It occured to me recently that I couldn’t think of any. Actually punk, I mean, without having to shoehorn them into the genre as they’re kind of sort of punk. They must exist, however. Which ones do dopers know of?
Sleater-Kinney
The Runaways (sort of a manufactured band, but they had at least one decent song)
The Breeders
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Shonen Knife
Patti Smith (there were some men in her group, so maybe she doesn’t count)
There are tons more that were part of the Riot Grrl movement. If you look up Riot Grrl you’ll find a list somewhere.
Second on Sleater-Kinney. That’s exactly who I thought of when I read the OP.
I don’t know if The Yeah Yeah Yeahs count though, since I believe only the lead singer is female. The guitarist and drummer are both male.
The Slits.
Le Tigre
Dressy Bessy
Does L7 count as Punk?
The Red Aunts.
The Go-Go’s were pop punk, at least at the start.
Well, I thought of and dismissed the Yeah Yeah Yeahs too, but not because there are guys in the group but for the shoehorning thing I mentioned in the OP.
For clarification, girl-fronted bands with guy members are welcome to the list too, as long as the majority of the vocals are by the girl(s).
Fuzzbox was punk, until the Big Bang! album anyway.
Bikini Kill?
Elastica. They have 3 gals and 1 guy (drummer) on their self-titled album.
Kinda punky is Veruca Salt. It was founded by Louise Post and Nina Gordon and I believe it was all female at one time. It’s a different incarnation nowadays with two men and only Louise Post left.
That opens the floor to Siouxsie & the Banshees and X-Ray Spex.
As for all-gurl bands, if so-called “post punk” counts–and it probably should–then I’ll add the Raincoats and Dolly Mixture.
The Lunachicks.
I dunno, but my favorite punk moment is in Serial Mom where
the guy goes up in flames on stage while the band–L7–is playing. At the end of the song, the lead singer takes a mouthful of something highly alcoholic and spits it on the still-smoldering corpse. Big flames.
Darned funny.
Siouxie appeared in the “history of punk” piece I saw the other day on IFC or Sundance (I forget which). I’d say she counts. Even though she was commenting. (Great documentary, by the way).
Ditto the Slits. 10 quid for the lot? We pay fuckall!