Girls With Guitars
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Maverick
Sister Act I: Pop Stars
The original ladies of Lillix -- sisters Tasha Ray-Evin and Lacey-Lee Evin -- started out playing instruments in their parents' basement in rural British Columbia. Soon they added their pal and band bassist Louise Burns, got a demo together and eventually landed at Maverick -- the label founded by the world's reigning pop queen, Madonna. Fast forward a few years, add a drummer, a few star producers, a cool video and throw in a name change ... and you've got one of pop's rising girl-groups.
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Matt Carmichael, Getty Images
Sister Act II: Folk-Rock
We're starting to think there must be something in water up there in Canada. Tegan and Sara are (yet another) pair of sisters who got rockin' at a young age, joined bands in their teens and now occupy a special place in the hearts of indie rockers, the folk-rock scene and the general musical landscape. Their recent video 'Walking With A Ghost' shows off the pair's unique blend of acoustic guitar foundations, with the electric guitar mixed in.
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Ethan Miller, Getty Images
Rock's Original Girl
Britney Spears' claim to fame is re-setting the bar for women in pop music (among other less exemplary things), but Joan Jett defined the role of bad-ass women in rock music when she first took the stage at age 15, more than 25 years ago. Jett and her band The Runaways laid the foundation for generations of female rock artists who embraced her brash guitar riffs and glam-rock hooks. More recently, Jett's been touring -- and reminding us why she was so bad-ass to begin with.
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Debbie Smyth, WireImage.com
Giant Talent
Singer/Guitarist Annie Hardy had been a keyboardist in another band when she struck out on her own, grabbed drummer Micah Calabrese and started up the duo Giant Drag. With their uniquely Los Angeles style of dreamy electro-pop and indie rock riffs combined with Hardy's lyricism, the band's been compared in part to artists like PJ Harvey. Hardy and Calabrese share that kind of hipster irony that endears a lot of indie rockers to bands like theirs, but they're witty enough to avoid cynicism.
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Matt Montemorano
Edge, Defined
Canada may be a more peaceful nation than most, but this musical export is anything but gentle (yup -- another northern export). The girls of metal-band Kittie cry tears of blood, sport tats and heavy eyeliner, and mix up their tracks with Muse-style wailing and intense guitar riffs. The original girls of Kittie fittingly met in their high school gym class, and soon were channeling their talent into covers of Silverchair, and infusing their love of all things glam and metal into their own music. If you haven't heard of them yet, they'll soon be hard to miss.
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Atlantic
The Ingenues
The Donnas formed their first band when they were still in eighth grade, barely skipped a beat before they scored their first tour before senior year was over and shot to critical acclaim in the late 1990s. A few years later, they broke the Top 100 pop charts and found fans from both the indie underground scene and the mainstream, thanks to airtime on MTV. The Donnas' recent video, 'Fall Behind Me,' may have rainbows and unicorns, but these foul-mouthed ladies are far from gushy girls.
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Universal
Musical Jungle
What happens to ground-breaking riot grrls of the 1990s in the new millennium after their bands dissolve in the face of war, '80's retro everything and the emergence of electroclash? If they've still got musical juices going, they look to former Bikini Kill frontwoman Kathleen Hanna for cues. In 1999, Hanna formed Le Tigre, originally conceived as a back-up group but eventually taking center stage. The indie-electronic trio uses everything in their arsenal -- from grainy '80's-styled footage to punk attitude and lo-fi electronic beats. In an era of the over-produced music and videos, the look and feel of a Le Tigre video seems startlingly raw -- but it's an updated mix of familiar elements designed for the modern age.
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Rick Diamond, WireImage.com
Indietastic
Jenny Lewis is one of indie rock's preeminent figureheads who's visible not only as the frontwoman of her own LA-based band, Rilo Kiley, but as a solo artist, collaborator (like her appearance with Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard in supergroup The Postal Service), and on numerous albums for other bands. With stellar songwriting, a beautiful singing voice and solid guitar skills, she'll be popping up on albums and tracks more and more. Here's a taste of her indietastic skills in the video for 'Portion for Foxes.'
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Barry Brecheisen, WireImage.com
All Ears
on the Good OnesSleater-Kinney, one of the forerunners of the 1990s riot-grrl movement, emerged from the dissolution of two other Washington state bands. Together, they formed the solid bedrock for an era of women's bands who sang stripped-down songs with defiant lyrics, raw guitar riffs and driving, catchy hooks. After finishing a tour in 2006, they went on "indefinite hiatus." We're hoping this isn't code for "never coming back," because no girls' car trip in the pacific northwest is complete without one of their albums.
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Paul Warner, WireImage.com
Girl Power
Indie rock has its darlings. Cat Power's (aka Chan Marshall) is definitely towards the top of the list. Known for her inward lyrical plunges, expressive vocals and often long performances, she's made a name for herself as one of the top female artists in her field. But, similar to darlings of the pop scene, she has her inner demons -- the only difference is that girls with guitars can usually channel it back into their own work.
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