This Friday, Warped Tour 2008 kicks off in Pomona, California. The traveling punk festival has been a success since 1994, and each year more than 100 bands participate, from veterans to newbies looking for exposure and a record deal.

Warped Tour is always, by and a large, a sausage fest (AKA the bands are male) but there are always a handful of women who are the must-sees. Past females who have fronted the stage include Juliette Lewis with her band The Licks and Joan Jett.

If you're a fan of punk, hardcore, and what the kids call "emo," I suggest you get to the date in your town early to find out when these ladies will be performing.

Be Your Own Pet

Frontwoman Jemina Pearl admits that the audience at Warped will be a little different from the band's usual crowd. The art-punk band was discovered by Thurston Moore and has been a favorite of music snobs who scoff at the tweens and teens music Warped generally presents. All the better for you to take advantage of moving to the front of the stage during Be Your Own Pet's set: fans of Yeah Yeah Yeahs will love Jemina's thrashing, dancing, and style.

Horrorpops

An upright bass at Warped Tour? You bet! Horrorpops are like something out of the movie Crybaby with their psychobilly rock. Patricia Day puts on a stage show that will put an end to the male monotony of the other stages on tour. … continue reading

Back in 1995, there were questions about Jill Sobule's sexuality. How could there not be? She released a hit song about kissing another girl (aptly titled, "I Kissed a Girl.") But Sobule admitted the song was simply a song, and there wasn't any truth to the lyrics.

Newcomer Katy Perry released a single of the same name, but it's a completely different track. It's still poppy, and it's still not true. Perry has told the press, "It's about the magical beauty of a woman." Hmm, I didn't really get that from "No, I don't even know your name / It doesn't matter / You're my experimental game / Just human nature / It's not what, good girls do." How flattering! Lesbians love to be science projects.

Entertainment Weekly asked Sobule how she felt about Perry's version, and she said her fans are actually more annoyed than she is:

"Some think it’s more of a Girls Gone Wild thing than anything shocking or empowering to true gay feelings."

Sobule's song was about kissing a friend, and how she was glad she had. "It was just like kissing me / but better," she sang, and going on to sing she'd do it again. (Not that we need her validation, but I'll take that over Perry shrugging her same-sex kiss as a bad girl's night on the town.)

Perry's song has gotten a lot of attention, but Sobule doesn't mind: it's given her attention by default.

"Maybe I'll write a third 'I Kissed a Girl' for fun," she said. "It will be about how I kissed her, left the dull boyfriend, got gay-married in California, and really no one gave a s--t. Katy Perry's song is a kind of catchy party song, although I will admit that I do smile when a critique mentions my version in a more favorable light. Is that wrong?”