By Michael Bertin

AUGUST 4, 1997: 

The Geraldine Fibbers
Electric Lounge, Thursday, August 7

Women in rock. The phrase used to mean Pat Benatar, Belinda Carlisle, and Chrissie Hynde. Now it means Sheryl Crow, Gwen Stefani, and, uh, Chrissie Hynde. Alright, not everything has changed, but hey, women in rock have proliferated.

For Carla Bozulich, singer and primary songwriter for L.A.'s cow-punksters the Geraldine Fibbers, the increased gender equity is actually a non-event. "I don't think there's a chick explosion," says a raspy-voiced Bozulich. "I think what's going on is that it wasn't fashionable for women to play rock & roll. You know it's not lady-like."

Ah, but not only has it become fashionable, it's become profitable and newsworthy. The Lillith Fair is topping every "What's hot" list, and Jewel, one of the tour draws, even made the cover of Time magazine recently.

For songwriters and guitar players, it's a good time to have two X chromosomes. But Bozulich, whose band has three non-females and is definitely not part of the tour, remains nonplused by the Lillith hype. "I've never heard any of those bands," she says.

"She's pretty I guess," musters Bouzulich. "I happen to know [who she is], because a friend knows her. He lives in Alaska. Other than that, I'm sure I wouldn't even know who she was. I heard that she knows how to yodel, though. That's cool." After a long pause, she adds, "I saw her on the television. She was, like, rolling around."

Now that's the kind of talent that sells albums. But it takes more than talent to sell -- or rather, it takes something else besides talent to sell.

Bozulich explains: "We still have a long way to go, because right now the only really acceptable woman in music is a woman that, at the end of the day, isn't going to offend anybody. Like Alanis Morissette has some words that can be construed as pretty `sassy' and `racy,' but everybody knows it was a gimmick. Whereas if you hear the Lunachicks or Courtney Love saying something like that, you know that they fucking mean it and they're gonna rip your motherfucking head off if you piss 'em off."

You go, girl. -- Michael Bertin

• The Lillith Fair