Review: Blue Oil, Canadian punk women, album out
Blue Oil with LPs, photo by Jill D.
First Quebec all-female punk band’s album out now after forty years!
In 1978, Blue Oil became the first all-female punk band in Quebec, Canada. The band name is from the oil crisis then. They continued till 1991. But only now, there is an album, of their early stuff, on Supreme Echo. It is also called Blue Oil. Twelve songs, all self-written, now remastered.
Thank you, Manon Blue aka Manon Fatter, sometimes aka Toto, for sending it to me!
In the beginning, they were three Montreal city girls: drummer Manon, and her sister Christiane on guitar. And on bass and lead vocals, another Manon: Manon Asselin. Like another pioneer punk bass woman, Marion Millot of the Frech Lou’s who became Tollim Toto, Quebec bassist Manon inverted her family name, to Nilessa Noname.
In 1981, a second guitarist, Marie Martine Bédard, joined Blue Oil. Then, they recorded the first four songs on side A of their recent LP.
Blue Oil LP text
Including Money, originally their first single, on their own label. Two versions of it are on the new LP. It is Manon Fatter’s favourite.
Its lyrics are an attack on capitalism, especially in the music industry:
‘Cool day, freezing rain
The tunes on the radio
They all sound the same
It’s so fucking boring
So alarming
So disgusting and
So demanding
MONEY MONEY MONEY
MONEY MONEY MONEY
MONEY MONEY MONEY
MONEY
What about jerks with the disco shirt
Bumping on the floor
Never got you really far
MONEY MONEY MONEY
MONEY MONEY MONEY
MONEY MONEY MONEY
MONEY (2X)
Bureaucratic crap
No more heroes on the bedroom door
It’s part of the game
Having no shame
Did say he liked it
The smell of profit
MONEY MONEY MONEY’
Also of the song Far Too Much there are two versions on the album.
The other two early songs on the LP are Sardine City, and the instrumental Free Fleas On The Roof.
After their single, Christiane left. They were a three-piece band again, playing the other songs of the album.
These other eight songs were recorded in 1981-1983 during rehearsals and live shows. They include ‘Stop Complaining’ where you can hear influences of Siouxsie and the Banshees.
Right until the great last two songs of the album, Producer and Innocent Boys, this is an important document about a side if punk which should become better known.
“This is the real thing, pure female punk expression with a knack for pop melodies.” – Félix B. Desfossés, CBC Radio in Canada.
You can listen to the album on Bandcamp. There, you can also buy it as a digital album. Or you can buy one of the 600 copies on aqua-blue (!) vinyl. They come with a large-size 8-page bilingual English-French booklet with their story, photos, art, and gig posters. Two stickers.
Cheap 'n' Nasty 