I don’t know about you, but I love listening to ladies rockin’ out. Here are some of my personal faves, roughly categorized. Most of them are still pretty unknown. You can be a hipster about it, if you want, so when they really blow up you can say, “I knew them before they were famous!” Click on the green links to sample songs of theirs. And check them out on Spotify or youtube and see what you think.

Rock 

• Tacocat, The fact that their name is a palindrome is a sample of their quirky awesomeness.
• The Courtneys, whose drummer does most of the singing. Talk about multi-tasking.
• Shiny Toy Guns. click this link too for a cool video.
• Florence + The Machine. Who doesn’t love The Dog Days are Over?

Electronica  

• Grimes. She’s a weirdo in the best way. Also check out this lesser known song of hers, which is my absolute favorite.
• Blue Hawaii. Supes mellow.
• Purity Ring. Low bass and resonating, weird vocals. (Weird is always a compliment in my book.)
• Phantogram with Sarah Hair who’s voice gets into my soul.

Folk

• Crooked Still. I could listen to their whole album while I garden.
• Brandi Carlile. (Of course, the one and only.)
• Shook Twins. I saw them live! Even better. They use this old fashioned type of microphone to get a unique, echoey sound.

Hip Hop 

• Psalm One. Gaaahhhh, she’s so good. Her alto-bass voice is
• soothing and kick-ass at the same time.

  

• Ana Tijoux– Chilean rapper, who I knew, before her song was on Breaking Bad. (Yes, I’m being a hipster about it.)
• Invincible. Shout out to Bresnin for introducing me to her!

Pop

• Salute, by Little Mix. One of the rare times I switched on the modern, pop radio channel turned out to be a success when I discovered their song, Salute.
• Robyn. the swedish pop singer with top U.S hits. Gotta love how she dances like she don’t give a sh*t.
• La Roux. I remember jamming to Bullet Proof on the dance floor at a “club”. I use club in quotes because, let’s face it; it’s Montana.

Punk

• The Distillers. Their album Coral Fang is hands down, one of the best punk albums out there, male or female.

  

• Bikini Kill. Have you seen the documentary on Netflix called The Punk Singer yet? It’s about Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill, the punk rocker who brought second wave feminism to the forefront.

Other Epic Genres

• Amanda Diva. Poetic, rhythmic rapping. She’s on Spotify.
• Sea Oleena. Mellow bath jams.
• Sylvan Esso. Play It Right, amma right? 
• Santogold. Have you seen that Youtube video where a solo, hippie guy is dancing at a festival and ends up starting a massive dance party? Yep, he was dancing to Santogold.
• Nina Simone. And of course, my list would not be complete without the amazing Nina Simone,

  

  who’s career really took off after she performed piano at Carnegie Hall and progressed to become the infamous Jazz singer we know her as today.  (1. See below for source.)

1.) “What Happened, Miss Simone?” Documentary on Netflix. Director Liz Garbus. June 2015. Web. July 2015.