has been at a Rabies Babies gig, he doesn’t really like us. We are too shouty and he gets frightened. This time he didn’t cry for the whole time we played, so we are slowly winning him over. We re-worked out set – we dropped some of the inappropriate sweary songs and added some kid-friendly songs. Our drummer Mike ended up playing guitar and drums at the same time for one song so Laura could run about on stage pretending to be an elephant. There was a boy of 5 or 6 who was right at the front and slam danced and pogoed non stop all the way through our set.
Thee Dinner Ladies are just plain and simple brilliant garage. Musically they are right up my street, they are garage punk with equal measures of punk and garage. Shouty fun male & female vocals with flirty lines like “you’re only shopping cos you fancy me”. All this, plus the whole band are dressed spectacularly as dinner ladies. Who doesn’t love a dinner lady?
Sadly I missed the final band, Militant Girlfriend, as I had a train to catch to get me to a wedding in Sheffield, hopefully I’ll get to see them soon.
Roll on next Little Loud Women show!
All ages/family friendly daytime gig put on by Loud Women at the Lexington.
Saturday 30th September.
All ages kid-friendly gigs are the way to go for so many reasons!
1. You get to hang out with your friends who have kids and can rarely come along to gigs.
2. Kid-friendly gigs are in the day time! You can also fit another gig in later in the evening, so doubling your gig-going potential.
3. Kid friendly gigs are just MORE FUN! Where else do you get offered sherbet dib-dabs or Love Hearts as you walk in the venue? Where else is the promoter of the event dressed as Wonder Woman? Where else do you find yourself enthusiastically making lightning shapes while watching the excellent Argonauts?
I’d never been to such a fun gig. The kids had a great time, and so did the adults.
Argonauts kicked off the afternoon with a…
View original post 290 more words
What a great weekend for LOUD WOMEN … first of all, our awesome new t-shirts arrived on Friday and they look spectacular!
Then we kicked it off at a new-to-us venue, The Unicorn Camden Live on Friday with four stonking bands: Ghum, WITCH FEVER, Ghum, Think Pretty, The Noise & the Naive and Witch Fever and Think Pretty. It was a really fun and friendly night, with all the bands supporting each other – exactly what LW is all about!
Saturday afternoon we headed to The Lexington for an all-ages matinee, which went 
down a treat with a massive crowd of parents and kids! Huge thanks to Argonaut, Thee Dinnerladies, Militant Girlfriend and Rabies Babiesfor coming and playing such fun sets! It was just gorgeous to see tiny kids dancing about with their arms in the air, loving the music, and climbing up on stage to have a bash on the drums and a shout down the mic – some future punkrock stars in the making there I’m sure. Special thanks to Kate Whaite for being Great and keeping the kids entertained with stories and games between bands – she made lots of new fans, small and big 
🙂
We’ve got more, very exciting gigs coming up this Autumn, starting with our 2nd Birthday Party! On 13th October we’ll be celebrating at the Fiddler’s Elbow – Camden, with 4 of our favourite bands – Foxcunt, GUTTFULL, MX Tyrants and Layzervag. There’s going to be partybags full of records and goodies, yummy cake, and LOUD WOMEN karaoke … your chance to take to the stage! https://www.facebook.com/events/154554368414307/
Keep in touch for news of more LOUD WOMEN events and good stuff …
Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/loudwomen/
Facebook group – https://www.facebook.com/groups/loudwomen/
Twitter – https://twitter.com/loudwomenclub
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/loudwomen
Web – https://loudwomen.org
AND sign up to our monthly ezine – for new music news, reviews, interviews, videos and all sorts of good stuff http://wordpress.us13.list-manage.com/subscribe…
No need for parents to miss out on the very best in live music … bring the kids along for an afternoon of awesome punkrock, specially arranged for audiences that include energetic toddlers and kids, as well as their parents who really deserve to relax with some grown-up music too!
There will be face-painting, cake and games for the littl’uns, and badass bands for the big’uns, at the world-famous Lexington venue.
We’ll keep the noise levels at a reduced level, but ear-defenders are recommended for the very young ones.
Live music from:
ARGONAUT
purveyors of fiery female fronted alternative punk rock.
https://www.facebook.com/argonautband/
RABIES BABIES
“the most punk band you will ever see”
https://www.facebook.com/rabiesbabiespunk/
MILITANT GIRLFRIEND
“barmaids, best friends, and a queer pop punk band from South East London”
https://www.facebook.com/MilitantGirlfriend/
THEE DINNERLADIES
“Recent welfare cuts force Walthamstow dinnerladies to form a trash garage band.”
https://www.facebook.com/theedinnerladies/
Tickets £2 for kids, £6 for olds.
