Browsing Tag

Riot Grrrl

Craic Killers Put Their Boots on the Neck of Brain Rot with the Socio-Political Protest, ‘GIMME’

Posted on 15 June 2026

Craic Killers join Kneecap on the frontline of cultural protest with GIMMIE, a politically feral punk single aimed straight at the entitlement economy of the MAGA manosphere and the men swallowing bigoted influencer content like gospel. The South East London-based Irish/Welsh duo has always put activism above optics, but GIMMIE is their fiercest aural grenade yet. With snarled deadpan vocals, locked and loaded with volition, they targeted the idiocy that parades itself as partisan socio-political ideals.

They pull no punches when lashing out against how misogyny has infiltrated almost every facet of material reality, with male politicians and online grifters pouring fuel on the fire of regression. Sludgy, distortion-overloaded guitars clamour through the production while the rhythm section pounds with its own form of vitriol, an abrasive war drum declaring an all-out attack on figureheads of sexism, oppression and the gooning brain-rot brigade who mistake cruelty for power. GIMMIE is a sardonically hypersonic sign of the times, as essential as anything born from Riot Grrrl fury, a catalyst for fully unlocking rage with purpose.

Craic Killers’ put philosophy first, sonic signature second; their shows support Palestinian friends through leafleting and putting fundraiser balaclavas on the merch table, while their music draws from Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, Sleaford Mods, Kneecap, Viagra Boys, Irish republicanism and the hideous theatre of world events.

Shatter any semblance of complacency and stream now on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Larsen West Carried Stevie Nicks Aura and Riot Grrrl Voltage Through the Brashy Rock Contours of Fool’s Gold

Posted on 24 May 2026

Larsen West’s indie rock stripes show as more than just accolades in an EPK in Fool’s Gold, an expansively lush, viscerally unfeigned single where big, brashy vintage rock swagger collides with noir-Americana shadow and art-punk voltage. Fronted by Lauren Warner, former vocalist of Austin Chronicle’s 2022 Best Rock Band winners The Dead Coats, the project arrives with history, force, and a voice built for myth.

West’s vocals encompass the vindication of 90s Riot Grrrl and grunge while keeping the performance far from hollow pastiche posturing, turning Fool’s Gold into the kind of kinetic, stadium-ready anthem that leaves the power of the lyrics soaring through your own ribcage as something inside catches fire to the cascades of rock n roll euphoria; they come in waves. The classic rock guitar solo in the middle eight sends the track into a spiral of molten release, lifting the analog warmth into full-bodied catharsis.

Recorded at Point West Studios with Charles Godfrey, whose credits include Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Brand New, Fool’s Gold carries the bite of underground rock with the scale of Stevie Nick’s legacy, the raw magnetism of Courtney Love, and the haunting grace of Siouxsie Sioux.

Fool’s Gold is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

 Review by Amelia Vandergast

Lauren Ash- F.A.F.O: Sticky-Sweet Augmented Antagonism Meets the Adrenalized Vindication of Y2K Pop-Punk

Posted on 24 April 2026
Lauren Ash

Lauren Ash’s stripes as a pop punk icon went up in a blaze of glory in her latest single, F.A.F.O, which has already become a fan favourite during her recent tours due to the sticky-sweet augmented antagonism driving every second of it. Lauren Ash, widely known on screen for her major role in the series Superstore before tearing into music with full force, has steadily built a second identity around her sonic ferocity. After her debut album Call Me When You Get This, headline shows across Canada and sold-out dates in Glasgow, Manchester and London, F.A.F.O lands with the confidence of an artist who knows exactly how to weaponise a hook.

It delivers the bite of 90s riot grrrl with the punchy, high-octane rush of Y2K pop punk, while carrying the kind of chant-ready adrenaline that makes total sense of its live reputation. She’s the girl all the bad guys want, to throw a Bowling for Soup reference into the mix, as she incites a riot against men who think they can breeze through life without ever paying for the consequences of their actions, expecting women to suffer whatever self-destructive absurdity without protest. Vindication runs thick in the veins of this radio and anthem-ready earworm. It absolutely slaps.

F.A.F.O is now available on all major streaming platforms. Find your preferred way to listen on the artist’s official website.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Riot Grrrl is Revived Through the Feral Siren-esque Sound of A VOID’s Antagonistic Anthem, ‘A Fish in Your Pocket’

Posted on 23 April 2026

Answering the question, what could pop punk be if it allowed its riffs to hit harder, was injected with the sleaze of the Sunset Strip in the 80s and evocatively augmented by nods to the valley girl inception of Riot Grrrl, is the latest single and music video from the Paris-born, London-based trio, A VOID.

