MICHAEL^ WALTERS/PAIMAGES/GETTY
IMAGESReviews Music
Essential LPs
from Nineties
rock’s feminist
revolutionBy ROB SHEFFIELD‘W
HAT IS riot grrrl?”
asked a punk zine
in 1991. “Riot grrrl
is because we girls want to
create mediums that speak to
us.... Because every time we
pick up a pen, or an instru-
ment, or get anything done,
we are creating the revolu-
tion. We are the revolution.”
Starting in the early Nineties,
young feminists around the
world seized the opportunity
to express themselves in
punk rock, just because they
had something to say.
The riot grrrls took
inspiration from1970s
punk pioneers like
the Raincoats and
X-Ray Spex. But
they were doing
something new, and
you could feel their
influence through-
out the Nineties on
everyone from Kurt
Cobain to Alanis Morissette
to the Spice Girls. It remains
a vital force — Bikini Kill,
Sleater- Kinney, and
Team Dresch all did
superb reunion
tours last year,
and the most
startling thing
was how
young the
crowds
were.Must-
Haves
Bikini Kill
Bikini Kill EP
1992
In one of their earliest riot-grrrl
zines, Bikini Kill issued a dare:
“Find the biggest bitch in town
and start a band with her.” Bikini
Kill came together in the college
town of Olympia, Washington,
starting with the motto, “Rev-
olution Girl Style Now!” Their
1992 debut EP was raw but
powerful, produced by Fugazi’s
Ian MacKaye. Kathleen Hanna
snarled about misogyny, abuse,
and violence over the feral
riffs of “Suck My Left One” and
“Double Dare Ya.” “Feels Blind”
was her testimony of growing
up trapped by gender roles: “I’m
the woman I was always taught
to be: hungry.”Le Tigre
Le Tigre
1999
After Bikini Kill signed off in 1997,
Kathleen Hanna took everyone
by surprise with Le Tigre’s debut
LP, full of synth-pop beats and
playful girl-group vocals. On
“Hot Topic” they shout out to
a few of their heroes over a
Motown-style drum loop: “James
Baldwin!” “Sleater- Kinney!”
“Billie Jean King!”Bikini Kill
The Singles
1998
The definitive Bikini Kill docu-
ment. Like so many other punk
hell-raisers, Bikini Kill thrived
most in the concise format of the
two-minute vinyl blast, and The
Singles collects the bombshells
they kept dropping until their
1997 split. “Rebel Girl” is their
anthem — “in her kiss, I taste the
revolution” — with producer and
fan Joan Jett blasting away on
guitar. The Singles also has Jett
and Hanna playing the old clap-
ping game “Miss Mary Mack,”
along with the wild romps “I Like
Fucking,” “I Hate Danger,” and
“New Radio,” where Hanna rants,
“I’m the little girl at the picnic/
Who won’t stop pulling her dress
up.” The Singles is one of punk’s
most exhilarating artifacts.Further
Listening
Bratmobile
Pottymouth
1993
Bratmobile rooted their sound in
the political and musical possi-
bilities of the playground chant:
“Girl germs! No returns! Can’t
hide out, they’re everywhere!”
They made some of the era’s
fiercest and funniest singles,
with Allison Wolfe dropping
one-liners over Erin Smith’s
surf guitar and Molly Neuman’s
drums: Pottymouth is their low-fi
debut album, with “P.R.D.C.T.”
(“Punk Rock Dream Come True”)
and a gender-flipped bash at the
Runaways’ “Cherry Bomb.”Sleater-Kinney
Call the Doctor
1996
The shot heard around
the world: three young
women making their own
heroic noise. Corin Tucker
and Carrie Brownstein knew
each other from the Olympia
scene: Brownstein with her
band Excuse 17, Tucker with
Heavens to Betsy. But when
they played together, some-
thing lit up. “It just felt like I had
fused with her,” Brownstein told
ROLLING STONE. Call the Doctor
was their story about being
young and female in a hostile
world. It all erupts in “I Wanna
Be Your Joey Ramone,” where
they lay down a challenge to
everything stale and complacent
about America, as Tucker yells,
“I’m the queen of rock & roll!”Te a m D r e s c h
Personal Best
1995
These Portland queercore
pioneers formed at a time when
it was tough for gay kids to
find one another in the punk
scene. This is their agonizingly
real snapshot of LGBTQ youth,
summed up in “Fagetarian and
Dyke,” which confesses, “I spent
the last 10 days of my life ripping
off the Smiths.” Team Dresch just
released a new protest song,
“Your Hands My Pockets.”Sleater-Kinney
Dig Me Out
1997
Nobody expected Sleater-Kinney
to top Call the Doctor. But S-K
got even better when they found
their punk-rock-dream-come-
true of a drummer, Janet Weiss.
Dig Me Out is their most brazen-
ly confident music, as Tucker
and Brownstein trade off vocals
in a thrilling rush. “One More
Hour” is all romantic torment,
while “Words and Guitar” sounds
fired up to take on the future.Carrie
Brownstein of
Sleater-Kinney
in 1999