"OUT Magazine"- March 2004
BY Ronni Radner
Subtle Sister Productions is possibly the most ironic name possible for brash butch Brooklynite bard Alix Olson's indie label. The confrontational slam poet follows up her self-produced verbal onslaught of a debut, Built Like That, with Independence Meal, which serves up more of the staccato, lefty politics tinged verse that landed her on the cover of Ms. magazine in 2001. She's again accompanied by musical partner Pamela Means on guitar, but what really gives the CD its intense, neo-Beat flavor is the brilliant drumming of perennial women's music festival favorite Ubaka Hill. Olson's incendiary, rhythmic treatise on political accountability, "Pirates," is sure to win her devotees among the caffeinated literati of the spoken-word scene, but the most effective track on the album is the title poem, with its subtle, relatively introspective analysis of Caucasian privilege set to quiet folk-jazz reminiscent of vintage Ani DiFranco.