Childbirth's wry feminist wit is on full display on "Let's Be Bad"

21 August 2015, 09:45 | Written by Jon Putnam

(Tracks)

This week is the 90th anniversary of women in the United States to finally obtain voting rights. Plenty more inroads have been made since legally in the States, but antiquated male mindsets toward women persist, which is nothing to scoff at….

Or is it? So much of the blatant slighting and ignorant belittling of women are so inane, sometimes one can’t help but make a snide joke…or a song full of them. Olympia, Washington trio Childbirth skewers these mindsets in wry and foreboding fashion on their latest single, “Let’s Be Bad”.

No stranger certainly to calling out patriarchal hypocrisy head on, Julia Shapiro (of Chastity Belt) illicitly whispers suggestions of doing outrageous things like splitting a dessert, showing up late to work, or wearing a skirt that “barely fits”.

The band’s sound adds another layer of satire as “Let’s Be Bad” acquits itself as a brooding post-punk inflected counterpoint to its not serious but totally serious lyrical matter. It’s all capped off with Shapiro’s wail of the titular chorus, chock full of as much clenched-fist sneer as even Billy Idol could muster.

Childbirth’s debut LP Women’s Rights arrives 2 October courtesy of Suicide Squeeze Records.