| Joan Jett'sFlashback (Blackheart), 13 covers andnine originals recorded as early as 1979 and as late as 1993, lookslike a last gasp--the odds and ends of an honorable rock and rollerwhose consistency has gotten boring. But from an early session withtwo Sex Pistols to a Rock for Choice gig with L7, it sounds likeher best album ever. Jett's limited songwriting and fondness forstraight-ahead drummers and chords have always benefited from infusionsof outside material, even if her spirit appread to have flown by1990's all-coversThe Hit List. But the secrethere isn't the profusion of tracks from her mid-'80s prime. It'sthat many of them--the censored Stones remakeStar Star,the early rap collaborationBlack Leather, the casually homoeroticPlay With Me--were withheld as too raw, and that the thetwo most recent, including the strikingActivity Grrrl, matchtheir intensity. Activity Grrrl invokes one reason Jett's feeling better thesedays--the long overdue riot-grrrl punk typified by two even rawerrecords, Bratmobile'sPottymouth and Bikini Kill'sPussyWhipped (both Kill Rock Stars).Admittedly, Bratmobile's tape-recorder-in-the-bedroom soundmay strike some as too cute to be so nasty. But their godmothersin Bikini Kill are damned convincing, a first-rank hardcore bandwhose rage just happens to be female. Guys who take pride in theirbig dicks should probably seek entertainment elsewhere. The restof us still have shit to learn.
Fast Cuts: The three-CDJanis (Columbia)is a smart, audiowiseset that not only gets Joplin's achievement right but helps us understandit. Sue Foley'sWithout a Warning (Antone's)has the sass, sweetness, and blues feelingof the young Bonnie Raitt.Playboy, Dec. 1993
 | Nov. 1993 | 1994? 1994 |  |
|
RSS