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The 20 Best Riot Grrrl Songs
Spin Magazine

One of Bikini Kill’s best songs is one of their most overlooked. In two and a half minutes, “Outta Me” packs in more emotional nuance than the band usually left room for. Riot grrrl has meant, and continues to mean, many things to many people. But when I think about the central tension of being a woman trying to move through the world, “bein’ in love,” “bein’ in hate,” and just feeling fucking bled dry often seems like the right way to put it. But that’s probably just how everyone feels. “Outta Me,” in its bittersweet efficiency, transcends riot grrrl, it but also sort of defines it — if anything ever could.

Things to do in Seattle this September
Crosscut

The ’90s are back. No, not the summer temperatures but choker necklaces, flannel shirts, skater jeans and riot grrrl pioneers Bikini Kill. The influential feminist punk rock band sprouted from the fertile Olympia grunge/punk soil in the early 1990s and played its last show in Tokyo in 1997, after three albums and a career as fiery, exhilarating and concise as their songs — which rage against the sexist machine. The band, whose “girls to the front” credo ignited a movement, announced a Pacific Northwest reunion tour in November of 2019. (We all know what happened next.) The rescheduled Bikini Kill tour makes its final stop in Marymoor, one of the few shows that have not sold out – yet.

Ezra Furman All of Us Flames
Northern Transmissions

Ezra Furman has seemingly spent her last two albums in constant motion. She first traced a collection of Springsteen-esque stories of escape and romance songs with 2018’s Transangelic Exodus, then quickly offered up an incendiary punk paen to rage and fury with 2019’s Twelve Nudes. Her songs have often felt restless and nervy, finding her searching for peace and comfort amidst a hostile world that doesn’t want Furman or the people she loves to exist.

All of Us Flames Review by James Christopher Monger
All Music

The third installment of a trilogy that began in 2018 with the transformative road-trip opus Transangelic Exodus, All of Us Flames sees Ezra Furman deliver a disarming and defining set of punk-kissed heartland indie rock songs that give a bullhorn to marginalized voices.

The 10 Best Albums of August 2022
Paste

Ezra Furman knows that the joys and fears of trans women are doubled to either extreme compared to those of their cis counterparts, as violent transmisogyny continues to run rampant and women who share her experiences are forced to live in the shadows.

New Music Reviews (08/29)
KEXP

This Chicago artist’s sixth album is a strong set of dramatic indie-rock incorporating elements of heartland rock and other styles, combining shimmering synths, guitars, piano and more with her grainy vocals and sharply crafted lyrics depicting self-love and connection as antidotes to bigotry and isolation.

Ezra Furman writes simple songs “for the mind to stretch out in”
The Fader

It’s rare nowadays to find sincere protest music worth listening to. Even those elite artists who do make legitimately radical statements in their songs — Downtown Boys, Moor Mother, Special Interest, et al. — mix their full-throated activism with experiments in form. But on her recent single “Book Of Our Names,” Ezra Furman takes a direct swing at capitalism in the style of the earnest folk rockers who shook the structures of power over half a century ago.

Ezra Furman Builds a Shrine to Trans Survival on All of Us Flames
Paste

In terms of both the joyful force it exudes and the restrictive forces imposed upon it, femininity is inherently violent. Going back to the earliest examples of mythology, you can usually find some reference to an orderly, masculine representation of the sun, serving as a foil to the chaos of the moon that forcibly bends the tides and weather to its will under the cover of night.

Indie Basement (8/26): the week in classic indie, college rock, and more Indie Basement (8/26): the week in classic indie, college rock, and more
Brooklyn Vegan

Indie Basement’s quiet but very hot August continues, and this week includes: the swaggering debut album from Speedy Wunderground-signed The Lounge Society; new DFA signees JJULIUS; cinematic guitarist Rachika Nayar; Ezra Furman finds empathy at the edge of the apocalypse; Pantha du Prince gets one with nature; and ’90s electronica producer William Orbit returns with his first album in eight years featuring Beth Orton and more.

Ezra Furman: All of Us Flames
Spectrum Culture

The full range and complicated range of human emotions has always been part of Furman’s creativity — especially anger, which was mined extensively in Furman’s last album, 2019’s punk blowout Twelve Nudes. Before that was 2018’s Transangelic Exodus, an album that constantly felt like its music had been set ablaze in honor of the agony and ecstasy of queerness, as well as to process the understanding that “sometimes you go through hell, but you never get to Heaven.”

The 7 projects you should stream right now
The Fader

The singer-songwriter concludes a trilogy of albums that included 2018’s Transangelic Exodus and 2019’s Twelve Nudes. The new project, Furman says, is “a queer album for the stage of life when you start to understand that you are not a lone wolf, but depend on finding your family, your people, how you work as part of a larger whole.”

10 New Albums to Listen to Today
Paste

Ezra Furman knows that the joys and fears of trans women are doubled to either extreme compared to those of their cis counterparts, as violent transmisogyny continues to run rampant and women who share her experiences are forced to live in the shadows.

Friday New Music – 8/26
The Avocado

Hello! It’s Friday, again! There’s new music out there, again. I’ve got Tiny Blue Ghost a band nearby to me on a label I like and I’ve been really enjoying all the songs they’ve put out this year. There’s also this Stella Donnelly to check out based on reviews, also this Cryalot album I don’t think I’ve heard of but I love KKB.

New Music | Friday Roll Out: P.U.R.E., DJ Criminal, Ezra Furman, Scarves, Vinyl Williams, Sélébéyone
Ghettoblaster

We all need to understand one thing; Ezra Furman is possibly an artist that’s the most unappreciated in our lifetime. The world needs to be covered in Furman releases because there’s nothing but quality work here. All Of Us Flames (ANTI-) is Ezra’s ninth full-length release, collaborative and solo, and possibly the most realized work to date.

12 Best Songs of the Week: Ezra Furman, Nilüfer Yanya, Belle and Sebastian, Wet Leg, and More
Under The Radar

1. Ezra Furman: “Point Me Toward the Real”
Ezra Furman has signed to ANTI- and on Tuesday shared her first single for the label, “Point Me Toward the Real.” She also announced some new North American tour dates. The horn-backed “Point Me Toward the Real” is about someone getting out of a psychiatric hospital. Furman’s lyrics paint a truly vivid picture.

Point Me Toward The Real: A Quick Review Of All Of Us Flames By Ezra Furman
A Pessimist Is Never Dissapointed

This is one of those records that’s as naked as it can be in emotional terms, and yet still wildly enjoyable and tuneful as well. All of Us Flames, the new one from Ezra Furman, reveals the artist reaching a kind of peak here. The ANTI- / Bella Union release stands above and beyond so much of what’s come out this summer, showcasing a kind of serious rock, that’s still full of the sort of pleasures as the best classic rock or glam.

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