'The hoops and hopes for female musicians are an entirely different sort of preferential detail than we ask or access for boys.'

How? According to whom?
I find the first two paragraphs of this like a freshman 'women's lib' essay circa 1965.
As someone who's played music with many many women, I also find these premises completely unsubstantiated and untrue.

Someone should tell her to lose that stupid "capitalize every other letter" bullshit. I won't even consider listening to her if she thinks that typesetting her "band" name a la internet nerds back in 1995 is something worth doing.

Merrill is an awesome freak of a musician... an artist of a musician. It's humbling.

Can't wait to see her live, that's an addictive and haunting album.

Lol @D. Playing music with some women doesn't qualify you to dismiss the experience of many others. I'm a woman in the music business and I can assure you it's NOT a level playing field. If it were - duh - women would make and earn as much as men do through music. We don't, and the reason we don't is not some mysterious force, but simple sexism.

Who wants a mustache ride?

@ D--well, technically, according to me. I don't need to verify my opinion with anyone, as it's based on my experience of being in bands, and writing and reading about them for the last 17 years.

At least we know she'll never go mainstream until she gets assaulted and tied down to be waxed. I loathe the total lack of effort Portland females put into their looks. The men are bad too, but the women... ugh.

Her work is thrilling, and she strikes me as a fearless pioneer of something that is yet to be named. Thanks for this article, J.H.