Month: July 2012

Anybody want to live in a completely sustainable house in Chippendale? My friend Michael Mobbs is going away for a while. You’ll have to look after the chickens!

Women Who Rock – #47 Lucinda Williams
Lucinda Williams’s Car Wheels on a Gravel Road is #47 on RS’s list of Greatest Albums from “Women Who Rock.” I’d heard of Lucinda Williams but never really listened to her. After going through this album a couple times, I’m kicking myself. I need to listen to it about 50 more times until these songs become a part of me. So good.

Women Who Rock – #48 Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie’s Raitt’s Give It Up is #48 on RS’s list of Greatest Albums from “Women Who Rock.” My only experience with Bonnie’s discography was her later Top 40 stuff, so this early blues was a revelation. She sounds so young! It’s definitely not what I expected, with some of the songs having a Dixieland feel to them. (Snook: “How can it be ‘rock’ when it was a clarinet solo?!”) The album inspired me to read up on Bonnie, where I learned how respected she is as a slide guitarist. The Snook informs me that there’s even a Unix utility named after her. (Me: “What does it do?” Him: “Identify bottlenecks.” Me: “Heh.”)

Women Who Rock – #49 The Breeders
The Breeders’ Last Splash is #49 on RS’s list of Greatest Albums from “Women Who Rock.” I discovered the Breeders when I happened to catch the video for “Cannonball” late one night on MTV (maybe “120 Minutes”?) in high school, and I was hooked. I bought the tape and I still know all the words 19 years later. I remember being amused at “Drivin’ On 9”, because I actually had to drive to high school along State Road 9. I also bought a Breeders T-shirt that I have carried with me across several continents, and that I only just reluctantly stopped wearing (because it’s full of holes – don’t worry; I’m making it into a quilt). The Breeders are also the only artists on the list who I’ve actually MET. The day Kim and Kelley Deal wandered into my knitting shop in Sydney was seriously one of the coolest days in my whole time there. Rock on, Deal sisters.