Dear person interested in saying „no“

This is a feminist zine about saying NO that comes along with a cassette tape about saying NO for all the times you don’t want to do whatever thing you don’t want to do. To begin with, I want to tell the background story to this compilation. You can also use this story as a guide through the tape. The marks (A1) – (B15) correspond to the songs that you might listen to while reading. The idea for this sampler was born at a show at „venster99“ in Vienna, when Razor Cunts (A1) and Kristy and the Kraks (A2) were performing a song which included the following lyrics: „no no no no no no…“, and the crowd enjoyed it a lot. It came to my mind that my band Lonesome Hot Dudes also had a song which has many ‚NOs‘ in it (A3). After the party me and Razor Cunt’s Jane Flett (who later happened to do the cover artwork) started sending songs about saying no to each other and soon it became clear: „This Compilation is SO gonna happen!“. And so it did. By the way, the first time I saw Razor Cunts perform they were sharing the stage with my Croatian friends from Žen (A4). The living room of my flat is the office of „Wilhelm show me the Major Label“. That’s why the easiest thing to do was to ask my roomies Christian Sundl, who runs the label, and my other roomie and bandmate Lina Maria Gärtner to work together on this compilation – and they happily agreed. Two feminist compilations had been already released on this label before by Lina and Theresa Adamski (her band wounds of castrated dicks contributed song No. A5!) called „Wilhelm show me the Wilhelmine“ 1 and 2, released at the „Wilhelmine show me the Microphone“ festivals.
Listen to them online here:

https://wsmtml.wordpress.com/2009/04/04/wilhelm-show-me-the-wilhelmine/ https://wsmtml.wordpress.com/2011/11/26/wilhelm-show-me-the-wilhelmine-2/

This herstory is the reason why we decided to name the compilation „Wilhelmine show me the NO NO NO“. We also wondered whether we should name it „Wilhelmine show me the No“, or „Wilhelmine show me the No No No“. On the one hand, ONE single No means No and saying No once should be enough, so we thought. On the other hand, there are many different ways of saying No and various aspects to keep in mind when talking about this issue. So „NO NO NO“ seemed to be perfect. (If you want you can try to pronounce each No with a different intonation and voice level). In spring 2016 a brand new band called „schrAiraum“ moved in with us to share our rehearsal room in Graz. When I told them about the project, they were excited about it. And as a funny coincidence, they had been inspired to start a band by Razor Cunts! They immediately wrote a song about saying No (A6). One day when we were sitting in the basement and talking, we came up with the idea to make a zine too, in order to collect even more creative material about saying No. Rebeca (a member of “schrAiraum”) has also contributed to the layout of this zine. We are very lucky to have this great rehearsal space. It’s big enough to sometimes have clandestine live shows and parties down there. The tracks A5 – A15 are all by bands who already performed and/or recorded songs in our basement. We also use it to celebrate our feminist jam sessions together with grrrls night out each month (http://justfriendsandlovers.tumblr.com/ Grrrls*Jam) . Side B of the tape is opened by the great HipHop artists EsRAP B1. We have collaborated with them before by releasing a split tape with Lonesome Hot Dudes on Wilhelm. Razor Cunts asked King’s Queer to donate a song (B2) when they played together in June in Athens. Many of the artists on this compilation are active in or connected to the pink noise environment (www.pinknoise.or.at), securing the future of Riot Grrrl. In July a legendary pink noise girls rock weekend took place in Vienna. Amongst others LEVIE, Dives, Aivery and Just Friends and Lovers shared the stage at the concert gala of this festival (B5 – B8). A month earlier I was hiking through forests and swarms of mosquitoes in Finland for two weeks, thinking about this project. I didn’t bring any electronic devices, I only had my favorite Lime Crush song – “Never” – stuck in my head (B9). It inspired the lyrics for the Just Friends and Lovers song „The field“ (B8). The last song on the tape (B30) is by Dot Dash, a band that unfortunately split up some time ago. But one of its former members Kate Krystal is now one half of Kristy and the Kraks, one of the bands who played at that initial night at venster99 with Razor Cunts, remember? The show back then was set up by Jasmin Rilke, who also plays with Me and Jane Doe, Aivery (B7) and Wounds of Castrated Dicks (A5). So as you have probably noticed, most of the songs are by artists who we have been working and collaborating with before. The content of the zine is actually pretty random. We asked all the contributing musicians for their input, made open calls in feminist mailing lists, via Facebook, pink noise, feministische frühlings universität and so on. We asked our friends and people we knew who liked to draw or write and collected anything they sent to us. The words are in English, German and Spanish – we decided to mix them as randomly as contributions flew in. Because of the way the material was collected, most of what you can find in the zine is from people of similar backgrounds. So be aware that many of them come from a still quite privileged circle and are part of the same scene. Therefore, other important points of view are missing. Saying No is complicated and in our society there are power relations that make it easier or harder to say No and to be heard (read Denice Bourbon’s text on this issue!). Still, I am overwhelmed by the material collected in this compilation, which is very diverse and rich in content. I hope you also feel moved or empowered by listening to the tape and browsing the zine and that it is inspiring to you. And that it helps us to support and understand each other in our struggles with saying NO.

Enjoy the compilation! Magdalena Gasser for the Wilhelmine Team

Thank You All …who contributed to this project with their „positive negativity“, as Jane Flett would say, whether by sending music, writing, drawing, layouting, helping to organize events, spreading the word, performing, DJing, reading or mixing at parties, buying our stuff, and/or being interested and reading these lines. Special thanks to Anita Hofer (kiG! Kultur in Graz) for letting us have a fundraising event for the production of the zine at Queerograd Festival „kaputale16“, Down Dachs aka DownDox and Reni Hofmüller, who helped raising money in a very fun and sustainable way („talent auction“!) – thanks to everyone who offered and sold their „talents“ at the party. Thanks to EsRAP and Žen for performing, to Steffi (Nhil, Red Gaze) and Dani (Cryptic Commands, Maneki Nekoč ) for inviting us to do a radio session about saying No at radio helsinki, to Karoline Droschl-Pieringer, bondage, up yours! and Jasmin Maria Rilke for their help with organizing release parties, and Eva Zenz for corrections, to Rebeca Monteiro Neves and Clara Wildberger who did the layout of this zine, and Josefine Riedel for the mastering of the tape