Punk is, for the most part, a male-oriented genre. There are some notable exceptions, of course (
Patti Smith,
riot grrrl acts like
Sleater-Kinney and
Bikini Kill), and in the new millennium, more and more female-led bands have managed to break through.
Innocence Is Bliss (A Female Frenzy of Sensational Sounds), however, compiled and released by
Dionysus Records, is a collection of some of the yet-to-be-well-known bands. In fact, many of the acts -- all of which are fronted by female vocalists, and some of which are all female -- are rather obscure (though dedicated
punk fans may be familiar with
Anna & the Psychomen or the
Young Werewolves). This anonymity however, will probably not be solved by an inclusion on the album, mainly because only a limited number of the compilations were pressed (under 1000 CDs and under 500 LPs), giving relatively few people an opportunity to hear the groups, but also because while all of the bands on
Innocence Is Bliss are completely adequate, nothing they do really stands out, besides the fact they're partially female, which isn't enough. Shouted and generally incomprehensible lyrics (not helped by the foreign accents that many of the singers have) mix with simple banged chords and pounding drums into short, quick songs with aggressive vocals and an assumed cocksureness. Some of the bands, like the
Cocktail Slippers,
Tizzy, the
Rabies, and
Lost Patrol veer more toward
alternative rock or, in the case of the latter, even
shoegaze, while others, like the aforementioned
Anna & the Psychomen (who are one of the three groups featured here from Italy, a country where the
punk scene is quite strong),
Zombina and the Skeletones, and the
Whys all try their hands at
psychobilly and surf-a-billy. Quirkiest of all is
"Panic Attack" by the
Buttersprites, whose strange, poppy, guttural vocals (in both English and Japanese) are rather catchy and fun. But while it's true that
Innocence Is Bliss isn't extraordinary in its scope, or particularly groundbreaking, it is energetic and upbeat, which means that regardless of the individual merits of each band, the album is able to hold itself up well enough as a whole, if nothing else. ~ Marisa Brown
