BIOGRAPHY – Bikini Kill

Whilst some would often consider Courtney Love and Hole manufactured aggression few would argue that Bikini Kill were the real thing. Pioneers of the riot grrrl movement, all-girl punk bands who used their music to comment on feminism and displayed a take-no-prisoners attitude, Bikini Kill would remain one of the most popular groups of the cycle until their split in the late 1990s. Formed by Kathleen Hanna in 1990 after relocating from Oregon to Olympia, Washington to attend college, the origins of the band trace back to a zine that Hanna and Tobi Vail had created which Hanna used to channel her feminist beliefs. Vail had previously played drums in a group called The Go Team and the two soon developed a common interest in music, eventually forming Bikini Kill with bassist Kathi Wilcox and Vail’s ex-Go Team guitarist Billy Karren.

The group’s first release would be Revolution Girl Style Now!, a self-financed cassette that featured such titles as Suck My Left One and Daddy’s Li’l Girl. Having come to the attention of Olympia-based label Kill Rock Stars after contributing to the spoken word 7″ KRS-101, Hanna was able to convince the owner to release their first EP (which would include tracks previously featured on the cassette). After working alongside Kill Rock Stars once again on Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah, which they would alongside English group Huggy Bear, Bikini Kill finally released their first full length album, Pussy Whipped, in October 1992. This record would include the band’s debut single Rebel Girl (which would be released with the track New Radio the following year).

Prior to the release of Pussy Whipped Hanna had contributed the title to what would become one of the most influential songs of the era. Kurt Cobain had been working on the second album with his group Nirvana and had composed a track that he had felt would be worthy of his idols, Pixies. Hanna had reportedly sprayed the words ‘Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit’ on a wall, in reference to a cheap brand of deodorant called Teen Spirit, but Cobain had been impressed by the slogan and decided to name his song Smells Like Teen Spirit. In 1994 Bikini Kill would finally make the transition to compact disc with the compilation The C.D. Version of the First Two Records, which would consist of both the Bikini Kill EP and their contribution to Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah. Their final release would be their second full length album, Reject All American, which was released by Kill Rock Stars in April 1996. The band eventually split in 1998, around the time the retrospective Bikini Kill: The Singles was released.