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Mar 28, 2014 Web Exclusive By Kate Bennett

Since Russian punk collective Pussy Riot came to prominence for their arrest a couple of years ago, and with the fourth wave of feminism currently crashing against the patriarchal harbor wall (who doesn’t love an overwrought metaphor?), there seems to have been welcome renewal of interest in riot grrrl, or whatever label you want to attach to it. In debut album Say Yes to Love, Syracuse punks Perfect Pussy have put out a scorching spearhead for the rejuvenated movement.

Say Yes to Love may be only 23 minutes long, but for a record as intensely angry and frenetic as this, that’s about the right length; any longer and it’d lose its fist-to-the-gut impact. It’s not an easy listen-frontwoman Meredith Graves’ furious vocals are unintelligible throughout, locked in battle with relentlessly noisy hardcore. You get the sense that it’s less about what she’s saying, and more about her right as a woman to scream and shout on record; it’s a refusal to do the “ladylike” thing and shut up. Okay, Perfect Pussy is almost definitely a band to be experienced live rather than on record, but as statements of intent go, Say Yes to Love is an incredibly powerful one. (www.prrfectpussy.bandcamp.com)

Author rating: 6/10