Hagar The Womb – “A Brighter Shade of Black” – [Mississippi Records]

Who says you have to know how to sing or play an instrument to become a band? Certainly not this band, which had its humble beginnings in the girls’ room at London’s Wapping Autonomy Centre. This retrospective release of songs from earlier albums proves that punk doesn’t have to be political, or even the least bit polished. Read the liner notes as you listen to the female voices sing about what mattered to them in 1984 and 1985 (that’s Mitch Flacko on bass).