I was just reading these horrible quotes by Kevin Lyman, the Warped tour founder/producer, and he was responding to questions by this great reporter, Megan Seling, about why there is so little representation of women musicians at the Warped Tour. And he said, "I don’t necessarily go search out girl bands — I always try to make sure they’re there. But they have to be good.” I mean, first of all, women are not "girls". That's just infantilizing and insulting. But second of all, he really hits on one of the most irritating aspects of sexism in the music industry, which is the way in which women are held up to impossible standards and hyper-scrutinized. There's a suspicion of, "What are you doing here? Do you really belong?" That kind of elitism is something I see in punk sometimes more generally, and it can mirror that kind of sexism or give it an added edge. "Are you punk enough to be here?" "Tomboy Anthem" is about the ways other people try and put you in a box or project their expectations onto you of who you should be. I'm really fed up with the kind of posturing and popularity contests that can get in the way of genuine communication and expression. This song is about just rejecting expectations and rules that don't serve us and not apologizing for it. — Statement from Madeline Burrows, drummer and vocalist for Tomboy
Lyrics
you talk and talk
about what i do
you think you know me
but i'll show you
you read my mind
well i read your diary
if you're so tough
than throw all your weight at me
you think you're cool
i'm just an accessory
ha ha ha ha
now you're gonna see
can't watch you
don't want to
don't like you anymore
i can't watch you
you get me now?
oh now you're the fucking king
if you're so sweet
then get on your knees and sing
oh you're tone deaf?
surprise of the century
la la la la
yeah you'd better believe!
i liked you but that was before
Sweetie, Tomboy's debut full-length, is out on Ride the Snake Records.
Tomboy are a riot grrrl band based in Boston and composed of Hanna Negami and Ali Donohue on guitar, Meghan Hines on bass, and Madeline Burrows on drums and vocals.