Ah, the ’90s. A tacky but wonderful time. And there’s nothing better on a hot summer day than a blast from the not-so-distant ’90s past. Ever wonder what happened to some of those artists that you used to play over and over again on your Walkman? Well bust out your old CD (not mp3) collection, because you’re about to find out.

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They were gorgeous and bright, well versed in their rights, talented, and respected. They had lyrics crafted especially for the freeing of the spirit. You know who I’m talking about. Ani Difranco. Tori Amos. Fiona Apple… the list goes on. These ladies helped mold me into who I am today with presence and personality that could give any girl hope and strength.

My questions is this: Where have all of these fantastic ladies gone? As a musician, I can only aspire to be like them, but when I look around, I feel as though I hardly see anyone else aiming for that goal. I see one hit wonders without longevity. I see women using curse words matched with a catchy chorus to be “cute”. Giant boobs and bare midriffs and lyrics written by some fifty year old guy.

Where are the heroes of this generation? Which female singer today would get up at the MTV Video Music Awards and tell little girls everywhere that “This world is bullsh*t“? What singers are telling every record label “F*ck you” and starting their own? Which singers will boldly, and in detail, write a song about being raped?

I know there are great women musicians out there, and I try myself to be the best I can. But when I look at teenage girls today, I feel bad for them because they don’t have the same women I had in their lives to look up to. It pains me every time a younger girl says “Ani WHO?”.

I hope I’m wrong about this, but I feel like my generation was the lucky one for having so many talented ladies holding the reigns in the 90′s. Today’s girls…who do they have?

5. Relationship of Command: At the Drive-In

I mostly listened to grrl rock like Tori and Fiona, but something about the rawness of lead singer Cedric Bixler’s (now of the far inferior Mars Volta) voice and the frantic intensity of the music really appealed to me. Maybe it was an outlet for my teenage anger and angst, or maybe it just made me feel cool. Either way, the album still kicks ass.

4. Rated R: Queens of the Stone Age

I listened to this album over and over after I broke up with my first boyfriend. It’s not an especially sad album, so I don’t know why it brought me so much comfort, but it really became a security blanket. I can’t listen to it now without feeling a little sad and really, really nostalgic. Which is a shame, because it also kicks ass.

3. The Blue Album: Weezer

The World Has Turned and Left Me Here was the theme song of my junior year, also known as the year of awful braces and being overlooked for a good part in the school play. I was a nerd, and Weezer understood that–they spoke for me in the most beautifully simple and poignant way a band could. Sadly, I’ve listened to this album so many times that I cannot listen to it ever again.

2. Doolittle: The Pixies

Immediately when I heard this album I knew without a doubt that the Pixies were going to be my favorite band. And seven or eight years later, they probably still are.

I wore out every Pixies album I could get my grubby little hands on and I never, ever grew tired of them. Doolittle was schizophrenic brilliance and I felt better, smarter, just listening to it. It made me want to leave my small town and strike out, it made me want to dance, and it gave me one of my most persistent role models in Kim Deal. Minus the whole alcoholism thing.

1. Boys for Pele: Tori Amos.

This album will always make me think of my best friend in high school, and driving around at all hours in her old car that hardly ran. We listened to this album and talked about our lives, our fears, our crushes, our futures, loving Tori’s impertinence, her boldness. She was the adult version of what we wanted to be, wiser for all of her youthful indiscretions.

The album, too, was all about frustration with men and relationships, and although our situations were greatly different, I felt like I understood everything she sang about.

What albums defined your teenage years? Can you still listen to them?

[Photos from Wikipedia]

MySpace has brought many an artist to the musical forefront, and Colbie Calliat is no exception. However, unlike many artists today, Calliat (like ballet) writes her own music.

The 22 year-old hails from sunny California and grew up in a musical family. Her father co-produced a few Fleetwood Mac albums and by age 11 Colbie began singing. It wasn’t until she was 19 that she took guitar lessons and really started to take her music seriously.

After the song “Bubbly” garnered interest on her MySpace page, Colbie’s music career took off. She shopped around for a record label and found a home with Universal Republic.

Aside from dropping her first album CoCo this past July, Calliat has been named a finalist in the AOL Breakers contest, a VH1 artist You Oughtta Know and is scheduled to appear at GIRLFRENZY! alongside the likes of Sheryl and Fiona in 2008.

Colbie’s music is just the feel-good, heartwarming girl music you love to listen to. It’s this sunny day, daydreaming sort of pop album that sets Calliat apart. That and actual talent.

Listen to CoCo on her website and then pick it up at iTunes. It’s way more than worth the 8 bucks the album will cost you.

First, the Spice Girls made their comeback and now another fight for GIRL POWAAA!

