A selection of reviews from this week's Alternative Weekly.

STRONG WOMYN
Do Your Own Laundry, You Jerk
(Sisters' Collective)

"Feminist agitpop", the big trend of early 2000, seems to need a shot in the arm, and boy (!) does it get it on Strong Womyn's latest release. The band consists of two angry lesbians, one recovering heterosexual and "a womyn trapped in a man's body," drummer Chuck "Pussy" Larson. Larson really does have the soul of a womyn: as the band's principal lyricist, (s)he's responsible for great songs like "You Wouldn't Have Said That if I Were a Man" and "Down With Misters, Up With Sisters," which flat-out rocks. More poignant material includes "She Says She's Just a Wife" and "Why Buy the Cow (When You Can Get the Milk for Free)" a touching plea for the gay and lesbian community to share reproductive material and raise their children "same-sexual." The band sounds like the Indigo Girls crossed with a softer Bikini Kill as produced by late-period Joe Meek. Co-vocalists Kitty Kat and Large Linda Baylor provide the kind of sweet, soaring harmonies that one imagines would have occurred had Laura Nyro been able to duet with Sarah MacLachlan on some of Joan Armatrading's work, and Sarah Steele plays acoustic guitar like nobody's business. And, as my girlfriend pointed out, she looks great in a beret. Tracy Thorne

DICK JOHNSON AND THE GONADS
Up the Road a Piece
(Laramie)

The joke was growing flaccid. On their first four records, Wyoming's Dick Johnson and the Gonads wrote songs exclusively about blowjobs. 1995's Tight Toothless Smile seemed impressive at the time, but when they followed it up with Nobgobbler's Blues, Lipstick on My Dipstick, and last year's unbelievably-titled Put Your Mouth on My Penis and Suck it Until I Reach Orgasm EP, you started to wonder how much of a career they could milk from this one trick. The band seemingly asked themselves the same question. Their answer, Up the Road a Piece is full of solid, rootsy twang, with little if any mention of that certain kind of "inappropriate relationship." The band's musicianship has never been in question, and numbers like "She Went Down (to the Store)" and "Do You Kiss Your Mother With That Mouth?" sound like Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys as a four piece, Rickenbacker-less R.E.M. Laramie label-mate Big Harlan Borowitz (Kansas City Faggots) adds some stunning fretless-bass work to the second half of the album, providing an eerie Mick-Karn-meets-Calexico feel, but minus the southwestern sonics. This record definitely marks a new beginning for this band. Let's hope they can swallow the urge to perform cheap gag material and continue to pump out more vigorous issue like this. Howard Kramer

OO-Z
WHITE MOFUCKA, AH-MOAN KILL YOU
(Bee-Atch LLC)