"Punk, not spunk"

Pitchfork told "the story of feminist punk in 33 songs" back in 2016 (which arguably explains some of the later choices, Priests and Downtown Boys among them) but the listicle-dressed-up-as-a-narrative didn't come to my attention until they tweeted about it on International Women's Day.

There are a lot of familiar names: Patti Smith kicks us off, and there are also mentions for X-Ray Spex, The Slits, Bikini Kill, Sleater-Kinney and Le Tigre (represented by the excellent 'Hot Topic'). But I also learned plenty along the way - such as that I may have dismissed The Raincoats prematurely having hated them at an ATP ('No One's Little Girl' has a great bassline and holds a strange fascination), that Huggy Bear were a blast and that PJ Harvey's '50ft Queenie is about pegging. And that's not to mention all of the intriguing bands and artists the article has introduced me to: The Bags, Kleenex/LiLiPUT, Slant 6, Vivien Goldman (I had no idea she made music as well as writing about it - let alone with Adrian Sherwood). Perhaps the biggest revelation is discovering that Crass were capable of sounding like a no-wave Stereolab.

It was great to see the inclusion of Bush Tetras' 'Too Many Creeps', a song that Thurston Moore put on my radar back in 2014. Moore's own band Sonic Youth also feature in the form of 'Flower' - a curious choice, perhaps, given the existence of 'Swimsuit Issue', 'Tunic (Song For Karen)' and 'Pacific Coast Highway', but indisputably great. More controversial, Pitchfork concede, are Hole ('Violet') and Fugazi ('Suggestion') - given that Courtney Love railed against riot grrrl and that Fugazi were, y'know, an all-male band. But Kathleen Hanna's comment rings true: Ian Mackaye's appropriation of a female voice might be problematic, but he nevertheless led the way in demonstrating that women's issues are men's issues too.