For anyone fortunate enough to have lived inside the European club scene during the formative years of Punk and New Wave, Unknown Gender was more than a name—it was a phenomenon. This all‑female trio didn’t just perform; they provoked, jolting audiences into experiences that many described as life‑altering. Their influence ignited the all‑girl band movement that soon swept across Western Europe and Scandinavia.
Unknown Gender eventually evolved into the trio When Girls Collide, before distilling down to a one‑woman creative force. Today, LC Messinger continues the legacy under the banner When Girls Collide—writing, performing, and producing as a singular engine of sound and imagination.
Critics have struggled to categorize her work, often landing somewhere between awe and bewilderment:
“When Girls Collide (aka LC Messinger) has carved a deep niche in the land of the bizarre. Spaghetti‑Western guitar meets a warehouse rave. Messinger once again blends guitar‑ and vocal‑rich music with the surreal presence of barnyard animals doubling as a chorus line. If you’re thinking alternative music, think outside the box. This stuff is different.” — New Music Weekly
“A very bizarre album that could easily be classified as a psycho‑circus for pop mental patients. The supreme ruler of crazy land—start to finish—but in Messinger’s case, the carefree plethora of noise works remarkably well.” — Ken Blascoe, KCSU
