lowbrow + brilliant

You Know What’s Awesome? Band Feuds

In the spirit of today’s Bikini Kill nostalgia, I remembered the awesome lyric diss war between Kathleen Hanna and Fat Mike, the lead singer from that shitty pop punk band NOFX.

So basically, Kathleen Hanna at some point called NoFX misogynists, and Fat Mike responded with a song called Kill Rock Stars (the title, a reference to the record label of Olympia Riot Grrl bands like Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, etc).

NoFX-Kill Rock Stars
“Kill the rockstars” how ironic, Kathleen
You’ve been crowned the newest queen
Kinda like the punk rock Gloria Steinham
You can’t change the world by blaming men
Can’t change the world by hating men

Just cause I don’t know the reason You’re so pissed
Don’t dare tag me misogynist
I thought the goal here was mutual respect
Not constructing a separate sect
I wish I could have seen Courtney
Demonstrate some real misogyny
Can’t change the world by hating men

The Courtney bit is about an instance where Courtney Love assaulted Kathleen Hanna. Nice one buddy. Brilliantly, Kathleen responded with “Deceptacon,” a fucking epic brat pop anthem that, if you don’t know it by name, you would surely recognize it immediately if I played it.

Le Tigre-Deceptacon
You bought a new van the first year of yr band
Yr cool and I hardly wanna say “not”
Because I’m so bored that I’d be entertained
Even by a stupid fuckin linoleum floor, linoleum floor
Yr lyrics are dumb like a linoleum floor
I’ll walk on it
I’ll walk all over you
Walk on it, walk on it, walking one, two
Who? Who? Who? Who?

Who took the Bomp from the Bompalompalomp?
Who took the Ram from the Ramalamading dong?
Who took the Bomp from the Bompalompalomp?
Who took the Ram from the Ramalamading dong?

The linoleum floor mention is making fun of a NoFX song called “Linoleum,” and the chorus is basically a comment on how meaningless and boring NoFX’s lyrics are. When it comes to critics, I tend to prefer a “don’t stoop to their level” attitude, but this retort is kinda awesome. (In fact, I really wish I could write badass pop anthems as “fuck yous” to my enemies. Much more effective than a bitchy email!) So fuck you Fat Mike, Kathleen Hanna+Bikini Kill+Le Tigre rock.