Fish in Your Pocket is an explosion of sonic subversion, each progression showing you the meaninglessness of your expectation as the atmosphere and intensity shift beyond the remits of anticipation, which only adds to the adrenalising fervour that has become synonymous with the fiercely talented powerhouse helmed by Camille Alexander. Either she was born with natural talent and a ferocious sense of charisma, or she drank a potion in Wonderland to become a visceral, larger-than-life icon of affronting, feral in all the right places, siren-esque in all the rest, alt-rock. Everything about the latest single and music video is an exhibition of what it means to forget rolling with the punches and start delivering hammer blows with a kiss.

There are flashes of L7, Hole, and The Distillers in the salacious snarling swagger of the seminal single from the Paris-born, London-based catalysts of sonic carnage, who have built their name on explosive live shows and emotionally charged songwriting, recently taking that voltage to huge audiences. If we’re all made by design, A VOID were destined to dominate.

Watch the official music video for Fish in Your Pocket on YouTube now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

SECRET clawed into the canon of riotous no-wave noise rock with ‘Igor’

Posted on 13 November 2025

SECRET’s standout single, Igor, taken from their debut LP, Weapon of Choice, is boisterous enough to bruise the annals of Riot Grrrl. The short and snarlingly sweet track lets the basslines roll into the tumult of crashing cymbals, as distortion bleeds into no-wave territory through guitars that whip and wail around the vox, which fans of Veruca Salt, Jack Off Jill, and Le Tigre will instantly be adrenalised by.

Adopting the playful valley girl electricity of Kathleen Hanna while keeping their sonic signature in their own kinetic calligraphy, the rise of SECRET feels inevitable; their sound is indomitable, and their energy crackles with uncontainable bite.

Formed in New York City, the trio — Leo Haas, Aadil Mufti, and Yas Saito — channel punk, noise, and old-school rock and roll into a self-contained storm. Their debut album, Weapon of Choice, uses storybook and fantasy elements to narrate short, volatile tales, backed by daydreamy noise rock and charged-up punk urgency. Igor captures that ethos perfectly.

Igor is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Riot Grrrl met biblical disobedience in Ammonite’s fuzz-drenched Sidewinder

Posted on 4 November 2025
Ammonite

Ammonite deserve to sit in the annals of Riot Grrrl history alongside L7, Babes in Toyland and Bikini Kill as they shape the future of the sonic movement after the drop of their electrified with scuzzy visceral angst single, Sidewinder. With a few Sleater-Kinney-esque harmonies thrown into the rancorous assault for good measure and a solo that proves few bands can show as much mettle as Ammonite, Sidewinderis an anthem of pure, adrenalised volition. It drags you into the momentum instead of pulling you along with it; there’s no going through the motions here, just a hellbent mission to deliver catharsis through a culturally eclectic tableau that demands you throw your inhibitions to the wayside to make room for the manifestations of authentic, unapologetic desire.

The lyricism cuts through reverberant distortion with poetic defiance as the hook “shake that troubled tree” refrains like a ritual incantation, while the desire coiled in the final verses arrives untamed and vital. I can’t name one other band which can turn desire into a riot and build a temple out of distortion.

Drawing on imagery from William Blake and biblical mythology to throw off the mantle of forbidden love, Sidewinder vibrates with natural joy while climbing out of shame’s shadow. Ammonite recorded the single in their home studio Chimney Hawk Studios, with Selena Benally behind the board and on guitar and bass, Erin Frisby writing and leading vocals, and Alyson Cina percussively igniting the track.

Sidewinder is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify and Bandcamp. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

WD-HAN Shattered Monochromatic Monotony with Riotous Alt-Rock in ‘Technicolour’

Posted on 31 July 2025

With WD-HAN’s latest single, Technicolour, a riot of riff-painted colour is poured into the dreary monotony of monochromatic minds. The track rips through the constraints of black and white thinking, compelling the world to swap their dim views for the blaze of high-octane alt-rock is charting its own path through the annals of rock history (in the making).

While critics love to hold up names like Joan Jett as the pinnacle of female-fronted rock, the delivery in Technicolour is atomic enough that heads will want to turn away from immortalising perennial icons and towards new names tearing through the scene. It’s enough to make you consider that perhaps the saying ought to be edited to hell hath no fury like a woman sick of achromatic mediocrity, because honestly, it makes RATM sound weak.

In this release, the Tampa-based trailblazers, who have never been shy of pouring their soul into each performance, bring together the slithering guitar work of rock legends and fuse it with the immediacy of modern alt-pioneers. The single is driven by bluesy guitar lines, thunderous drums, and gritty vocals, proving that WD-HAN’s sonic signature is made for blasting through speakers and feeling life rush back in vivid colour.

