Rakel Mjöll, Alice Go and Bella Podpadec are some of the baddest bitches around, pummeling the patriarchy one song at a time as the wonderfully punk three-piece, Dream Wife.

“To be a bad bitch has nothing to do with gender,” Mjöll said. “To be a bad bitch is just to support your fellow bitches.”

The London-based band landed its most recent blow on the system this summer with “Social Lubrication,” the trio’s third studio album. 

Featuring tracks like “Orbit,” “Leech” and “Kick In The Teeth,” this record is Dream Wife at its best: live, loud and fed up. Produced by guitarist Go, the band recorded the album with the intention of capturing the visceral energy of its live performances.

“The live show is the beating heart of this band,” Go said. “It was all about getting that energy … it feels like we were really trying to do the live show justice with this one.”

Since its inception at the University of Brighton, Dream Wife has thrived in its ability to contain powerful sociopolitical criticisms in its catchy, cathartic hits. The band has never shied away from making their opinions known, taking a page from one of their biggest inspirations, Le Tigre.

“[Le Tigre’s] music was joyful, playful,” said Mjöll, the band’s vocalist. “These are hard-hitting topics they’re touching upon, but it’s in this kind of colorful, community, joyful, matching dance moves kind of way. And that’s what we really wanted to do. We wanted to bring joy into our shows, but we also wanted to create a statement.”

And they’ve done just that, discussing sexuality, gender roles, power imbalances and bodily autonomy over the upbeat instrumentals of their most recent releases. In songs like “Social Lubrication,” Dream Wife references their experiences with demeaning masculinity: “What’s it like to be a woman in music, dear? / You’d never ask me that if you regarded me as your peer.”

With jabs at cocky musicians, gross ex-flings and creeps at bars, Dream Wife strikes a chord women know all too well, directly targeting the many ugly facets of toxic masculinity with a punchy track reminiscent of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Joanna Demers, a professor of musicology, commented on this machismo in the music industry.

“There’s long been a representation problem in pop music at large [and] historically, it’s been egregious with regard to the electric guitar,” Demers said. “There’s no good reason for that other than, a more or less assumption over the years, that rock is synonymous with a type of masculinity that is, no matter what, no matter how glam that looks, a very traditional patriarchal, heterosexual masculinity.”

Like their Riot Grrl predecessors, Dream Wife is fighting the patriarchy from within. Rock inherently upholds misogynistic values, so by adopting punk conventions of dissent and discontent, these bands work to create a more open environment of criticism and empowerment — straight from the belly of the beast.

“There’s something particular to the group dynamic in Riot Grrrl,” Demers said. “And I can see this in Dream Wife, where there’s something that you get from having three or four people, all standing next to one another, talking about something in a much more vigorous and at times even confrontational way.”

There’s a comradery that not only binds this band together but bonds the band with its audience. In a united front against gender-based oppression, they’ve been able to create a community that encourages each of its members to express their truest selves.

“I want people to hear our music for the first time to feel like their people are out there, and there’s a place for them in the way that, when we were younger, when we listened to Le Tigre it felt like, ‘These people are out there! This community exists!,’” Go said. “If you can feel a sense of inclusion in whatever capacity listening to our music, that would be amazing.”

To bolster this message, the band has taken up a “bad bitches to the front” policy during their shows, another reference to Le Tigre’s Kathleen Hanna, who would often do the same.

“The moment when Rakel calls out ‘All the bad bitches to the front,’ it’s a sea of these people just coming forward that maybe otherwise wouldn’t have,” Go said.  “And if that can change their experience at the show and make them feel welcome and invited into that space, to take up that space, that’s so important to us.”

Dream Wife prospers live, and considering how a worldwide pandemic cut its last album release short, the band is eager to bring its music on tour again. Anticipating their upcoming show at Zebulon on Sept. 21, their first show in Los Angeles since 2018, Dream Wife couldn’t be happier.

“We have such a beautiful synergy between us and the audience, and it has a lot to do with gratitude,” Mjöll said. “Embracing those minutes that you’ve traveled so far, just to be on the stage … You’re going to enjoy every single second of it, and you want everyone else to have the same enjoyment.”

After opening for Le Tigre at its first London show in 17 years, Dream Wife looks back at its progress with gratitude and pride. Dream Wife admires Le Tigre because of their ability to wholeheartedly express themselves while making room for others to do the same, a talent the band has now been able to embrace for itself.

“That’s something that we all sort of joke about, that Dream Wife was the band we wish was around when we were kids, growing up,” Mjöll said. “I think anything you do in that kind of retrospect is something that you wish you had at that time. So why not just make it?”