Vivian Girls Issue #39

Riot Grrrl Redux

By Adrienne Urbanski
Published: March 1st, 2009 | 9:47am

Having been together for less than two years, the Brooklyn-based Vivian Girls already carry a devoted fan base and receive near-constant press coverage. The true extent of their popularity hit them during the first run of their debut album in 2008 — the 500 copies sold out in little more than a week, and began appearing on Ebay for hundreds of dollars.

Kickball Katy (24) and singer-guitarist Cassie Ramone (23) first met as high school students at Ridgewood High School in northern New Jersey. “I think we were both, by far, the least popular girls in school,” Katy admits. They may have been outsiders in adolescence, but these days the Vivian Girls boast a worldwide fanbase, critical adoration, and a sweet new deal with In The Red Records. After their new label wisely re-released that infamous debut, it’s safe to say that the once-unpopular Jersey girls became the toast of the Brooklyn music scene.

The band’s extreme popularity could perhaps be credited to the fact that they are an all-female group, presenting an aggressive sound. And while music history has shown many groups with these attributes, the music scene in Brooklyn has in recent years shown fewer and fewer. Some fans and critics have compared the girls’ sound to that of the riot grrrl groups of the ‘90s; their lack of formal musical skill, coupled with angry, impassioned vocals give them a similar aesthetic. Katy says that, while she sees the band as being different from her female predecessors, she shows an appreciation for how the riot grrrl movement changed the music scene for women.

“Riot grrrl is a reason why a lot of girls get into music. When riot grrrl was a movement there was definitely a lot more sexism at shows and stuff. I wasn’t around then but it totally seems like it was way worse than it is now. I think it was a lot harder for girls to get into bands,” says Katy.

Katy also expresses mixed feelings about the attention paid to their gender, noting that while much of their success stems from them being an all-female act, the scrutiny shown towards them is different than it would be if they were male. “I feel like if there was a band of guys and they had the same musical abilities as us, people wouldn’t play on the fact they’re not musically proficient. No, they would focus on other things. But I feel like because we don’t noodle around, because we’re punk, because we’re a little more on the edge, people tend to focus on that because we’re women.”

Katy also points out that the band’s name, which stems from a gargantuan manuscript by outsider artist Henry Darger, refers not to actual women, but hermaphrodites.

“So really our name isn’t even gender specific,” says Katy.