As far as rock music goes the apparent majority of musicians seem to be dudes. Svelt rockers with attitude, leather/denim jacket, bottom lip jutting into the wind, backs turned to an obfuscating, tyrannical world. But are we really in the position to kick out the best jams? I mean sure we can be disenfranchised and who isn't, but the global paradigm really works for men and our objections to the status quo are marginal since we have been, are, and will be treated preferentially by the system well into the foreseeable future. Hell, it's the ladies that get the bootheel-- staying home making dinner while Johnny is our rockin'andarollin' and then patching his torn up jeans after he crashes his hog on the way home from the bar, shiiiiiiiiiiiit. While dinner was getting cold on the table Ana da Silva got miffed, picked up Johnny's guitar and voila!
The Raincoats first album is entirely composed of incisive songs that reflect the nuance of society with sensitivity and clarity eschewing the standard song formula and instrumental line-up. There were certainly all-girl groups before them, and female singers and musicians who were both popular and talented, but the coats seem to intentionally flout gender role determinism in music and reject abject sexual discrimination outright with a "fuck you, we live in the same world as you deadbeats but it's harder for us even though we have better songs than you pricks." Their songs are beautiful and pragmatic-- tumbling melodic music and emotionally expressive lyrics. Certainly healthier for the spirit then the hypersexuallity or introverted anger of their male compatriots. The Raincoats' legacy of music and attitude informs the "femmes fatales" of modern rock who seem to have affectionately appropriated the spirit of these songs like the girls of Grass Widow who seem, at times, a reincarnation of these pentatonic pioneers.
The Raincoats
A lot of people instantly write off these old bluegrass ramblers assuming they have nothing to offer. "Modern" music certainly eschews any semblance of Hurley's mountain melancholy, in the same way our society erroneously marginalizes the value of nature or a simple lifestyle. I think Hurley embraces dejection because it affords him much more than what can be gained by pandering to market tastes-- I've seen him billed as a "folkie shaman" and have to believe in his lilting libations for the unappreciated, if not somewhat demented (idiosyncratic).
