Better known, I'd guess, but in my opinion not quite as good as Le Tigre (see previous Le Tigre post), from Olympia Washington came these radical riot grrrrl rockers, who certainly had a moment of two.Bikini Kill were vocalist Kathleen Hanna, guitarist Billy Karren, bassist Kathi Wilcox, and drummer Tobi Vale. They first surfaced on a pair of early EP's 1992's "Bikini Kill" and "Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah", which was a split EP with band called Huggy Bear from 1993 (I've never heard the Huggy Bear tracks, anyone else?)....the self titled and Bikini Kill's half of the split are paired as "The CD Version of the First Two Records", and it's rough, loud, sloppy, and pretty damn cool.....it contains the earliest version of their best known track, "Rebel Girl", as well as other short blasts of semi-classic girl punk such as "Suck My Left One", "Double Dare Ya", and a bunch more......if you're looking for a sampler, don't come here, this is for fans of the band or historians, I happen to like it, but the definitive Bikini Kill album was their first full-length......
I think "Pussy Whipped" is one of the better albums of 1993. It's much better done than the early EP's, simillar, but better......"Rebel Girl" shows up here as well, but also "Star Bellied Boy", "Sugar", and other 90 second blasts of riot grrrl greatness. Their finale was 1996's "Reject All American", a somewhat similar album, which is I'd say a bit under-appreciated (although really, not as good as "Pussy Whipped"), again, a batch of 90-second or so snarls, "Bloody Ice Cream" and "Capri Pants" are the standouts.After their dissoluton, Kill Rock Stars Records released a collection of their singles, imaginatively entitled "The Singles", with Joan Jett appearing on three tracks (including another version of "Rebel Girl", but this disc completes the picture, you wouldn't want to be without "Rah Rah Replica" especially "I Like Fucking"........
Pretty good stuff, in particular if you liked my Le Tigre post a while back, or say Red Aunts or Frightwig. Odd to think of this stuff as "period piece" already, but that is certainly what it is....THE CD VERSION OF THE FIRST TWO RECORDS-01 Double Dare Ya/02 Liar/03 Carnival/04 Suck My Left One/05 Feels Blind/06 Thurston Hearts the Who/07 White Boy/08 This Is Not a Test/09 Don't Need You/10 Jigsaw Youth/11 Resist Psychic Death/12 Rebel Girl/13 Outta Me
PUSSY WHIPPED-01 Blood One/02 Alien She/03 Magnet/04 Speed Heart/05 Lil Red/06 Tell Me So/07 Sugar/08 Star Bellied Boy/09 Hamster Boy/10 Rebel Girl/11 Star Fish/12 For Tammy Rae
REJECT ALL AMERICAN-01 Statement of Vindication/02 Capri Pants/03 Jet Ski/04 Distinct Complicity/05 False Start/06 RIP/07 No Back Rub/08 Bloody Ice Cream/09 For Only/10 Tony Randall/11 Reject All American/12 FinaleTHE SINGLES-01 New Radio/02 Rebel Girl/03 Demirep/04 In Accordance To Natural Law/05 Strawberry Julius/06 Anti-Pleasure Disertation/07 Rah! Rah! Replica/08 I Like Fucking/09 I Hate Danger
Links should be along pretty quckly, these are very short albums, should upload quickly.