Gimme Brains

Perhaps first generation riot grrrl band Bratmobile's most popular track from their 2000 album Ladies, Women and Girls, "Gimme Brains," is one of the band's most empowering songs - with shout-able lyrics and a defiant swagger the lyrics proclaim, "a boy is good for nothing, can't give you nothing/ I'm sick of nothing." The song is ostensibly about jilting "all the f--kin' boys/ in the f--kin' bands," but is, on a deeper level, about the implications of romance within a radical and feminist framework. As vocalist for the band, Allison Wolfe said in an interview with Perfect Sound Forever, this, and a few other Bratmobile songs are about, "how girls go out with a guy in a band and they think that's cool, but really the guy is a jerk. You have to become your own punk rock dream come true. You need to respect yourself and be your own star." "Gimme Brains" has the melodics of a pop song, underscoring the clever joke of the refrain that begs, "gimme brains for breakfast, baby/ gimme more for lunch" and on, asserting not only a joking vengeful violence but also the desire for a thoughtful male lover. This standout track is featured on Ladies, Women and Girls, the band's second studio album, recorded after a six year hiatus.

Bratmobile was a highly influential riot grrrl band formally finding its start in Washington DC, but with most members hailing from and residing in Olympia, Washington. The band's first show was in the winter of 1991 in Olympia. The band released three full length, studio albums, one EP, and a number of split 7" with a handful of admired punk bands. The band broke up in 1996, reuniting again in 2000 before amicably parting ways in 2004.