Sheryl Crow and Avril Lavigne have come together to organize “GirlFrenzy”, (estrogen overload, anyone?) an all-girl concert scheduled to happen this October.

Performers include Av & Sher, along with Fiona Apple, and “rising stars” like Sara Bareilles, Antigone Rising, and Colbie Caillat (who now?).

Should be interesting to see how many GUYS actually show up to this event. I guess it’s fitting that the concert’s taking place October 27th, Halloween appropriate, seeing as it will haunt the souls of poor boyfriends dragged in tow left and right.

Sorry fellas.

I’m always in for a little celebration over girls ruling and boys drooling but “Hey Hey, Av, Av”…I thought you didn’t like a girlfriend?

Yeah, the VMA’s are totally boring but that doesn’t mean some pretty crazy shit hasn’t gone down in the past. Want some proof? Check out these 5 crazy VMA moments…maybe this year will live up to these:

#5: Michael Jackson sucking face with then-wife Lisa Marie Presley. Absolutely gross, but just like a car wreck, could anyone not watch? Even Lisa Marie looked insanely uncomfortable and not in the least bit horny.

#4: Nirvana’s bassist gets slammed in the face with his guitar. When you’re trying to look like a hard-ass, it never works out. Krist Novoselic learned the hard way when he threw his bass up in the air to be “cool” and instead, the thing came crashing down on his skull and he passed out for a minute or two. Yea, real cool.

#3: Justin’s reaction to Britney kissing Madonna. The kiss itself was pretty much no big deal, but the look on JT’s face is priceless. It’s like fire could burst out of his eyeballs at any second. Little did he know she would soon look like this.

#2: Fiona Apple loses her shit. The infamous “This world is bullshit” quote….a rambling, nonsensical speech, but I still think Fiona’s cooler than most of the chicks in music today.

#1: R Kelly’s “Trapped in the Closet.” The guy peed on an under-age girl and then has the balls to get up on stage and perform this as a one-man-show? What is this even? Is it supposed to be funny, cause it is highly hysterical.

So, there you have it.

I doubt anything this spectacular will happen at this year’s event. I really can’t think of anything controversial happening at the VMA’s since Britney and Christina and Madonna’s threesome. But even though they’ve have been disappointing in recent years, I’ll probably still watch them anyway on September 9th, hoping for a crazy surprise.

Maybe Michael Jackson will do some more of the sucking face with a lucky lady? I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Click here to see all 5 totally absurd videos!

With the release of her fifth album, Begin To Hope, things are finally starting to take off in the mainstream. Her song On the Radio was featured on Grey’s Anatomy this past season, and despite the decline in quality of the show itself, its soundtrack still manages to make stars out of relative unknowns. And the mainstream is right about where Regina deserves to be—except that we’ll miss her intimate shows at small venues.

Moving to the Bronx from Russia at the age of 9, Spektor had to improvise when she got to the States. The family left their piano behind in Moscow, and Regina was forced to practice on anything she could find upon her arrival here—window sills, and benches included. She ended up honing her craft, and developing her songwriting skills on a piano in the basement of her synagogue.

A few short years later, when trying to get her first gig at an open audition at a New York club, she decided that waiting around was not for her. She left the line, called the venue, and told them she was already booked there. Somehow she managed to convince them that the lack of her name on the roster was their error and managed to book her first gig.

She’s played tirelessly over the last few years—taking every gig that came her way—and slowly but surely developed a broad fan base.

Spektor has been compared to Tori Amos, and Fiona Apple by critics, but I’m pretty sure it’s just because she plays the piano as well. I love both Tori (her new album—the best she’s put out in awhile), and Fiona Apple, but it doesn’t sound anything like Spektor to me. It’s hard to classify her music—there are so many different sounds, and influences. You can hear her classical training, but you also hear hints of pop, hip-hop… just about everything in there.

Begin to Hope is a great mix—poppy, upbeat songs like Fidelity, Better, and On the Radio are great to wake up to, and impossible to not sing along with. Other tracks like Apres Moi are soaring, and dramatic. And Samson is one of my new favorite love songs—seriously, it makes my heart hurt. Her lyrics are poetic, and maybe slightly confusing, but beautiful all the same.

Spektor has played Coachella this year, and is also appearing at Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza. I think it’s only a matter of time before she’s a household name.

Discography:

2001 – 11:11 (Regina Spektor)

2002 – Songs (Regina Spektor)

2003/2004 - Soviet Kitsch (Regina Spektor/Shoplifter/Sire)

2005 – Mary Ann Meets the Gravediggers and Other Short Stories (Transgressive)

2006 – Begin to Hope (Sire)