Monday, April 22, 1996
Band brings power, issue-charged music to Roxy tonight
By John Sabatini
Daily Bruin Contributor
Despite the continual movement toward gender equality in the
United States, heavy metal has remained virtually impervious to the
influence of women. But when the Los Angeles-based metal/rap band
Manhole takes the stage tonight, a new era will begin in extreme
music.
Throughout the history of heavy metal, women have been denied
meaningful representation. During the 1980s, women were found
almost exclusively as music video decorations. More recently, the
situation has not been much better, as women have been essentially
nonexistent.
Now things are changing in a big way. Emphatically tearing
through metal’s gender barrier, Manhole released its debut album
"All Is Not Well" earlier this week. With frontwoman Tairrie B. at
the helm, Manhole tackles issues facing women, such as sexism,
rape, and domestic abuse.
"In society in general, a woman’s place is behind a man,"
Tairrie says. "It’s time that men support their women. And that
women support themselves.
"We should have equal pay and we should have equal rights.
That’s the way it should be. And that’s not the way it is," she
continues. "I’m not the woman who’s going to change everything, but
I’m the woman who’s going to say what I feel about it."
One of the songs which has attracted a great deal of attention
is "Victim," an angry indictment of rapists and the society which
condones crimes against women. In the song, Tairrie presents
disturbing statistics about rape and refutes several commonly held
rape-justifying beliefs.
The primary inspiration for the song was actually another
anti-rape song by the all-male band Downset. Although she
appreciated Downset’s concern, Tairrie felt the song was guilty of
perpetuating a common rape-justifying belief. In particular,
Tairrie was troubled by the band’s implication that women who dress
or behave sexily somehow deserve to be raped.
"The way I interpreted it was that if you look a certain way, or
you have sex appeal or sexuality, it’s like you’re asking to be
raped," she says. "I don’t agree with that."
Another reason Tairrie wrote the song was because she sees other
anti-rape songs as too weak. As an example, she cites "Dead Men
Don’t Rape" by Seven Year Bitch. Despite its strong title, Tairrie
says the song was unimpressive when she saw it performed live.
Tairrie feels that "Victim" is much more effective and
meaningful than songs by other bands because of the Manhole’s
aggressive musical style. In fact, she says fans frequently tell
the band how that song helped them cope with sexual assault in
their own lives.
"I’ve had little 12-year-old girls come up to me at shows and
say, ‘I was raped by my father or a family member and I haven’t
been able to tell anyone. When I heard your tape, I played it in my
house and blared it. I’d stand in front of the mirror and scream
it. And it gave me the strength to deal with what was going
on.’"
Other songs are no less emotionally-charged. "Cycle of Violence"
decries the prevalence of domestic abuse, while "Put Your Head Out"
emphatically supports women’s right to choose.
Despite Manhole’s position on such issues, Tairrie does not
consider herself or the band to be feminists. Dismayed by groups
like the Riot Grrrls which exclude men in the name of feminism,
Tairrie says she prefers the term "humanist" because it includes
members of both sexes.
"There are men and women on this earth. Without one, you don’t
have the other. I don’t want to exclude men," she says. "I don’t
want to pass out lyrics to just women. I want men to know what I’m
talking about."
This concern was particularly important when Tairrie first began
searching for band members. Although she knew she wanted to address
women’s issues, she also knew that an all-female hard-core band
could be easily dismissed as a gimmick or as too extremist.
"I think if we were an all-girl band, we might be blown off,"
says Tairrie. "I think the fact that there are three men backing
this band up invites men to watch it a little more and get into it.
It’s not so excluding."
So far, the response to Manhole has been positive among both men
and women. But Tairrie admits Manhole does frequently run into
belligerent male concertgoers who try to test her in different
ways.
In fact, one such episode had a tremendous impact on the
livelihood of the band. One night, a record company representative
interested in signing the band attended a Manhole concert. During
the show, however, a problem developed.
"There were 700 kids there totally going crazy," Tairrie says.
"Some skateboarder kids were getting really out of hand, and one
drunk guy jumped on stage at me. I guess I thought he was going to
grab me, so I clocked him."
Although the individual came up to Tairrie after the concert to
apologize for his own behavior, it was too late. The record company
executive said he would never sign Manhole, calling the band "way
too rowdy."
Actually, the band’s whole history, particularly that of Tairrie
herself, sounds like a twisted soap opera. Having started her
recording career as a rapper, Tairrie moved to metal after a
multitude of troublesome experiences in the rap community.
"I was totally miserable in that world," she says. "As it kept
going, I realized how sexist it was, how racist it was, how
degrading it all was. It was very weird because something inside of
me was like, I have another purpose in the world."
Tairrie’s first record, entitled "The Power of a Woman" was
released in 1990 on Eazy-E’s Ruthless Records label. Although she
had spent most of her young life on L.A.’s emerging rap scene, the
negative experiences quickly became bad enough to force Tairrie out
of rap altogether.
Tairrie routinely faced the double-edged prejudice of being
white and being a woman. In addition, rap artists all around her
continued to present misogynistic images of women in rap songs and
videos.
"I have a lot of animosity toward that world because it was
very, very ugly," says Tairrie. "I feel very sorry for women
involved in that world. Look at the rap videos. All they do is
portray women as hookers in jacuzzis."
On top of all of this, Tairrie says she was blacklisted before
her own rap career even had a chance to blossom. After finding the
tone of one album review excessively personal, Tairrie happened
upon the magazine’s offices and jumped at the chance to confront
the writer in person. The consequences were more than she bargained
for.
"(The writer) freaked. He called every single publicist in town
trying to blackball me. Basically it worked," she says. "It was so
crazy. My first record never even got a chance."
But Tairrie says she had even more pressing concerns. She claims
that some disputes with members of the rap community became so
serious, she started worrying about her personal safety.
In the wake of these many difficulties, the end of Tairrie’s rap
career finally came when she started recording her second album.
According to Tairrie, Eazy-E, who had supported her throughout
every other controversy, refused to let her incorporate rock
elements into her music.
By this time, Tairrie had been through enough. She informed
Eazy-E that she wanted to get off his label and out of the rap
scene.
"I don’t think any of the people at NWA knew what they were
getting into when Eazy gave me a record deal. I think they thought
I was a little token white girl that they were going to form into
whatever they wanted, do whatever they wanted with me, and it all
backfired. I don’t think they knew how to deal with it."
But even after Tairrie’s transition from rap to metal, her
background continued to haunt her. According to Tairrie, Manhole
was close to being signed by yet another label when a new president
took over the parent company. Apparently, when the new president
realized who Tairrie was, she pulled the project.
While experiences such as these have made Manhole’s history
something of a roller coaster ride, Tairrie says the band has
already achieved its goals. "All Is Not Well" has allowed Tairrie
and the rest of the band to create exactly the kind of music they
wanted. Other factors simply are not important.
"We didn’t do the record so we could become overnight rock
stars," Tairrie says. "I did the record so I could heal from a
bunch of shit that I needed to get out. It’s almost like therapy. I
had to say some shit because I was going crazy and it was eating me
alive."
As a result of this newly found expressive freedom, as well as
metal’s more receptive audiences, Tairrie says she is much happier
today than she ever was as a rapper.
"There’s a big sense of pride in what I’m doing now, which I
think is really important," she says. "When I listen to the Manhole
record, I give myself chills."
CONCERT: Manhole at the Roxy on Tuesday, April 23. Doors open at
8 p.m. TIX: Free if over 21, $3 if under 21. For more info, call
(310) 276-2222.
Manhole, featuring vocalist Tairrie B. (second from right),
challenges traditional barriers in the heavy metal genre.