Hardcore isn't just a boys' club

Between talking with a friend tonight who regaled me with an amusing story of Keith Morris making a drunken pass at her and my boyfriend dashing off to see Mike Watt play at Stubb's, I am inclined to blog about the rise of L.A. hardcore. And of course drawing everyone's attention to the fact that Black Flag had a female bassist named Kira Roessler, who was married to Mike Watt for a time.

The lame part about writing about almost any female musician is the inevitable sexual stuff that manages to incorporate itself into their biographies that doesn't attach itself to men's. For instance, you'd be hard-pressed to find a biography of Henry Rollins or Mike Watt that mentioned Roessler, even though she dated both, married one, and played with both. But I couldn't find a biography of her that managed to go without mentioning at least one.

Well, she played on five studio albums with one of the preeminent hardcore bands, Black Flag. Even though the hardcore movement is largely seen as unfeminine compared to the feminine nature of most punk rock, even hardcore was "infected" with the ever-present female influence. And thank god. It's not punk if women aren't involved--as the ultimate outsiders, women are the ultimate punks.