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Who shaped them

Bikini Kill

Bikini Kill

Since 1990 · United States

Bikini Kill formed in Olympia, Washington in 1990 around Kathleen Hanna, Tobi Vail, Kathi Wilcox and Billy Karren, and became the band most identified with the riot grrrl movement they helped set in motion through zines, shows organized explicitly around getting girls to the front, and songs that turned feminist theory into blunt, danceable punk. Their story

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Who they shaped

Behind them, left to right: Bratmobile, The Slits, X-Ray Spex.

In front, left to right: Heavenly, Sleater-Kinney.

The bigger the face, the stronger the proof: they said it themselvesreporteda critic, or widely accepted

Pussy Whipped cover

Start here

Pussy Whipped (1993)

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Pussy Whipped strips its arrangements down to blunt, insistent hooks, giving Kathleen Hanna's confrontational lyrics nowhere to hide behind studio polish. "Rebel Girl" is the album's clearest statement, its chanted chorus turning admiration between women into a genuine anthem, driven by a simple, driving riff that never lets up; the song exists in more than one recorded version, including one produced by Joan Jett herself. The whole record favours directness over nuance, treating that bluntness as a political choice rather than a limitation. It remains the song and the album most identified with riot grrrl's entire founding moment.

Sleeve notes

Bikini Kill

Pussy Whipped · 1993

Bikini Kill formed in Olympia, Washington in 1990 around Kathleen Hanna, Tobi Vail, Kathi Wilcox and Billy Karren, and became the band most identified with the riot grrrl movement they helped set in motion through zines, shows organized explicitly around getting girls to the front, and songs that turned feminist theory into blunt, danceable punk. Hanna has cited the film Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains as a formative touchstone for the band's whole sensibility.

Pussy Whipped, their second album, arrived in 1993 on the strength of the touring and zine-making the band had already built through Olympia's DIY networks. The band disbanded in 1997, with Hanna going on to form Le Tigre and later record solo as Julie Ruin, before Bikini Kill reunited for a run of live shows starting in 2019. Their influence on the decades of feminist punk that followed has only grown clearer with distance.

Since 1990 · United States

Played at

Riot Grrrl

Olympia · 1990–1994

On the bill

Formed first, in 1990, out of Olympia's small DIY circuit — the band most identified with the scene that grew up around it.

The whole scene