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/412853
All welcome!
LOUD WOMEN is a DIY collective that champions women in music by hosting live events that are fun, friendly, and frickin awesome.
All profits go to the artists, and any additional funds raised go to charities that help women (usually Women’s Aid).
Join the group LOUD WOMEN for news of more women-led events
https://www.facebook.com/groups/loudwomen/
Argonaut are a beloved LOUD WOMEN band – they played our very first event, and many more since then. We posed 10 questions to frontwoman Lorna, guitarist Nathan, keyboard/guitarist Abby, and bassist Joules, ahead of their appearance at our family-friendly matinee at the Lexington on 30 September.
1. Who would you most like to cover your songs?
Lorna: OMG That’s a brilliant question. So many bands I love … NIN, Cyndi Lauper, Yeah Yeah Yeahs … I think it might have to be Tori Amos cuz when I was 17 ‘Crucify My Love’ was one of my favourite songs and she has so much passion that I would love an acoustic version of one of Argonaut’s songs with her singing.
Abby: Someone quite disco-ey. Like Divine?
Nathan: Nirvana
Joules: Brotherhood of Man. That’s my standard answer to that sort of question.
2. Choose: Cat or dog?
Lorna: Has to be dog cuz I had two lovely dog friends when I was a child. Worthington and Candy were my childhood pets. Love dogs.
Abby: Cats – because they’re awkward buggers. Oh I love them.
3. Choose one of your songs to be played on Strictly Come Dancing. What dance would you like to be performed to it? TV?
Lorna: ‘Vintage Dress’ definitely. I would love them to wear fantastic vintage clothes and Doc Martin boots and dance in a Goth, grunge 80s/90s dance fashion.
4. Choose: Pixies or Breeders?
Lorna: Pixies are the best!
Pixies is a massive influence and for me leaving school in the early 90s and going to clubs in Birmingham and dancing to the Pixies was so amazing. ‘Where is my Mind’ is a favourite for me. Love the Breeders too. ‘Cannonball’ was and still is a great dance song.
Abby: Both incredible, but it’s got to be the Pixies. It’s the combination of Frank and Kim’s voices and the manic energy of the music.
Joules: Both. Except if you’re talking about now, then, Breeders. Pixies aren’t Pixies without Kim.
5. Recommend a record and a book that you think our readers might not have heard of.
Abby: Record: Les Georges Leningrad‘s ‘Sangue Puro’ – it’s life affirmingly mental noise. Sort of defies description really. Book: ‘Astragal’ by Albertine Sarrazan – frank ’60s tale of young French woman who escapes from prison and her subsequent thrills and spills.
Nathan: New Beaches or Mermaidens albums? So many amazing female bands coming from Australia and New Zealand at the moment, the Antipodes always seem like a wonderful parallel universe, so many great bands that feel just that little bit misaligned and left of centre. I really enjoyed recently reading the Siouxsie and the Banshees biography, great ground zero inspiration and a good excuse to listen to the records.
Joules: Album: Solex vs The Hitmeister. Crafted almost entirely of samples from the bargain bin of the artist’s (Elisabeth Esselink) Amsterdam record shop, not that you’d ever know. Ethereal and a bit angsty. Book: The Manual (How to have a Number 1 the easy way) by The KLF. A bit obvious perhaps but I love it. Hopelessly dated but the attitude is still DIY 101.
6. Bikini Kill or Fugazi?
Lorna: Bikini Kill. Love the power in Kathleen Hanna‘s voice and great fun tunes. Kathleen Hanna is such a big ball of energy and a massive influence on the whole Riot Grrrl movement in the 90’s and today with her new band. Saw Julie Ruin twice and they were amazing.
Abby: Bikini Kill, though I like Le Tigre way better. It’s bloody Kathleen innit? Nuff said.
Nathan: Bikini Kill. I loved them since I saw them with Huggy Bear. I only heard Fugazi once I read about them in connection with Riot Grrrl. I have a Fugazi record, must listen to it more!
7. What’s the most difficult thing about being in your band?
Lorna: Sometimes because I’m the front woman I feel like I should be up there speaking out about things to the audience, but I’m quite a shy person when it comes to public speaking, so I tend to shout out about our lyrics instead.
