In basements, warehouses and small clubs across Dallas-Fort Worth, women are bashing the patriarchy of the music scene.
Of course, women have been making waves and making history throughout contemporary music for decades. And here in North Texas, right now, female-fronted bands and projects are leading the charge in genres of music where men have received recognition for years.
The noise, experimental, punk and performative music scenes are dense, complex and best represented by our region's female-fronted bands. You can find these bands performing at venues such as Crown & Harp in East Dallas, RBC in Deep Ellum and Texas Theatre in Oak Cliff, plus, and a slew of Denton and Oak Cliff DIY venues that can't be mentioned here, lest the fire marshal find out.
The bands chosen for this list are fronted, founded or produced by women or gender-fluid persons. This list shows D-FW is a rich point of reference for where experimental music is headed.
Take it from us: The boy's club is dead.
Moth Face
There's nothing in D-FW to compare to Sandra Davalos' project Moth Face. It is at once quiet and haunting, timeless and immediate. Davalos runs the zine and tape label Cemetery Sisters -- apt, since the practice of Moth Face resonates as multi-disciplinary. Davalos' lyrics are poetic and theoretical, her voice, a meditative instrument that mines silence and delivery.
Lily Taylor
Lily Taylor is a solo musician and a vocalist for Locations (with her husband, visual artist, Sean Miller) and Ulnae (with multi-media artist, Darcy Neal). Taylor uses original headdresses and projections by Miller to create a performative experience in dialogue with avant-garde theater. Taylor has one of the most elegant voices in the city. Through looping effects, she builds a layered soundscape that builds off itself until the foundation shakes, the song concludes, and we are left with the sound of silence, wanting more.
Party Static
One of Dallas' best punk bands, Party Static deconstructs notions on leisure and pleasure, analyzing our cats' thoughts on our mates as a vehicle for an existential approach to life. Lead singers Kjersten Funk and Laura Harrell channel Iggy Pop and Karen O on stage, dancing through the absurdities of life with gusto and glee. The two lead singers have the flexible vocal chops to be noticed outside of Dallas.
Francine Thirteen
There is no formalist way to describe the art of Francine Thirteen. As the most experimental project on this list, Francine Thirteen has no equal. This is ritual: The artist uses her medium to combat all forms of systemic oppression through spiritual nourishment and self discovery. The live element to Francine Thirteen is paramount in understanding her majesty; the artist employs occultish set pieces and performance artists for a cleansing of each space she performs in, charging it as both safe space and experimental incubator.
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Field Guide
Field Guide, one of Dallas' best new bands, is a surfy, catchy Pandora's Box of shoegaze and pop. The power comes from vocalist Ivette Colen; her baritone growl rips through each and every live set. Her voice is masculine, raw and hypnotizing. As a vehicle for the band's catchy songs on love and trains, her voice turns what could be standard pop tunes into guttural sonnets on contemporary love and lust.
Felt and Fur
On Facebook, the band describes its sound as, "funeral-pop-doom-disco." That's pretty accurate: Tracks are delivered like sonnets read from a graveyard. There's a macabre quality to their composition. Downtempo vibes run deep like a hearse while vocalist Alizsha Pennington builds towards release. When you finally see the white light, you realize it's a strobe. You've walked into some of the best melancholy dance music to come out of Denton since Def Rain.
iill
This two-piece electronic Goth project is fronted by Greer and with producer Alex Velte, who embraces shredding the fourth wall between performer and audience. iill sits at the intersectionality of horror, industrial and electronic. By using minimalist stage production -- usually a swinging light bulb raised above the band -- monochromatic wardrobe and androgyny, iill creates a spectacle that challenges notions on spatial politics within a live performance.
They Say the Wind Made Them Crazy
Sara Ruth Alexander's voice is heartbreaking. It will make you remember lost loved ones, lost love and lost time -- like a tragic opera. Her current project with Greg Prickett is a doozy. Alexander is credited with playing harmonium, recorder, bells and effects; she also covers lead vocals. When studying the duo's debut album, there are compositions where Sarah Ruth declines a traditional singing structure. Her voice acts as a prism, bending and breaking the song's progressions and structure until it is something else, akin to poetry.
By LEE ESCOBEDO/SPECIAL CONTRIBUTOR
