What are your top 3 (5, 10, whatever) bands fronted by women?

[UlricvonCatalyst]

Wot, no MBV??? Oh, how you've changed, OSG!

Previous post edited. I forgot about them!

That's cheating!

[marqueemoon]

Many of my favorite have been mentioned, but…

Beach House
Blonde Redhead (more of a “co-fronted” situation)
Deerhoof
Helium
The Spinanes
The Sundays
Wye Oak

edit: Not a band in the conventional sense, but Gillian Welch and David Rawlings never fail to blow me away.

Locally:

Somesurprises
Loose Wing

[MechaBulletBill]

Blood Red Shoes
Mass of the Fermenting Dregs
TsuShiMaMiRe
Metric
Trashwomen
Kuunatic
5678s

[bluemonday]

Anything Alison Krauss. Union Station, or with Robert Plant
Larkin Poe
The Sugarcubes
Mazzy Star
PJ Harvey

[PorkyPrimeCut]

PJ Harvey (band? sometimes?)

I had the same initial thought be she almost always plays within a band dynamic so I included her.

i still dig the first YYYs album.

Good call. Me too.

[dc]

showing my age somewhat here:
Mazzy Star
Cocteau Twins
Lush/Piroshka
Throwing Muses
Bettie Serveert
Cowboy Junkies
Shalini (with Mitch Easter)
Trespassers William
Area/the Moon Seven Times
Go-Gos
Bangles
10,000 Maniacs
Alison's Halo
Tsunami/Liquorice
Neko Case
Portishead
Sundays

plus today's sounds:
Skylar Gudasz
Beach House
Best Coast
Fotoform

[seenoevil II]

furiously scribbling notes

A lot of the ones I have gotten into are mentioned already along with many whom I aware of but haven't gotten around to.

I'll add a couple. Maybe not my favorites in the world, but really good.

Feist- I think she gets a lot of undeserved flack for maybe helping kick off of the whole twee, precious music craze of the 2000s/2010s. Metals and Pleasure and well worth checking out.

The Roches
Cate LeBon
Sneaks
Slothrust
And who doesn't like HAIM

[MayTheFuzzBeWithYou]

All female band:
La Luz

Female vocalists (who might in some cases also be the guitar player or bassist)
Elizabeth Colour Wheel
Tentacula
Portishead
Hella Comet
PJ Harvey
Juleah

I like seeing more and more women in bands and on stages. Some times when we play on festivals our singer is still the only woman in the line up… which is weird and sad. But might be due to the heavy/psychedelic genre.

[luau]

Tsunami/Liquorice

/Grenadine.

[HedonismBot]

I forgot Mazzy Star and Slowdive (if it counts). Love both.

[Embenny]

Great topic. I'll try to just post stuff that hasn't been mentioned yet.

In terms of women with bands who perform eponymously:
Laura Stevenson kicks ass.
Aimee Mann is still out there kicking ass.
Ani DiFranco is still out there kicking ass.
Grace Kelly is as insane a saxophonist as she is a singer.
I also have to give a shout out to my fellow Canadian and all-around kickass person, Bif Naked


In terms of true bands:
The Interrupters refuse to accept that it's not the 90's, and I'm here for it.
Royal & The Serpent is the most recent band that was love at first listen for me.
K's Choice had a wider range and longer career than I realized when I rediscovered them a few years ago.

[SignoftheDragon]

Cocteau Twins
His Name is Alive
Dead Can Dance (co-fronted with a dude, I guess)
Sundays
Portishead
YeahYeahYeahs
Blonde Redhead
Lush

Wow- Definitely showing my age.

Babymetal? T-swizzle? Billy Eyelash?

I really like St. Vincent's signature guitar...

[Embenny]

There are two front people but at the moment I'm in love with the Naked and Famous.

I remember being obsessed with Young Blood when it came out. I also loved the fact that the band is named after my favourite PUSA song. I have no idea whether PUSA was an influence on that decision or if it's a pure coincidence, but I'll just keep imagining that they're huge PUSA fans.

[Surfysonic]

Sorry, more than 3...

Bands back in the day (70's, 80's, 90's, 00's)

Blondie
B-52s (I know Fred is primary lead but Kate and Cindy took occasional turns at lead vocals. Their voices were hugely integral this band's success (to me at least)
Bangles
Belly
Concrete Blonde
Cowboy Junkies
Cranberries
Go-Gos
Garbage
The Launderettes - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6PoevBH7pA - our surf/punk band did this song - love playing it.
Metric
Veruca Salt

Contemporary (relatively)

Deep Sea Diver
La Luz
Metric
Shiny Toy Guns (I love co-lead vocalist Carah's voice)

Probably could add more in the contemporary list when I remember them...

[Larry Mal]

I remember being obsessed with Young Blood when it came out. I also loved the fact that the band is named after my favourite PUSA song. I have no idea whether PUSA was an influence on that decision or if it's a pure coincidence, but I'll just keep imagining that they're huge PUSA fans.

Young Blood is incredible, and that's probably their best known song, and if you like it then you should get into the album. It's their first and they are more experimental and edgy and less electronic than they would be later.

However, the third album (Simple Forms) is a fantastic set of music from start to finish. It's glossy and very produced, it's hard to argue with it, though, since it sounds nothing short of fantastic. And Alisa Xayalith sings like an angel and writes great music and that's all there is to it.

The Water Beneath You

And this song, if you make it all the way through, has a wonderful ending where I imagine we are hearing the other singer/guitarist and her recording a demo of the song in his home studio. Great song.

And you can strip the gloss away and still have a wonderful song, Fender tapped her to showcase one of their acoustic guitars and she performed the song unaccompanied here.

Anyway, Naked and Famous are incredible, wherever they got their name.