Abby: Nathan’s jokes.
Nathan: Writing your best songs for a mostly imaginary audience.
Joules: Balancing rockstar ambitions with family life.
8. What are your band goals?
Lorna: To find a fantastic drummer. To release songs together more and have fun!
Abby: A nice outing sometime soon.
Nathan: To write songs for an unimaginary audience? Would be lovely for more people to hear our new album and to come to our shows.
Joules: To have fun. Mission already accomplished. Fuck everything else.
9. What’s the most important thing we need to know about your band right now?
Joules: New album Argonaut Forever imminently available to pre order at www.keymailorder.com
10. Give your top 5 contemporary bands
Lorna: 1) The Baby Seals Seen them a few times live and bought their CD at LOUD WOMEN Fest. Very good tunes.
2) Pete Fij & Terry Bickers . Saw them live a few weeks ago at Aces and Eights . It was an acoustic set and absolutely beautiful. Both used to be in 90’s bands Adorable and House of Love/Levitation.
3) Suede – Night Thoughts. A really beautiful album . Been into Suede from when they first came along in early 90’s got all there first 12″ singles and albums. Saw them live in 90’s too at the Hummingbird. Great live! Brett Anderson’s voice is so amazing.
4) Car Seat Headrest – Teens of Denial. A fantastic album, it really grows on you the more you listen to it. Nathan and I both love them.
5) Chastity Belt. Heard them on 6Music and I really liked them. Think they are playing live in September.
Abby: 1) MIA – innovative, witty ‘up yours-ey’ pop tunes. 2) Sink Ya Teeth – amazing band recently discovered at LOUD WOMEN Fest. Charley Stone says they’re a bit like Silver Apples, and I agree. 3) Velodrome – this is actually one woman, Katherine Christie Evans, who just has this utterly beautiful soprano voice accompanied by gorgeous and very original music. 4) The Menstrual Cramps – the singer is really arsey in a brilliant and inspiring (and funny) way, and the guitarist and bassist are just so very cool. Their songs are ace too.5) U S Girls – like MIA, this band (actually also just one woman (Megan Remy) have been around for a while, and deserve way greater recognition than they get. Megan writes great and very original pop songs about overtime and periods. She also has this unique feline voice.
Nathan: 1) Kane Strang – when I saw him Lorna told him he looked like me when I was young and he replied ‘maybe he’s my dad!’ 2) Noveller – I am really into guitar pedals and Jazzmasters at the moment and she is the queen of both! 3) Scott and Charlene’s Wedding – greatest songs, greatest name, great people and two of the best shows I saw last year. 4) Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile – a heavenly match, loving the single and really looking forward to the album and live shows. 5) Car Seat Headrest – so young and clever. Let’s see how that works out for him…
Joules: The Lovely Eggs. Fantastic, loud and absolutely bonkers tunes with from husband and wife duo who are accompanied on the road by Holly’s mum to look after their young son. Holly’s guitar work is astounding (especially live) and David’s drumming is an engineer’s dream.
Find Argonaut on Facebook and catch them live at Little LOUD WOMEN on 30 September at the Lexington
What a day, and what a night! Our LOUD WOMEN Volume One compilation album launch party was a massive success. Undeterred by a last-minute venue switch, 13 of our awesome CD contributors rocked the very awesome New River Studios, played to a (at times) full capacity crowd, and thoroughly launched what is looking set to be a hugely successful album.
Pre-sales and launch day sales of the album now mean that we just need to sell 4 more CDs to break even on the cost of manufacture, then after that all profits will be going to Women’s Aid!
If you missed out on the launch party, here’s a quick round-up of goings on …
Lilith Ai and her new band opened the show with a poppier new sound. It’s Lilith’s stunning vocals that still makes your ears prick up and your hair stand up, so we can’t wait to see her playing again solo on the bar stage at LOUD WOMEN Fest in September.
Janine Booth gave a poetry set full of characteristic bite and warmth, opening with a brand new poem about the ‘Disaffected middle-aged woman’ which really hit home with this one! Janine is such an inspiration – travelling across London to give her time to our cause (for which she donated her fee to Women’s Aid), not complaining for a moment about her early slot in the line-up, and telling me moments before she went on stage that her boob was ‘still cooking’ from the course of radiotherapy she’d had that week. Massive love and solidarity with our shero Janine.