Technicolour is now available on all major streaming platforms. Find your preferred way to listen via this link. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Bliss Foxx Tore Through Alt-Rock Apathy with Grunge-Tinged Venom in ‘Stretch’

Posted on 11 June 2025

Stretch by Bliss Foxx is a viscerally infectious outpouring of pure grunge-tinged furore that picks up where Hole left off and catapults the sound into the future of cataclysmically cathartic alt-rock. The angst of the alt-90s still tears its way through the frenetic onslaught of the guitars that were never strung to know mercy as they chug to the blistering rhythm section, but there’s nothing retrograde about the fury in this release. Instead of choking the hit with nostalgia, Bliss Foxx prowled into the pantheon of contemporary alt-rock with all the mainstream appeal and magnetism of Destroy Boys and Amyl and the Sniffers. If you’re looking for a track to shake the cobwebs out of your synapses, look no further.

This Portland-hailing powerhouse didn’t just plug into a current. They generated it. With unapologetically raw hooks and an uncompromising attitude, they’ve taken the force of punk, the hooks of power pop, and the emotion of alternative rock and fed them through a distortion pedal soaked in sweat and swagger.

The vocals snarl, the momentum thrashes, and the attitude bleeds through every carefully calibrated blow, allowing Stretch to prove their capacity to write with venom while making it stick in your head like bubblegum.

Stretch is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Find other ways to connect with Bliss Foxx here. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

steel. Gnashed Through Verbal Impositions with the Sonic Fangs of ‘DFTTM’

Posted on 31 May 2025

steel. ripped through the monotony of passive tolerance with DFTTM (don’t fucking talk to me), a protestive anthem that doesn’t flinch while delivering its seething sermon on self-preservation. The female-led trio, forged in Liverpool’s underground in 2023, have already honed their spoken word-soaked post-punk into a serrated art form, setting themselves apart with a snarling, moody aesthetic rooted in the lineage of Sonic Youth, Velvet Underground, and Pixies without rinsing their legacy for easy cool points.

With DFTTM, steel. launched a riptide of angular no-wave indie guitars and scathing lyrical defiance. It’s a full-bodied reaction to every dynamic and extension of condescension you’ve ever swallowed, loaded with the kind of vindication that leaves nothing but a scorched void in its wake. Cultdreams-esque spoken word discontent collides with a pulse that could tear right through the jugular of a juggernaut. It riles on every conceivable level, and never once pulls its punches.

This is the sound of a band that has outgrown the standard punk tantrum. They’ve turned frustration into a weapon. The kinetic energy bleeding from the instrumentation gives DFTTM a purpose beyond rebellion for the sake of noise. The morality running through it is sharp, unfeigned, and unapologetic. With support slots for Big Joanie, Skating Polly, and Lou Barlow’s Folk Implosion already behind them, steel. are fast becoming the sonic frontline of DIY queer punk, and they are far from finished.

DFTTM is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

‘Fragile’ by Just Girls – An Indie Rock Anthem Teetering on the Line Between Sweetness and Ruin

Posted on 29 January 2025

With their debut single, ‘Fragile,’ Just Girls unleashes a visceral indie rock triumph that doesn’t just echo the sounds of the 90s but drags them kicking and screaming into the present. Combining the melodic magnetism of Blondie with the searing rawness of Hole and the dissonance of Sonic Youth, ‘Fragile’ lands like a sucker punch wrapped in velvet. It’s gritty, it’s gorgeous, and it’s impossible to shake.

Amie Falkner’s vocals walk a tightrope between unguarded innocence and raw defiance, spilling every ounce of emotional intensity into lyrics that explore the fragility of the psyche and body. The sweeping new wave guitar chords only add to the earworm appeal of the track, creating a storm of distortion and melody that refuses to let up. It’s an anthem that cuts as deep as it soars, teetering on the line between sweetness and ruin.

Just Girls embodies everything indie rock should be: bold, unpolished, and endlessly inventive. After forming when HaslamBrock spotted bassist Kelsey Melvin and drummer Kamilah Palmer jamming at an open mic, the quartet has leaned into their DIY ethos with fierce dedication. Writing on handmade guitars, hosting gigs in RV parks, and producing every note themselves, they’ve cultivated a sound as raw as their roots.

‘Fragile’ leaves you craving not just another track, but the chaos and catharsis only Just Girls can deliver. The indie charts better brace themselves for the band’s sophomore.

Stream Fragile on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast