Cheap Perfume - Dead If I Do

  

  Cheap Perfume (https://www.facebook.com/cheapperfume719) are Stephanie, Jane No, Hot Dave & Goffo, a feminist punk quartet from Colorado. They've been around for a decade and I first came across them in 2017 when they were telling us how it's ok to punch nazis  https://justsomepunksongs.blogspot.com/2017/09/cheap-perfume-its-okay-to-punch-nazis.html

  A couple of years later I featured their calling out of predatory men  https://justsomepunksongs.blogspot.com/2019/12/cheap-perfume-times-up.html

  Next month sees the release of a new album titled Don't Care, Didn't Ask. They've been drip feeding a few singles from it and you can find them here : https://cheapperfume.bandcamp.com/music

  This is the final teaser for what will be a pretty damn special release. They say of it; “This song is a battlecry of retaliation to the epidemic of violence committed against marginalized groups by men. As a survivor of domestic abuse and sexual violence we want to fight for those who have already lost their voices or can’t for themselves. Time's up, respect our existence or expect resistance.”

  It's called Dead If I Do...

Stalked in the street, held on our knees
Your conquest to control me
You watch too much pornography
Deluded by gender supremacy
Doesn’t matter if we’re nice or mean
You’re punching a wall pretending it’s me
You must think you can tame me
My body, your choice? Bitch, please

(Chorus)
Because I said so, and no means no
I’m dead if I do, dead if I don’t
If I don’t die by your abuses
I’ll choke to death on your excuses
Because I said so and no means no
I’m dead if I do, dead if I don’t x2

Forced to marry, forced to carry
You will never fucking own me
Treat us as your property
Then kill us when we try to leave
Hate the housewife, hate the whore
Nowhere is safe, it wasn’t before
Comply or die and fuck my rights
Won’t get me without a fight

(Chorus)
Because I said so, and no means no
I’m dead if I do, dead if I don’t
If I don’t die by your abuses, I’ll choke to death on your excuses
Because I said so, and no means no
I’m dead if I do, dead if I don’t
Sick of living with your foot on my throat
Dead if I do, dead if I don’t x2

Silenced before
Hear us now
Dead if you do
Dead if you don’t x2

(Chorus)
Because I said so, and no means no
I’m dead if I do, dead if I don’t
If I don’t die by your abuses, I’ll choke to death on your excuses
Because I said so, and no means no
I’m dead if I do, dead if I don’t
Sick of living with your foot on my throat
Dead if I do, dead if I don’t x2

Cheap Perfume - Time's Up

  When listening to Cheap Perfume's impressive new album Burn It Down I had one of those "this sounds mightily familiar" moments that occasionally happens when you listen to far too much punk rock music. I'm sure I'd been singing "It's ok to punch nazis" before and indeed I had, the song in question had been released a couple of years ago as a benefit single and had featured on this very blog https://justsomepunksongs.blogspot.com/2017/09/cheap-perfume-its-okay-to-punch-nazis.html

  I'd forgotten all about the band but now they're back and they've definitely got my attention again.

  Hailing from Colorado and lining up with Jane No (vocals), Stephanie Byrne (vocals/guitar), Dave "Hot Dave" Grimm (drums) and Geoff Brent (bass), they're an angry, dirty, foul-mouthed and unapologetic feminist punk rock band that are well up for confronting many of the wrongs in society. Don't think it's all po-faced preaching though, far from it. They also display plenty of cheeky humour and acerbic wit. They deliver serious messages on difficult subjects such as sexual assault, sexism, fascism, alcoholism, gender stereotyping and plunging to the depths of despair. But despite the dark subject matter, we also get some great fist in the air, singalongs such as the Joan Jett inspired chant of "I don’t give a fuck about my reputation" and the really rather poppy Fauxminism (plus the aforementioned call to rise up and punch nazis!).

https://www.facebook.com/cheapperfume719/

  The album's titled Burn It Down, it's excellent and you can check it out here :    https://cheapperfume.bandcamp.com/album/burn-it-down

  Album highlight and best singalong chorus? Maybe this. With definite Poly Styrene and Kathleen Hanna influences, this is Times Up...

We know your names, we know your faces
We know your friends and your workplaces
No more predators in our spaces!

Time’s up!
Time’s up, motherfuckers!
Time’s up!

It’s not on women to avoid
The violence of rape culture
It’s up to men to tell their friends
That we deserve better than this

No no, not our responsibility

Allow me to explain how boys
Are raised to think this shit’s OK
They’re not allowed to show emotion
Think their power’s in aggression

Gagging women with your cocks
You think that they are getting hot
But it’s just jocks like Brock who are
The only assholes getting off

Time’s up ...


There’s nothing normal in the way
You treat us like we’re yours to take
Virginity, humanity
Something you’re made to dominate

Not yours, it’s mine to do with as I please

That’s how we got men in our scene
Who violate our dignity
And business owners with money
To defend their atrocities

Time’s up ...                  

Cheap Perfume - It's Okay (To Punch Nazis)

 

  Cheap Perfume are a feminist punk rock band who formed in Colorado in 2015 and who's line up features Jane No (vocals), Stephanie Byrne (vocals/guitar), Dave "Hot Dave" Grimm (drums) and Geoff Brent (bass). They released their debut album, Nailed It, in Nov 2016 and they sing about subjects such as women's rights, equality, sex, relationships, violence and politics.

  Earlier this month they released a new single which deals with the rise of the alt right, how they're emboldened by the bully in the White House and how even though violence is wrong, it's ok to confront fascists with direct action. It was inspired by events in Charlottesville and the punching of white nationalist Richard Spencer.  The song also wonders how it's possible for the US to elect a rapist rather than a woman. You can find both album and single here : https://cheapperfume.bandcamp.com/. All proceeds from the single will be donated to the Heather Heyer foundation.

  This is It's Ok (To Punch Nazis).....

Our fear has made us gullible 
A bully rose to take control 
And now they're yelling "off with their heads!" 
We've been through this, we ended it 
Or so we thought, it had been fought 
It's like an army back from the dead 

The racists got a PR firm 
Hired men in fancy shirts 
But have the same ideology 
We've had to say a lot of stuff we thought was fucking obvious like 
YES ITS OKAY TO PUNCH NAZIS 

(chorus) 
Never thought that it would happen but now look where we are 
We'd rather have a rapist than a woman in power 
When we got complacent in defending our rights 
The nazis changed their names and they're called the alt right 

Death to white supremacists 
Like Milo Yiannopoulos 
Homophobes and hatred they spread 
Let's get intersectional 
Basic human rights for all 
We won't stop till fascism's dead 

Terrorize the red pill plague 
Poison all the KKK 
And piss on your ideology 
We've had to say a lot of stuff we thought was fucking obvious like 
YES IT'S OKAY TO PUNCH NAZIS 

(chorus) 
Never thought that it would happen but now look where we are 
We'd rather have a rapist than a woman in power 
When we got complacent in defending our rights 
The nazis changed their names and they're called the alt right [x3]