Madame So played next, accompanied only by a drummer, giving a stunning and heartfelt performance. She then stuck around to enjoy the rest of the day’s music – an artist who knows the importance of supporting her fellow musicians. Awesome attitude.
(Sorry Solange, I failed to get a photo of you – instead, here’s Bagel, the resident cat at New River Studios.)
Fightmilk joined us next, having stepped off another LOUD WOMEN stage only 16 hours previously! They’re always a joy to watch – they’re a rocking party and everyone’s invited. Top fun.
GUTTFULL played next – my band! We were on great form, if I say so myself … our singer, Moe, is proving herself to be a total natural at the front of a stage. She left the audience raised-up/chastened as appropriate, and also covered in ‘cum’ from her party cannon orgasm. Dead proud of my new band!
The Tom Boys from Japan were a last-minute addition to the bill, as they happened to be over in the UK staying with friends of friends and were looking for a gig. What a treat! They gained a lot of new fans in London yesterday.
The Potentials hopped on next and, bouyed up by the Tom Boys’ awesomeness, decided to scrap their planned set list, and instead play all of their old favourites that they haven’t played for ages. They announced this as their “disaster set” … but it worked brilliantly!
Nervous Twitch came all the way from Leeds, in the rain, with a dodgy windscreen wiper, to play a stonking set. I’m always blown away watching Erin playing bass and singing *so brilliantly*, such a hard thing to do and she makes it look easy.
Little Fists played next, reminding us all why we love them so much. Alternating catchy tunes with fierce rock; and alternating melodic vocals with visceral, well, shouting. They switch between instruments with ease (well, ease, apart from Soph falling off the drum stool a few times, but done so elegantly of course!)
The Ethical Debating Society were introduced by Scene Queen Pearl Pelfrey, who rightly described them as her favourite London band. TEDS were on top form – possibly the best I’ve ever seen them play – and they debuted some very exciting brand new material.
DOLLS joined us next with their storming pop-rock, catchy tunes, stunning vocals, infectious smiles, and perfect teeth. How are these two not playing stadiums yet? We’ll just make the most of getting to see them in small venues while we can because it seriously can’t be long before they go stratospheric.
Argonaut were also on top form – playing as a full band for LOUD WOMEN for the first time in too long! Lorna wowed us with her powerful voice and tigger-like dance moves, and Abby won herself a LOUD WOMEN ‘multi-tasking’ badge by playing keyboard, guitar, singing, and shouting down a megaphone during their set. Top work.
Gladiators Are You Ready? however, won the badge for most memorable live show. Jose and Ste entered wearing terrifying masks, and if that didn’t scare the shit out of us all enough, a bare-chested, kilted bagpiper entered from the far end of the hall, playing through the room and on to the stage, then piping in the entrance of ‘Vulvarine’, aka Hana, looking hot AF in an outfit that looked like she’d just rode in on some kind of winged fetish pony. She then produced a cape emblazoned with several pairs of pants, with letters on spelling out ‘TOO LOUD FOR TOOTING’. They could have just stopped at that, to be honest, they’d made their point. But they then played an awesome set of spectacular songs. Couldn’t really tell you what they’re about – between the masks, the bagpipes, and the corsetry, I was pleasantly distracted – but we all had a bloody good time dancing along to them. Must see these lovely mad bastards play again soon.
Then Deux Furieuses played their headline set and showed us all how it’s really done – a stunning set by two women with awesome talent, energy, and passion for their music. They were the perfect end to a perfect day’s gigging.
Special thanks too to the awesome Alice of the Glitter Girls, who came along to paint glittery shit all over our faces, in aid of refugee charities. Glitter makes everything better, even these beauts!
LOUD WOMEN are holdling a party to celebrate the launch of a new compilation album, with all profits going to Women’s Aid.
Tickets £6 in advance (£8 on the door) from https://www.wegottickets.com/event/386676
Under 18s free – please obtain a child ticket so we can monitor numbers https://www.wegottickets.com/event/386677
Live performances from some of the 21 acts featured on the album, including:
Argonaut
Bugeye
Deux Furieuses
Dolls
Fightmilk
Gladiators Are You Ready?
GUTTFULL
Janine Booth
Little Fists
Madame So
Nervous Twitch
The Ethical Debating Society
The Potentials
Out on 18 March 2017 – a compilation album of 21 of the loudest women who’ve played our shows! All profits from the sale of the CD going to Women’s Aid.
21 track CD with zine
£10 (plus £1.50 p&p)
Pre-order now!
