Forgotten Favorites: The Red Aunts, "Rollerderby Queen"

"Rollerderby Queen" was pretty much erased from my memory until late last week, when a dear friend informed me that's he's gearing up to referee for his local rollerderby team. And then I went and YouTubed the video, and it's mostly kind of bad. (Starts off really kick-ass, but then why all the slo-mo skating? LAME.) Nevertheless, the song still makes me go "YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH!" over and over (in my head at least, or maybe sometimes to my cat) like it did when a boy put it on a mixtape for me my freshman year of college.

Released in '95, "Rollerderby Queen" was so much more immediately appealing to me than Bikini Kill, whom I discovered via the very same mixtape. I knew I was supposed to want to bow down to Kathleen Hanna, but I had way more fun with the Red Aunts and L7 and Babes in Toyland and other similarly tuff, occasionally ridiculous bands when it came to that mid-90s genre of "girls with snarly guitars who scream a lot." (It's dumb to throw them all in the same category, I know, but my memories of those bands are so inextricably tangled up, probably because I first heard of them all while reading Sassy.) I also wholly appreciated that the Aunts were really into the punk-name thing, each taking on several noms-de-punk throughout the band's lifespan ("Sapphire" and "Taffy Davis" for lead vocalist/guitarist Kerry Davis; "Angel" and "Louise Lee Outlaw" for guitarist Terri Wahl; "E.Z. Wider" and "Connie Champagne" and "Debbi Dip" for bassist Debi Martini; and "Ishino Destroyer" and "Cougar" for drummer Lesley Noelle). I can't really think of any bands that make use of punk names today, except for The Donnas, who win none of my love. (And I just realized that I pretty much bash The Donnas every chance I get, but I can't help it: I think they're so boring and annoying.)

Anyway, watch the video, at least for the first 15 killer seconds. It might make you dream of t-shirts and pleated miniskirts, and high ponytails and red-red lipstick. Which is a hot dream indeed.

Posted by Liz in Videos
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