Olympia's Original Riot Grrrl -- Lois' New Album Benefits From Electric Sound

Music preview Lois with Underpants Machine and Violet Ray, 9 p.m. Thursday, Crocodile Cafe; and next Friday night, with Kicking Giant and Lync, at the all-ages Velvet Elvis Arts Lounge; $5; 441-5611.

Lois Maffeo is the physical embodiment of the Olympia-Washington, D.C., connection.

For the past several years, the cities with capitol domes have shared a musical and social bond as hubs for righteous punk rock. The riot grrrl movement, a steadfast belief in doing only all-ages shows and the spirit of do-it-yourselfness has flourished under the leadership of Olympia's K and Kill Rock Stars record labels, and D.C. bands like Fugazi and the Nation of Ulysses have also provided leadership in those causes.

Maffeo, who will play Thursday at the Crocodile Cafe and next Friday at the all-ages Velvet Elvis, moved to D.C. in 1989 but cut her musical teeth in Olympia, and her influence has been far-reaching.

Performance art

The riot grrrl band Bikini Kill derived its name from a Maffeo performance piece, based on a plot from a Frankie Avalon movie, about girlfriends and mistresses of world leaders taking over.

Maffeo, who published fanzines and did performance art through the 1980s, was essentially a riot grrrl before there was a riot grrrl movement. She says riot grrrl, a somewhat-misunderstood movement essentially based on self-reliance and self-defense for young women, should be a "feeling in you."

Radio beginnings

Maffeo started her Olympia involvement as a fan when she moved to Olympia from Phoenix in 1981, and then as a DJ on Evergreen State College's KAOS-FM with an all-woman punk rock radio show called "Your Dream Girl."

Then, in 1985, she walked past a guitar store in Portland and saw her dream guitar. She bought it. Two years later, she learned how to play it, then formed a band with drummer Patrick Maley called Courtney Love, which broke up before the other Courtney Love became famous.

The band released only three singles, but the scaled-down setup of acoustic guitar and snare drum, added to their reliance on clever lyrical twists, provided the framework for Maffeo's appeal. On songs like "Uncrushworthy" and "Motorcycle Boy," the band married breezy pop with a cool lyrical panache.

Maffeo's first solo album, "Butterfly Kiss," added the K-trademark sound of stuttering, off-kilter drums to her acoustic guitar. Priceless lines like "You broke my heart in two/Hooray for super-glue" are upfront where they can be heard.

New album

On the latest Lois album, "Strumpet," Maffeo plays electric guitar and achieves a fuller sound. She now refers to Lois as The Lois. She worked with several different musicians on "Strumpet," including Olympian and former Screaming Tree Donna Dresch, and is currently playing with drummer Amy Farina and bassist Juan Carrera.

"I think musically, the more I learn, the more I want to do," she said. "I'm thinking about a full album with Amy and Juan and an EP of just vocal things. There's about 10 things I'd like to do now."

The switch from acoustic to electric guitar is so new that she hasn't had a chance to buy her own. "I'm still naive enough where I ask people to borrow their equipment for tours," she said. "I still like the acoustic a lot, and I always write on one. If I had to take an instrument to a desert island, it would be an acoustic."