"I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone"

Sleater-Kinney
(Chainsaw, 1996)

If Bikini Kill's "Rebel Girl" was riot grrrl's nascent battle cry, then Sleater-Kinney's "I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone" was the post-war plan in action, a way of coming to terms with a decade in which underground revolutions lasted only as long as it took Madison Avenue to deliver a new Volkswagen ad campaign. Singer-guitarists Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein, both veterans of grrrl bands, did some co-opting of their own with this tune, grabbing hold of the male rock-and-roll fantasy and claiming it as their own. Funny thing is, the bassless guitar interplay and vocal call-and-responses are way more sophisticated than anything remotely Ramonesy.

-- Matt Ashare